Swear to Me!

Rating: 10/10 (17 December 2006)

Finally a great Batman movie. I'm just gonna throw all objectivity out the window right now and say that I absolutely love this movie. It's a lot like Superman I in the sense that even though it's not realistic, it feels like this movie could have really happened.
I never thought much of the other four Batman movies. The first two were too villain centric and Michael Keaton's portrayal of Batman was stiff and boring. There was no sense of depth to Batman, he was just Batman because he was supposed to be. He was given second billing to Jack Nicholson and Danny DeVito. Then the third and fourth movies were all camp and stupidity. They insulted not only fans but any person with an active pulse.
Then came this movie. This one completely ignored all the previous Batman movies and started over again. Good move. Batman is given the main stage and we the audience find out about what motivates a billionaire play boy to dress up as a giant bat and fight crime. Batman has three villains to deal with in this movie and none of them over shadow him. Liam Neeson and Tom Wilkinson both do good jobs at chewing up the scenery without looking silly. However the best job is done by Cillian Murphy. His Scarecrow is scary and sadistic. I hope Heath Ledger does the same thing for the Joker in the next movie.
I highly recommend this movie to, well everyone. I really enjoyed it and hope that they make at least two sequels that are as good as this movie. I can't wait until 2008 to see The Dark Knight. For the first time I think Batman is headed in the right direction when it comes to the movies.