Cut and dry superhero movie

Rating: 8/10 (15 June 2005)

I will admit, before I begin my comment, that I did not enjoy Memento, Director Nolan's most famous work and consistent member of the top 250.
Batman Begins is an interesting addition to the 'superhero' fare of movies that doesn't signal anything but a faithful following of the well-beaten path. Performances by Bale and Cain are up to par -- that is to say, they do not perform woodenly like Christenson in Episode III or Reeves in, well, anything (save My Own Private Idaho, where his woodenness comes in handy). Bale takes on the responsibility, much like Pierce Brosnan with Bond, with a mix of precaution and abandon. He stays true to the style by using that "Batman" voice that we saw with Keaton , but also makes Bruce Wayne out to be a little less noble and a lot more like a playboy, although, admittedly, this aspect didn't need to be amplified when Brosnan was issued his license to kill.
In keeping with the legacy comparison between Bat and Bond, Caine as Albert was an enlightening choice. The butler does so much more in this film that he ever did before, taking on tasks and chores that were the subject of mere implication in previous tellings. Caine is up to the task.
What really makes this film worth seeing is Morgan Freeman. Fresh from the Oscars where he finally got his due recognition, Freeman plays the subtle and witty scientist and equipment assistant especially well.
Unfortunately, it is Nolan's direction which makes this film a near-bust. It doesn't seem as if Nolan has discovered any true aesthetic style to make his films anything more than action-blather. Viewed in IMAX, Nolan's close-cut blur dizzies the audience and makes Bale's macho fighting scenes look like they were shot behind the RoadRunner running from the Coyote. He expects the audience to get a thrill from still shots of the result of what they just nauseated over, but the the ta-da effect is cold in the context of a superhero movie with a hungry audience.
His only redemption could be in the emotion properly shown in the semigruesom scene of Wayne's parents being murdered outside the Opera house. While little blood is really shown, the full effect of the scene and deafening gunshots and environmental noise cut the heart and senses very well. Still unfortunate is that this scene lasts less then 2 minutes and the audience must sit through more close-ups that make one's stomach upset.
The dialog was cumbersome at many points with its extra-cheese quips of worn out superhero jokes, even going so far as to lifting Will Smith's "I got to get me one of these" from Indepedence Day and bleaching it white for Gotham's introduction to the early bat-mobile. This aspect is a shame-on-you for the writer, who should have been able to write beyond those false wits if he'd ever seen a film like it.
The conclusion: see it for the actors, not for the action.