Holy French Fries Batman, You Rock!

Rating: Null/10 (15 June 2005)

Forget everything you have learned about superhero movies because all that is nothing compared to what you witness in Batman Begins. Christopher Nolan has taken superhero movies to a new level which will be difficult to reach. Nolan went beyond the typical action scenes and inside jokes and took a new approach and restored the classic film-making. He didn't concentrate on the fans; he concentrated on the film itself.
Batman Begins tells the story of the origins of the Batman saga. Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale), who goes from a millionaire's son to a troubled mind with a set goal in mind and that goal, is to avenge the death of his parents that was killed by a homeless man that was "desperate." Wayne sets out a quest to look for the answer to the question of what to do with his life; Wayne leaves Gotham City and ends up an Asian prison. Ducard (Liam Neeson) finds Wayne and offers him a choice to answer the question that Wayne is looking for the answer for. Ducard trains Wayne with the intention of letting him lead Ra's Al Ghul's army to destroy Gotham. However, Wayne was unfair of these intentions, so Wayne finds himself traveling back to Gotham in hopes of finding a way to protect his tainted home and complete his father's dreams of turning Gotham into a crime free city. With the help of his family's butler, Alfred (Michael Caine), and the head of applied science at Wayne Enterprises, Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman), Bruce creates a symbol of justice that will strike fear into the enemy. Bruce Wayne becomes Batman. Batman takes on the new head of Wayne Enterprises that is hunger for greed, Mr. Earle (Rutger Hauer), Gotham's gangster warlord, Carmine Falcone (Tom Wilkinson), and The Scarecrow himself, Dr. Jonathan Crane (Cillian Murphy). He is aided in his fight by the few honest officials left in Gotham, District Attorney Rachel Dawes (Katie Holmes), and the only cop who support Batman from the start, Jim Gordon (Gary Oldman).
If I were to sum up Batman Begins in one word, I'd say "fear." Nevertheless, I can use other words, and so I shall; Batman Begins develops vengeance, corruption, and family in a perfect timeframe. We learn everything we need to about Batman, such as the problems he faced as child which led to the reason for why Wayne went with the Batman getup with a few nice flashbacks. Everything is neatly done to go side-by-side with the story as it develops. Nolan doesn't quickly put us in a position to question why anything is; rather we think back to what we saw earlier in the film and perfectly match it with what's going on.
Nolan's direction is flawless. He built the movie what he felt was needed, not what he felt the fans would want. You don't need any previous Batman knowledge since Nolan portrays the Batman story impeccably. Nolan effectively uses every moment on the screen without any of the unnecessary mumbo-jumbo that you'll randomly see being thrown into movies to make the plot more pointless rather than well-organized like Batman Begins is.
Even so, not every film is perfect. I do have a couple gripes with the film, but they are nothing but mere complaints. The first thing that bothered me was Batman's voice. Notice I said Batman and not Bruce Wayne. With a film with so much darkness in it, Batman's voice was a bit irritating. The next complaint I have was the fighting scenes. The camera seemed too zoomed into the action. At times, I couldn't tell what was going on, ala The Bourne Supremacy. However, these are minor complaints, but don't effect the movie itself in any major manner.
"He's here," says Dr. Jonathan Crane, one of his henchmen asks, "Who?" Dr. Jonathan Crane responds, "The Bat-man." You know what Dr. Crane? You're not mistaken, Batman is here and he's here to stay. Nolan, crew, and the cast hit the spot and struck oil. Rarely will we witness such a masterpiece, and after several attempts at making Batman films, we finally have it completely right. Batman has begun, and I hope it never ends.
Grade: A