I still can't believe just how good this film is

Rating: 10/10 (15 June 2005)

I am an enormous Batman fan, and I always have been since the first Batman comic I bought for myself when I was 8 years old. I was a fan of the other Batman movies, except of course Batman and Robin. But the one thing I always felt rang true about th e four previous films was that none of them got it right. They were entertaining, but they all tended to pick and choose what they wanted to use from the comics, and make up the rest as they went along. A perfect example of this is the fact that the original Batman film portrayed Jack Napier, AKA The Joker, as the man responsible for the death of Bruce Wayne's parents, while anyone who followed the comics knew that Joe Chill was the man with the gun.
I went into this film with extremely high expectations, and after walking out of tonight's midnight showing I can honestly say I had no idea how perfect this film was going to be. All characters are perfectly cast, especially Bale. I have always felt, along with many other Batman fans that Michael Keaton was head and shoulders above the other portrayals of the Dark Knight, but Bale blew him out of the water. And make no mistake about it, in this film he truly was THE DARK KNIGHT. This is a Batman film that sticks so close to the dark roots of Bob Kane's character that it makes Tim Burton's vision look like the campy TV show from the 60s.
I am not going to bother going into plot points in any way because God only knows what some sensitive person out there may consider a spoiler, but the film was virtually flawless. One of the concerns I had going into the film was that the origins of the character would be boring, much like, in my opinion, the first Spiderman film. So far in that series, Spiderman 2 was the only one that did a good job of character development without being dull, but my fears were null and void. The first 45 minutes or so of the movie dealing with Bruce Wayne's training and transformation moved by so quickly I could not believe it when Batman finally appeared on screen. I remember thinking to myself, "Already? That was quick." I was also delighted to see one of my favorite obscure Batman villains, Zsasz make an appearance, even if it was only briefly, and no that is not a spoiler, he did not even have a line. Could they be setting him up as a possible villain or the sequel? Who knows, there was nothing to directly imply that, but his appearance is curious none the less. But the one thing I'm sure you will all be as excited about as I am, once you see the end of the film, is to see how the one villain they do reveal to be in the sequel will be done.
To sum it all up, this film was so good, it kinda makes me wish that the other films had never been made.