A great disappointment to me - doesn't mean you can't enjoy it...

Rating: 5/10 (28 June 2005)

I came into this movie with high expectations, but was increasingly disappointed by the end. There was no one aspect that really annoyed me, but rather a lot of smallish things that seemed to taint the experience. Firstly, I thought that Bale was a wise choice for Batman, although I've never really understood what Bruce Wayne has got to do with a bat, but that's not something you could pin on this movie. Well not completely anyway as they attempt to sort of explain it away with the whole fear symbol thing, and the well at the start - still nuts if you ask me... Anyway, that's not important, what is important is the confusion that engulfs our view of Bale throughout the movie. Some of the worst points being: His relationship with his parents - this is not presented very well, with his memories of his father more likely to furrow the brow than produce tears. Bale's motivations - they are not easily understood - why go see Wilkinson's mob boss after he kills the guy who killed his parents. This seems to be a random or arbitrary way to send him off on his quest. Also, what's the deal with his turning on Neeson and his cronies in such a big way on the spur of the moment? One minute he's learning from them - the next he almost kills them all. A tad abrupt perhaps? And speaking of Neeson and his League of Shadows, or whatever, I'll put it simply - their whole plot is ludicrous. How do a bunch of guys living on a mountain succeed in creating a depression in the biggest city in the world, and why do they think it better that a whole city should tear itself apart instead of live with a high level of crime. Surely they could wield the (unlikely) power they seem to have to improve the situation in Gotham? This leads me to the bad guys as a whole. Being from Ireland I was delighted to hear that the two main villains of the film were from here, but on viewing the film I was a bit let down by the way they were used. Neeson and Murphy are both excellent actors and could have been perfect as complicated modern bad guys, but I think they were let down by the script and direction. I was expecting something brilliant from the scarecrow character when he was shown initially, but it all went downhill after his introduction. All he gets to do is spray Batman with his fear thingy and then capitulate in a random sort of way as the plot comes to an end. Why does he turn into a wet blanket when Batman traces him to the asylum and what the hell is with the scene where he gets tazered while sitting on a horse! Neeson starts out very well as a mentor for Bale, but as soon as he comes back to initiate his insane plan he does not make the same impression. His last scene is also rubbish, bearing more of a resemblance to Speed 2 than a great villain death. Also can anyone tell me why a monorail has so much screen time in the film, I know his dad built it, but it's not that interesting... Possibly my biggest complaint about the film is the style with which they shot the action/fight scenes. It's funny that a much lesser known (and also quite silly) film, that also stars Christian Bale, has endlessly better action scenes. If the fight scenes of Batman Begins were more like those in Equilibrium then maybe I would have left the cinema feeling a whole lot more satisfied. As it is they feel like you are watching a brawl in fast-forward, through the bars of a cage. This must surely have annoyed a few people? Altogether, I got the feeling that a large part of the movie was a victim of committee-thinking. Scenes seemed to pop up out of nowhere as if a spare director had been allowed in on one day of the week. Examples of this were the scene where Katie Holmes' co-worker finds the thingummy in the crate - and is then killed. This had me wishing that they served headache tablets with the popcorn, and was made worse by Holmes' brief mention of it again - to explain why she was so crabby at that time - I mean what the hell!!! Anyway, it wasn't all bad, Freeman was fine as the Batmechanic and Michael Caine produced the only real comic moments of the Movie. I didn't think much of Katie Holmes' performance though, she had no central motivation or character trait and suffered from the wishy-washy style of a lot of the movie. Wilkinson and Oldman were also fine. To finish up I would ask those of you who gave this movie a ten: How can you give ten to a movie that has such a crappy, abrupt and ineffectual revelation scene where Bail reveals to Holmes that he is Batman, and how can you give ten to a movie in which Batman's voice sounds like a 12 year old kid playing in his plastic suit? It was almost as terrible as listening to Darth Vader's "Noooooooooooo".