Good start

Rating: 7/10 (8 September 2008)

Christian Bale is, bar none, the best actor to ever portray Batman on screen, and only Guy Pearce, I believe, could have come as close to being as good. Batman Begins, by director Christopher Nolan, who made the classic Memento (starring Pearce) and the good American version of Insomnia, shows that he understands what has made Batman the most popular superhero in comic book history- yes, surpassing both Superman and Spider-Man. That said, as good a comic book film as Batman Begins is, that's all it is. It has no real depth, other than in the realm it occupies. But, that's more than enough for your average moviegoer. At 2 hours and 20 minutes in length, it also re-visions Batman, not as a psychotic loner who makes himself into an avenger, nor as the campy icon of the 1960s television hit, nor the last two installments of the 1990s film franchise, but as a Ninja warrior. This is good, in that it allows Liam Neeson, as the villain Ra's Al Ghul (who uses the alias Henri Ducard), to finally allow his penchant for wooden acting and spouting inane Oriental koans to be fully realized, unlike his turn in the second Star Wars trilogy, but bad in that it utterly undermines the psychological complexity of the Bruce Wayne character, for the Batman, in his purest original form, is a vigilante driven by vengeance, not a savior. Neeson has not had a role so suited to his Lurch-like acting style since Darkman. The film lands somewhere between camp and grit, but could have needed a bit more camp, thus why it just misses out on being a great film- even if only in a comic book vein, like the first Batman film by Tim Burton. That said, this darker avenue bodes better for the future of this new franchise, even if it means enduring the grim-faced and dubious Oriental philosophies that even martial arts films are wise enough to wink at.