A Legend Reborn

Rating: 8/10 (19 June 2005)

I've been waiting for this since first seeing the cast listing, and have not been disappointed. Christian Bale makes a great lead, as he has done in so many things before, and deserves the A-List status this will give him. Subtle differences in voice and mannerisms between the 3 characters he plays (Bruce, Batman, and "Playboy Billionaire" Bruce) work really well, thought his raspy voice as Batman is a bit comical at times. It does mean however that you get an insight into what he's thinking, and how he breaks character when talking to certain people.
The rest of the cast are as solid as you would expect of their calibre. Michael Caine gives some good comic relief as Alfred. Gary Oldman makes a decent Jim Gordon, and while he isn't given too much to do, you can imagine the character growing more over time and sequels. Morgan Freeman is, again unfortunately, not given too much to do, but gets his point across.
Cillian Murphy is a bit of a surprise package as Crane, and I say Crane specifically, and not Scarecrow. Scarecrow does little more than hide behind some impressive special effects. Crane however exudes a creepy aura that makes you think of a smart geeky kid who was bullied in school, but snapped and went quietly psycho.
The main flaw however is that while Chris Nolan is a great director for mood and angst, his action leaves a lot to be desired. The first time Batman emerges, it's a great little sequence of machine-gun wielding baddies running around a maze of cargo containers, while being menaced by a mysterious black shape, as their number are slowly swooped on and pulled away. It reminded me of "Predator" or "Alien" more than anything else. But whenever a real hand-to-hand fight occurs it seems to change to an overly-shaky camera style, with capes and scenery getting in the way of anything. This includes the ending of the cargo scene, where Batman drops into the centre of a group of six or seven baddies. The last time Christian Bale was surrounded by baddies in a fight was a few times in the underrated "Equilibrium", and those fights had humour and imagination in bucket loads. I appreciate the difference in psychology between fights in the training monastery, and the mysterious Batman stalking the streets, but all to often nothing the fights devolve into little more than chaotic sprawling of limbs for a few seconds at a time. Since Wayne is now a supposedly super-trained martial arts expert, with loads of new toys, you would hope that some innovation and novelty could have been built into this. Bring Kurt Wimmer in on the next one as adviser, and I'll be happy.
Oh, and the Bat-Mobile is cool. The line about "Does it come in black?" was great. The next 37 jokes about it being cool started to drag...
Bring on the next one, though what they call that is beyond me. "Batman continues"?