Doesn't totally suck like the last Batman, but not great by any means

Rating: 5/10 (3 July 2005)

Nolan gets a lot of credit for snatching the Batman franchise back from the abyss of crappiness that Joel Schumacher plunged it into, but let's face it -- the action scenes in Batman Begins are horribly shot. They're dark, chaotic, and you can't tell what the hell is going on in any of them. Also, Christian Bale is awful in this film -- he's the emotional equivalent of soundproofing material. Whenever a real person with some emotionality appears -- Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman -- the screen lights up briefly, but then Bale drags it back down with his inertness. Also, I can't be the only person to point out that the plot makes absolutely no sense. Bruce Wayne balks at killing an anonymous murderer in his rite-of-passage, but 2 seconds later has no apparent qualms about killing 50 of his buddies instead. Liam Neeson's mission is saving the world from criminals, but he's got no qualms about killing everybody in an entire city because there's too much graffitti on the subways. Katie Holmes is terribly miscast the world's least convincing ADA. Overall, I'd have to say this is one mediocre movie, and only the spectacular crappiness of the last Batman gives this one any shine at all.