A New Standard...

Rating: 8/10 (19 June 2005)

...by which to Judge comic book adaptations.
Christopher Nolan has been listening to his wisdom of Yoda: Fear leads to anger. Anger Leads to Hate. Hate Leads to Suffering.
It's all there in this new character study of Bruce Wayne -- Batman Begins. Sure, that character study is wrapped up in a good action story with a sinister plot, and all that, but the thing that sets this film apart from say the first X-men movie, is the character development. That we understand what drives the Bat to seek justice.
Now, I'm not sure that it warrants the current rating of 8.6 (or a spot on the top 250), but Batman Begins is definitely a fantastic film, and one of the best attempts at bringing a comic book character to the screen. There are better films based on comics -- Sin City, Maybe Tim Burton's Batman -- but those were heavily stylized films. In those cases, the directors had a very specific vision in terms of art direction, bringing to screen a style all their own that's not going to be able to represent a standard for any director.
And that's not to say that Christopher Nolan doesn't have a vision for this film either. What I'm saying though is that he's sticking to a more standard visual style in his film-making. The film has a great look (especially the hallucination sequences) but it's not outside the norm in terms of visual style, like Sin City.
In fact, leaving aside the visual style, It's obvious that Nolan did have a very clear concept of what this movie should be - an exploration of a character first, and an action movie second. That's tough to achieve and still make an interesting story. Yes, the film is very deliberately paced - but it never drags, nor does it get too caught up in the action. And while I have always applauded Spider-Man (especially Spider-man 2) for developing its secondary characters -- and yes, those films do a better job of that than Batman Begins -- the story here is deliberately centered on just one character, making for very effective story-telling.
(POSSIBLE SPOILER) My only major beef with this film is a car chase sequence. I found it somewhat out of character for Batman to race through a crowded city putting lives at risk. I just don't think batman would do that.
(END SPOILER) I can't help but think, if Nolan had been tapped to direct Star Wars Ep 1-3, he probably would have done a better job. Bruce Wayne is essentially Anakin, but turning to good instead of the "Darth" side.
Or maybe I'm full of S(h)ith.
R