"Sometimes ... a man rises...from the darkness ...", and sometimes a movie does too, and this movie is the proof!

Rating: 10/10 (15 April 2013)

1989-1992 Tim Burton made two classic Batman films ("Batman" and "Batman Returns"), just great and must-watch movies. In 1995, Joel Schumacher did "Batman Forever", which actually was a good movie, but with only a good and perfect performance (Jim Careey -The Ridler). And then, in 1997, Schumacher completely ruined the franchise with the film stupidly stupid "Batman and Robin", ruining and destroying the Batman franchise forever, being vanished from Hollywood what seemed to be forever. Eight years later, in 2005, it was given the task for Christopher Nolan to resurrect the franchise from the dead, some liked the idea, others thought it was going to be another horrible movie, and it was?! Far, FAR from it!
"Begins" tells the story of Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale), who as a child saw his parents die in front of him during a robbery. Years pass and Bruce returns to his hometown Gotham City for the final judgment of Chill, the murderer of his parents. Bruce planned to kill him with his father pistol at the end of the trial. But before Bruce could have the chance, a woman kills Chill at close range, because Chill had secrets from the big criminal mind of the city, Carmine Falcone (Tom Wikinson). After that Bruce leaves the city and begins a journey around the world with the mission of knowing and understand the criminal minds and tries to somehow tackle corruption and violence of his city. And then he meets Ducard (Liam Neeson) who offers Bruce the chance and the weapons to fulfill its mission. Months later Bruce returns to Gotham with the help of his butler and best friend Alfred (Michael Caine). Now more mature and decided, Bruce begins to do justice with his own hands, but not as the man Bruce Wayne, but with his new identity, "Batman".
What Nolan begins to resurrect the franchise is not only putting the story more mature and also full of action without exaggeration (not lacking in this film), is doing the character of Bruce Wayne relevant. In previous films, Bruce Wayne was only the rich guy who decided to do justice, and his main concern was to hide his superhero identity out of the press. Here, it is also that, much better, but also humanizes the character. For the first time we see the man behind the mask, making him a relatable character (thus, making us finally to worry about his character). All thanks to a superb storytelling that Nolan gives the film, giving dialogs tat flows perfectly to the characters and for the first time a superheroes movie really well written and also we feel that everything in the story is real, that it could really happen in our world.
Nolan was only known for the magnificent "Memento" and the underrated "Insomnia", both were known for their realistic style that works very well in this movie as well. Since Batman's car and gadgets, all with their scientific explanations (all possible, look it up), and even the Gotham City (filmed in Chicago). Nolan makes Gotham the economic center of America, but also the center of corruption and violence (New York ¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬plus Chicago). Making with the obscure style of the first films of Burton, while keeping the realism.
Great story and excellent direction, but also their characters guarantee the final success. Nolan surprisingly, even not faithfully following the comic-book, he manage to bring to the movie many of the characters (even some that not major fans knew that existed). Christian Bale simply superb both as Bruce Wayne and Batman (in my opinion the best Batman actor who ever had); Liam Neeson as mentor (and a surprise later) simply excellent; Michael Caine is superb, capturing the spirit of Alfred , loyal and funny; Gary Oldman also captures the spirit of Commissioner Gordon perfectly, stubborn and smart with a hatred of injustice and corruption; Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox (nor I knew he existed), the inventor of the hero's gadgets, and captures the right philosophy that he and Bruce Wayne had in the comic, if Lucius knew or not that Bruce was the masked man, always a mystery.
Even not faithfully following the comic and realizing the dreams of fans, Nolan resurrected the franchise completely. Managing to capture the spirit of the only superhero without powers, putting a dark and even a cop-thriller tone to the history. Also bringing heart and soul to the character of Bruce Wayne, and all the other characters thanks to an excellent narrative; superb direction really well action packed. What at first was to be a prequel to the classic Burton was the great beginning of one of the best trilogies ever made.
9/10