A diamond in the ruff, Batman Begins pays homage to the dark origins of the Dark Knight and to all action/ thriller movies

Rating: 7/10 (15 June 2005)

I walked into the Theatre B showing of Batman Begins hoping for an entertaining show to keep me occupied for the evening. What I received was a superb action/thriller with a good deal of depth and fascinating characters. Unlike most previous movies, Batman Begins avoided odd fight scenes in which the Bat armor restricted movement and instead went with stealth and ambush tactics. This technique was true to the batman character and also more exciting than the old fashioned back to back brawling style. The movie's second villain, Scare Crow/Dr. Crane effectively frightened the audience with his intimidating intelligence and freakishly terrifying illusions. Overall, the cast made a commendable performance and Christian Bale's batman surpasses even Keaton's. Cillian Murphy was perfectly casted for his part as the eerily beautiful doctor who dons the horrifying potato sack mask to literally scare his victims into insanity. Also, learning of the Wane legacy for the first time was very interesting. The only part in which the movie lacks is the films evil mastermind character. The mythology behind him was interesting, but his ultimate death sequence lacked the theatrical elements that had become a trademark of the Batman series since the Tim Burton movies.