A slightly flawed, but nonetheless fascinating study on moral complexity

Rating: 8/10 (12 October 2018)

Where most superhero films are immature nonsense with the typical clichÃ©'d 'tyrant' evil villain and the non existent narrative or character development, Batman Begins puts an emphasis on character instead of action, and the result is that here is finally a superhero film that is both mature and impactful due to this.
Batman Begins has many changes in the way it tells its narrative. It starts out with a non linear storytelling structure with Bruce Wayne's present intertwining with his child past, whereas later on the present is the only timeline that is being handled. As stated before, the emphasis in Batman Begins is on characterization, and the audience begins to find out through these flashbacks sequences what will motivate the future 'Batman' to don his costume. It is that very fear of bats the young Bruce Wayne is shown to have that he wishes to strike into the hearts of the criminals he fights, and this is a brilliant piece of character writing in itself to make the audience understand this. The gritty way his family is murdered, and the way their killer is shot just moments before assassinating him himself further adds to the escalating need for justice in Wayne's subconscious. The character of Wayne is, due to this interesting narrative structure, quite complete. We understand his struggles, his motivations and his actions. This is a humane character that one cares about.

While the acting is pretty good in Batman Begins, there isn't really a performance that stands out. Everybody was more than adequate, but a surpreme performance seems to be missing. The performance that comes closest to this has to be Michael Caine as Alfred, who shows an impressive emotional range in his care for Bruce Wayne. Christian Bale is a good Bruce Wayne, although not a special one. However, a lot of these performances are also helped by excellent dialogue. Particularly the scenes with Henri Ducard ( Liam Neeson ) & Bruce Wayne are dripping of excellent in depth and intellectual dialogue about the inner depths of the origins of Wayne's fear of bats. Ducard & Ra's Al Ghul and the League of Shadows also bring forth an interesting question about morality, as these vigilante-like killers have a nihilistic kind of vision of Gotham, and believe it should be eradicated as such. However, through certain characters it is shown that there is yet humanity left in this world, and that nihilism is in fact an extremist way of looking at things. Still, we understand the vision of this League of Shadows because Gotham is still displayed as a crime ridden cesspool that does sometimes seem beyond helping.
It feels more like a neo noir than a superhero film at times, and it is obvious that a lot of the visuals were highly inspired by Blade Runner. The darkness, the smoke vents, the pratical effects in the stills, it is all very reminiscent of Scott's masterpiece, and the result is that this cinematography really breathes the sleaze, atmospheric darkness and filth of Gotham perfectly. The visuals in itself tell the story of the bleak hopelessness of this corrupted city. The score by James Newton Howard & Hans Zimmer is also a standout as a superb atmospheric piece.
This is, however, not a perfect film. The first hour and a half is excellent in non linear storytelling, but it is filmed in a montage style kind of way. For example, a simple shot of Gordon ( Gary Oldman ) entering his office is cut immediately with a shot of him sitting down on his chair. We do not actually get to see him walk up to it and sit down. This is a little example, but it goes on like this for the entire duration. The gaps in the timelines are a bit too large, and it seems to want to go forward at breakneck pace with this editing.
While the narrative in Batman Begins is very sophisticated, it features a lot of unnecessary exposition. It is not the kind of film that really allows the audience to think about what is going on due to actions of its characters, and Nolan seems unable to display the emotional state of a character without them verbalizing it. There are also a couple of scenes in which something that is shown some time beforehand is literally repeated, such as the guy in the Wayne Tower repeating what Wayne said will happen if a certain train reaches it. However, as stated before this does not really deter the film from being less sophisticated, and because it is still an intelligent script it is not really insulting to the audience, but there could have been a little bit more subtlety in this narrative.
The action sequences in Batman Begins are also nothing above average. It uses a lot of quick edits, shakycam and distorted images which do not really capture anything of the actual fight scenes. I get that Nolan wanted to make it seem like Batman was this lightning fast superhero, but when we do not actually get to see any of it, what is the point? Luckily as stated before the emphasis is not on action but on character in Batman Begins and thus this is not a complete movie ruining factor. Chase scenes are also filmed with an unremarkably low stance camera point of view.
Batman Begins has a surprisingly intelligent narrative for a superhero movie, great character development and characterization, a fantastic original score, good acting, a mostly superb script & an interesting duality in the way it handles morality, but it is also lacking a bit in the filming of its action sequence, use of subtlety and the montage like pace.