The Best Batman movie of ALL time!

Rating: 10/10 (17 June 2005)

Nolan's Batman is by far more superior than Tim Burton's mediocre stylized Batman (that seems to lack in character development) - in so many ways possible. Unlike Burton's vision of establishing Batman as a second rate character in his own films which I disliked immensely, Nolan creates layers upon layers of dimension for the Batman character as well as the Bruce Wayne individual that acts as the mask for who he really is. The 'realistic' approach makes the film stand out upon others, with the gritty realism pouring everywhere throughout the film that makes it sometimes take itself a little too seriously. Let's face it, Christian Bale is better than Kilmer, Clooney and possibly Keaton as playing millionaire Bruce Wayne - a man with a haunted and distort soul. Not only does he embody everything I see in Batman and Bruce, he's an amazing actor and adds a great blend of dark, brooding, and richness to the portrayal of a quite sane young man. He has the best of scenes (especially the one's involving Freeman), and he's fairly buff in the role, something the ladies will undoubtedly like. The rest of the cast is top-notch, mostly Oscar winners or nominees or just plain outstanding actors (though Holmes is neither) in some way or another. Caine is butler Alfred, Freeman is inventor Lucius Fox in Wayne Industries, Oldman is good cop Jim Gordon, Neeson is Henri Ducard (well, this turns out to be false) - mentor and father figure to Bruce, Watanabe is actually the decoy as Neeson turns out to be terrorist villain Ra's Al Ghul, and Holmes gets to play the damsel in distress/love interest/childhood friend as D.A. Rachel Dawes; her character isn't in the comic and was only invented for the film, just to let you know. She's not at her best to be honest - with her slightly insipid lines and the fact that she looks awfully young compared to Bale (and her character is older if you can believe that). There's also two performances that took me by complete surprise. First, Cillian Murphy is Dr. Jonathan Crane also known as the Scarecrow, who happens to work in the infamous Arkham Asylum. It's nice to say, his creepy presence on screen gets creepier by his influence of his 'fear gas' - hallucinations from your wildest dreams or nightmares. Then there's Tom Wilkinson as crime boss Falcone who has a lot of people doing his dirty work in Gotham. The accent he puts on is somewhat mafia-like and I like it. Now enough with the cast, let's talk about the fight scenes that are disappointing to some degree. Nolan isn't really good at the fight sequences delivered in this film, but he still has time for major improvement (I'm talking about the sequels - if he's willing to make them). There are extremely choppy, yet not what you'd expect. The editing is all wrong, but I'm willing to look past it (you should too). Overall, the plot is convincing as a Batman flick and Nolan deserves most of the credit as do the people that have worked their butts off creating a masterpiece with depth. Batman has been truly reborn, once again.