Now that's a Batman movie!

Rating: 9/10 (9 July 2005)

It's funny how Warner Brother's didn't want Tim Burton back for the 3rd movie since he made the movies too dark. Yet Batman Begins is probably the darkest and most serious of all. I guess Warner Brother's learned that darker is better than goofy and overly colorful since Batman Forever and Batman & Robin. This is the best since Tim Burton's films and what a Batman film should be like. Christopher Nolan gives the film a human touch and makes it more about Bruce Wayne and his feelings than about the villains. The other movies sorta just made Bruce Wayne/Batman a side character to the villains. Speaking of the villains Nolan takes them seriously. They don't prance around saying silly lines in this one. Plus I also doubt Nolan is ever gonna focus on shots of Batman's butt like Joel Schumacher did. He takes everything about it seriously.
Maybe too serious though since it could use to lighten up just a little a bit. Besides having a problem with that. I don't like how Batman talks while in the costume though. I found it a little silly how deep and monster like his voice sounds. Also Roger Ebert acts like the whole poison gas thing is 100% original for a villain to do in a Batman movie. The Joker did that in the first movie. I do like how this gas puts fear into people though. The gas in the original just made people die with goofy smiles on their faces. The Scare Crow (Cillain Murphy) is what a villain should be like. He doesn't burp and say "was that over the top ? I never can tell", he's 100% serious. Cillain Murphy from 28 Days Later does a fine job playing him too. The other villains are well played also and don't goof around what so ever.
Christian Bale makes a great Batman and the best since Michael Keaton. He has a lot of inner-demons to fight in the movie. He first thinks he needs to kill the man that killed his parents. When he tells his childhood friend Rachel (Katie Holmes) his plan. She slaps him and says "your dad would be ashamed". So he runs away from Gotham City and meets Henri Ducard (Liam Neeson). Ducard trains Bruce how to be a ninja and how to control his fears. When Bruce discovers that Ducard and Ra's Al Ghil (Ken Watanbe) have evil plans for Gotham City he decides that's not the sort of man he is. He then goes back to Gotham City. There he turns a tunnel he discovered as a kid into...the batcave. Then he gets all sorts of gadgets "including the batmobile" from a loyal Wayne employee Lucius Fox (Moragn Freeman). He decides to dress like a bat since bats were always his fear. So he decides to use his fear as a weapon.
It's nice to the see the actual transformation he makes to Batman in this one. That was never seen in the other films. We see him use all those gadgets in the other films but never had a clue how he got them. I always doubted he made all of them on his own. So the Lucius Fox character is a nice touch. Plus with Ducard we also know that Batman didn't just train himself to fight. There's just so many characters to mention in this film. Nolan actually fits in a nice amount of screen time for them too. Rutger Hauer gets to make the best out of a small part. He is the type of actor who can make a small part seem like a bigger one. That's how good of an actor he is. He plays the not so nice guy who takes over the Wayne business after Bruce's dad is killed. He told Bruce when he was little that he could have the business when he is ready. Which is a lie because he's not that eager to give up the job. I expected some crazy employee to kill Haurer. I mean look at the other films. It isn't one where a villain doesn't kill his or her boss lol. Gary Oldman also shines as Lt. Gordon who is the only cop who trusts and befriends batman. I'd rather just see more of them teaming up than Robin or Batgirl ever being introduced again. Batman is much better without them. Batman is also much better without...Joel Schumacher lol.