Product: Batman Begins (Two-Disc Deluxe Edition) (2005)
Rating: 5.0
Batman begins, again!
16 years after Tim Burton stunned audiences and critics with his believable and dark motion picture version of Batman, Christopher Nolan (Memento, Insomnia) has remade the movie with an even more believable premise and darker edge.After Burton and Batman star Michael Keaton left the Batman series in 1992 with Batman Returns, the sequels got worse and ridiculous (Joel Schumacher literally destroyed the Batman installments with Batman Forever, with Val Kilmer as Batman, and Batman And Robin, with George Clooney turning Batman into a smiling dummy). Nolan succeeds in bringing back the seriousness of the original Batman, with Christian Bale (The Machinist) donning the bat suit this time around.As the title prescribes, the film explores Bruce Wayne's gradual emergence into the dark caped superhero, and in the process resurrects the death of his rich and famous parents. The film then shows Bruce getting picked up and raised by the family's butler Alfred, played by Michael Caine (Dirty Rotten Scoundrels), departing from Gotham to no man's land where he learns the skills of fighting on the hands of ninja warrior Ducard, played by Liam Neeson (Gangs Of New York), being initiated into but refusing to join a dark cult known as the League of Shadows led by Ra's Al Ghul, played by Ken Watanabe (The Last Samurai), returning to a corrupt and crime-ridden Gotham city, reestablishing a relationship with his childhood sweetheart Rachel Dawes, played by Katie Holmes, and vowing to bring back order to the city that his father help build, and in return got him killed, while in the process fight a relentless enemy known as The Scarecrow, played brilliantly by Cilian Murphy (Red Eye), with a little help from an honest detective named Jim Gordon, played by Gary Oldman (State Of Grace, JFK).Nolan's directing never fails, while Bale's portrayal of Bruce Wayne/Batman is only second best to, if not equal to, Michael Keaton's. Whether you agree with me or not, Batman Begins is destined to be a new beginning for yet another adventurous and exciting Batman franchise, just as long as Joel Schumacher stays away!RecommendedA