Product: Batman Begins (Two-Disc Deluxe Edition) (2005)
Rating: 5.0
The bat came back to start cleanning up his town
After experimenting with imagery/scripting inconsistencies that had actually made the 1960's TV series look sophisticated by comparison (Batman and Robin, Batman Forever), the Batman movie series returns to the brooding and tortured millionare which we adore.In this film, we see how a young Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) copes with his parents murder. Because he has the money and resources, Wayne ultimately decides to become Batman--a vigilante 'anti-hero' hero who takes the law into his own hands when the police cannot stop evil from overrunning Gotham City. Bruce ultimately wants to ensure that other people will not experience the tragedy which he has known. He subsequently walks a very fine line between administering justice and exacting revenge.There are some bumps along the way to Bruce's infamous 'reincarnation'. The begining of the film shows young "Master Wayne" recieving abuse in a generic prison camp for 'research' but ultimately concluding that even he cannot join in his rescuer's idea of justice, killing another person. Already traumatized as he is, Bruce is still a good guy due to his all-critical remaining shred of humanity. Yet, this scene also hints that he theoretically could have snapped under other conditions.Immediately following an overseas trip, Bruce finds that Gotham is now in shambles. Adding insult to this injury, he also learns that his own company is now convieniently on the verge of being taken away from him.Bob Kane's Dark Knight Detective was never supposed to be a camp icon(ala West and Clooney's portrayals); he was supposed to be THE thing which lurks in the shadows against injustice. Batman is a mystery precisely because he worked with the police, but was explicitly not one of them. This film also explains how Gotham PD ultimately came to trust Batman.We see a young Jim Gordon (Gary Oldman) who is destined to become Gotham City's police commissioner in the future. The city is SO corrupt at this point that he is the only honest cop left. Gordon desperately wants help maintaining law and order so turning to an outsider who can deliver this is his logical conclusion. Their early partnership thus lays critical foundation for why Gordon and Batman work together in subsequent years; Gordon knows that Batman also wants to clean up Gotham--and can deliver on it. Gordon recognizes that the Batman is an effective if wholly unorthodox crime control resource.Morgan Freeman also stars as Lucius Fox, a family friend who helps Bruce create the Batman personna. He is a scientist in the then-taken over Wayne Enterprises who somehow managed to escape the scrutiny of a devilsh Rutger Hauer. Fox ultimately helps to devise all of Batman's awesome crime-fighting gadgets in the tradition of James Bond's 'Q'. I don't think there is a single film which Morgan Freeman has been involved with that I did not like. This man's name simply oozes talent.We also meet Jonathan 'Scarecrow' Crane (Cillian Murphy), who is a really unethical psychatrist. According to this screenplay, he is Batman's first 'big villan'. The Scarecrow wants to control the City of Gotham by drugging the water supply with psychedelic mind controls. The special effects department did a wonderful job with the character, I definently was terrified after seeing this character throughout the screen play. I also could not find anything laughable about him.Christian Bale is handsome as Bruce Wayne/Batman, and I feel guilty because I had never previously cared to see something which he was playing in before now. Bale brings the perfect match of sensitivity and unbalancw that is essentially needed for this part (Batman IS fundamentally a vengange gig from a disturbed milionare) and I know this film is going to be a blockbuster of the summer, if not the year.I have not been this enthusiastic about a Batman movie since 1992's Batman Returns (with Michael Keaton then in the lead role). I am seeing this one release several times, something which I honestly have not done with any film since I was a little girl.I am also willing to predict Batman Begins generates renewed interest in the Batman concept. The design people for this film have obviously taken considerable care to give depth and credibility to the 'begins' concept, the Bat signal is not as it would look in most other movies. There is a sense that Batman really is starting but is serious about wanting to do a good job of eliminating crime.Hopefully, the studios ultimately now understand that turning Batman into a comedian was a recipe for disaster and thus will not be inclined to tinker with a masterpiece creation. I expect Bale and this scripting sophistication to hold up in subsequent movies, if nothing else because of the ending to this film itself .Batman has begun a long-awaited period of revival both as a crime fighting force to be recokned with and a box office blockbuster to see.