Product: Batman Begins (Two-Disc Deluxe Edition) (2005)
Rating: 5.0
A "Human" Bat
I think the best thing to come from the Renaissance of Superhero films is to be less tongue-in-cheek with the characters and show them just how extreme a real-life personality has to be to want to live the life. We've seen it in "Daredevil" and we've seen it in the "Blade" series. We've seen people who'd rather be "Normal" forced into the life through mere genetics in the "X-Men" films and we've seen a guy become a hero out of never-ending guilt in "Spider-Man." Now, we see the fully-developed psychological reasons why Bruce Wayne, a man who has all the privileges of being white, rich, and gifted, would choose to live what amounts to a freak's life.Nolan and Goyer took what Tim Burton did in "Batman" and did it one better. Rather than giving us an artistically "dark" vision as to who the character is and what makes him tick, they decided to give us a plausibly "real-world" look into what a Gotham City would be like, right down to the gritty corruption that consumes it. We also get to see just how long it took for Bruce Wayne to become "Batman," right down to where he almost takes the other road and blow away the man who murdered his parents.Christian Bale - not my first choice to play Wayne, but one can't have a really big name wear the suit. It's been proven - if a "superstar" wears the suit, then we don't see the character. (Unless, the actor is tailor made for the role, a la Patrick Stewart's Professor Xavier, or someone transcends expectations, like Michael Keaton did in the first "Batman") He delivered a dark, fatalistic Batman, as well as a flighty-but-never-fey millionaire playboy "Bruce Wayne." You get the feeling with Bale that the real Bruce Wayne DID die those long years ago along with his parents. I got a sense of doom from him the moment he decided to become Batman, and that is the core of the character - the REAL "person" is Batman. "Bruce Wayne" has become a mask. As it should be.All told, this was the Batman that had to be, apart from the first Dini animated series. Thank God for the Goyers and Nolans of this world. They both did this character, and the character's long, storied, history, the justice it deserved.