Product: Batman Begins (Two-Disc Deluxe Edition) (2005)
Rating: 4.0
A Solid Script and a Terrific New Batman Give the Franchise New Life.
"Batman Begins" tries to revive the defunct Batman franchise that had become a caricature of itself under the direction of Joel Schumacher and some very bad scripts. This film is a complete departure in theme and style from the horrid "Batman Forever" (1995) and "Batman and Robin" (1997). It doesn't try to emulate the gothic visual style that director Tim Burton brought to "Batman" (1989) and "Batman Returns" (1992), but director Christopher Nolan's vision is just as dark. Whoever conceived of reviving the franchise decided wisely that the best place to start was at the beginning. So half of "Batman Begins" is backstory explaining how and why Bruce Wayne came to be a masked crime fighter and the origins of his preoccupation with bats.As a child, young Bruce Wayne witnessed the murder of his billionaire parents. Consumed by guilt and anger and reluctant to step into his father's prominent shoes as an adult, Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) disappears without a trace. Seven years later, he returns to find Gotham City in the grip of a crime-ridden depression brought on by corrupt government and pillaging by crime boss Falcone (Tom Wilkinson), in cahoots with a mysterious out-of-town associate. Wayne reestablishes himself as a billionaire playboy with the help of his family's loyal butler Alfred (Michael Caine) and takes a job in Wayne Enterprises' Applied Sciences department under the brilliant inventor Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman), where he finds good use for the high-tech military gadgetry that's been sitting around collecting dust.Christian Bale is the best Batman of the franchise. He can play a decadent playboy, a shrewd industrialist, and a brooding bat without sacrificing credibility. Bale's performance is more energetic and versatile than actors who took on the role previously. And he has more sex appeal than even George Clooney, which the female audience will appreciate. An hour of backstory might seem like too much, but several periods in Bruce Wayne's life are integrated coherently and generally well-paced. The exception is the time Wayne spends training in Asia under the tutelage of Henri Ducard (Liam Neeson). There is too much gibberish about conquering fear, the combat scenes are dull, and all of the film's worst lines have been dumped on Neeson. Thankfully, that sequence is intercut with other material.It can't be easy to explain why a sane individual would fight crime dressed as a giant chiroptera, but Bruce Wayne's motivations and the origins of the bat motif are credible and interesting. "Batman Returns" isn't perfect, but it left me wanting to see more Batman films, and that's quite a feat considering that the franchise seemed dead and buried. Consider the Batman franchise successfully resurrected. The only bonus features on the Warner Brothers 2005 single disc DVD are a short theatrical trailer (1 minute) and a DVD-ROM (Windows only). Subtitles are available for the film in English, French, and Spanish. Dubbing is available in French.