Product: Batman Begins (Two-Disc Deluxe Edition) (2005)
Rating: 4.0
Easily the best Batman movie
Batman Begins succeeds on many levels. It provides a wide range of fully realized settings. It guves us a satisfying drama, fleshing out the origins of Bruce Wayne until he became Batman. It is filled many good acting performances, large and small. And overall, Christopher Nolan made a lot of smart choices in theme and tone, making this version of Batman much more resonant than any other version.In the final analysis, Batman Begins will be remembered for the performances of Christian Bale, Cillian Murphy, and the fine ensemble supporting cast. And it should also be remembered for its emphaisis on primal fear as the compelling theme for the story. What makes Cillian Murphy's Scarecrow so scary, is not that he has fancy gadgets or superhuman powers, it is that he has simply enhanced his ability to scare people out of their wits. Batman also uses fear as a main weapon. Christian Bale delivers a wonderful performance because he demonstrates three distinct personas. The first is Bruce Wayne, from scared little boy, to angry young man, to seeker of justice and revenge. The second is Playboy Bruce Wayne, who is a character he plays (almost exactly the same as his character in American Psycho) for the sake of his public. And the third is Batman. The genius of Bale's preformance is that he shows us that he is putting on a performance for the public (as the Playboy) and for cops and criminals (as Batman). Bale's is a performance inside a performance, and I think that is pretty cool. I also want to give brief mention to Gary Oldman, who stands out among the supporting cast (who would have thought this was the guy that brought Sid Vicious to the screen?).The reason this is a 4-star film and not a 5-star film is that, for all its merits, it fails to deliver the action and it ends up being formulaic in the mold of a typical big budget film. The car chase was pretty good as car chases go, but it was a poor choice. And while it was fine to bring in a gadgetmeister (Morgan Freeman) to help explain the Batsuit and his various weapons, less would have been more in terms of superpower type stuff. It wasn't necessary to have Batman fly or have a car that can drive across rooftops. The grapling hook was well used. The Batsuit, kick-butt karate, the grapling hook, and a relatively normal Batmobile is about all Batman should have needed to get along. It would have served the action better to cut out the car chase and improved the hand-to-hand fighting sequences. And instead of showing how Batman learned to fly, show us a little bit more of Batman as detective. I mean, show us Batman doing actual detective work, rather than having his very smart allies explain everything to him. That would have been more apealing: a Batman who is both smart and able to beat up criminals.All in all, this was a good movie, regardless of whether you have now, or have enjoyed comic books, or their movie adaptations. Maybe it is too much to expect a perfect Batman movie given that the cost to produce such a movie will inevitable steer its production toward convnetional and formulaic choices. I give Christopher Nolan credit for making this Batman somewhat off-beat (in a good way), if not completely perfect. Maybe the answer is an animated film for adults. If the Japanese can do it, why can't we?