Product: Batman Begins (Two-Disc Deluxe Edition) (2005)
Rating: 5.0
Easily the best superhero movie since Christopher Reeve/Marlon Brando/Gene Hackman in SUPERMAN
I have already seen this movie about four times on DVD in the past week because it is amazingly good. Not since Christopher Reeve, Gene Hackman and Marlon Brando in SUPERMAN have I seen a superhero movie that captures the mythic subtext inherent in every great hero in a way that would make Joseph Campbell laugh like a child at play. As such, for me, this even beats Spider Man by a country mile.Christian Bale has seemed to me well poised for becoming our Brando ever since he gave me the creeps in SHAFT--not to mention AMERICAN PSYCHO. He does not disappoint by any stretch of the imagination here, giving Batman the dark yet human quality he so desperately needs; something missing since the Tim Burton/Michael Keaton/Jack Nicholson venture (that should have earned Jack another one of his Oscars as far as I'm concerned).The movie is chock full of the best character actors in the business: Michael Caine as a brilliant Alfred, the loyal butler; Morgan Freeman as a scientist/inventor that is more like the techno master in the 1960s series MISSION IMPOSSIBLE than Q in JAMES BOND (though the comparisons to Q will be unavoidable); Gary Oldman as the young sargeant turned lieutenant (soon enough to become Comissioner) Gordon; Rutger Hauer, iconic bad guy and spy from the seventies and eighties as Mr. Earle, the well-intentioned but questionable agenda-ed CEO of Wayne Enterprises; and Liam Neeson playing a role he has come to master: mentor; to Bruce Wayne, who, in leaving Western Civilization and all of his wealth in order to find his soul after the murder of his parents before his eyes, becomes a lost soul that is saved by this Jedi-like follower of a mysterious guru in the Eastern mountains.And yet none of them outpace the magic and beauty of Christopher Nolan's direction--who also helped write the screenplay. There is maybe about two minutes of the two hours of his work that I would change in the total picture; something I can only say from having been so riveted to it I watched it four times in a week (as I said) to notice areas where there could even be improvement.The musical score by Hans Zimmer is also nothing short of breathtaking--when you even register that it exists--further intensifying the character development, action, plot and dialogue: the sign of a master movie composer at the top of his game.This movie needs to be a part of the collection of anyone who loves movies, regardless of age or interest. My teenage son bought it for the house, saying, as I missed seeing this on the big screen, that I need to see it. He was right.