Product: Batman Begins (Two-Disc Deluxe Edition) (2005)
Rating: 4.0
A Little Knowledge is a Dangerous Thing
BATMAN BEGINS scraps the previous four execrable movies and returns to Batman's roots, with this coming-of-age tale of Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale), brooding vigilante hero.Bruce, who blames himself for the death of his parents, seeks to understand the criminal mind by recklessly throwing himself into crime as another man might drown his sorrows in liquor. He eventually ends up in an Asian prison where he is found by Ducard (Liam Neeson), who takes Bruce on as an initiate of the League of Shadows, vigilante ninja society extraordinaire.In the end, Bruce cannot embrace the League of Shadows' strictly black-and-white view of crime and criminals, destroys their stronghold, and returns to Gotham to clean up the place.It is fun to watch Bruce and his faithful butler/surrogate father, Alfred (Michael Caine), assemble the Batman gear from the forgotten store of military prototypes at Wayne Enterprises.When the League of Shadows returns to Gotham to finish what they started, Bruce must fight and overcome his former mentor to save his not-so-fair city.Christian Bale gives a performance which makes all the previous Batmans laughable. Fans of the graphic novels will applaud this latest addition to the Batman series, and be more than willing to overlook (or be unaware of) the plot holes, scientific impossibilities, and historical inaccuracies.I, however, am too much of a science and history geek to suspend disbelief and simply enjoy a movie like this. I think anyone with a basic knowledge of how their home microwave oven works will think "Wait a minute..." when the bad guys stand blithely around their microwave superweapon as it cooks Gotham's water supply. (The human body is 90-what percent water?) And the League of Shadows takes credit for introducing the plague rats to Europe (which time?), burning London in 1666, and sacking Rome (which time?). Claiming credit for the Nazis would be just as ridiculous.