Batman Begins

***Batman Begins*** is a 2005 superhero film directed by Christopher Nolan for his 4th film and written by Nolan and David S. Goyer.

It serves as a reboot for the Batman film series, as well as the first installment to the *Dark Knight* trilogy, preceding *The Dark Knight* and *The Dark Knight Rises*.

## Plot

A young Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) travels to the Far East, where he's trained in the martial arts by Henri Ducard (Liam Neeson), a member of the mysterious League of Shadows. When Ducard reveals the League's true purpose -- the complete destruction of Gotham City -- Wayne returns to Gotham intent on cleaning up the city without resorting to murder. With the help of Alfred (Michael Caine), his loyal butler, and Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman), a tech expert at Wayne Enterprises, Batman is born.

## Why It Begins

1. It succeeded at reviving *Batman* films after the critical and commercial failure of the disastrous *mh:awfulmovies:Batman and Robin*.
2. It has fitting dark and realistic tone that's carried on for the rest of the series and it finally shows.
3. Christian Bale is an intimidating Batman, as well as a charming yet traumatized Bruce Wayne, who has grown from an innocent orphan to a crimefighting knight.
4. The opening montage is great.
5. The idea of Batman's equipment being experimental like the military equipment being developed by Wayne Corp is really clever.
6. Deals really well with themes of fear, justice, identity and vigilantism, the latter of which are staples for the rest of the series.
7. Liam Neeson and Cillian Murphy are pretty damn good as Ra's al-Ghul and Scarecrow respectively.
8. Awesome moments, like the cargo bay fight and the first use of Scarecrow's mask.
9. The plot is written cleverly.
10. Great cinematography.
11. Sharp direction. For example, the cargo bay fight is directed akin to a horror movie, passing to the audience the same dread as the criminals are feeling.
12. It paved the way for more mature comic-book movies and played a big part in the revitalization of the genre.
13. A really good Joker tease.
14. Epic score by Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard.
15. **"What the hell are you?"** **"I'm Batman."**

## Bad Qualities

1. Katie Holmes' performance as Rachel isn't too good, to the point she got nominated for a Razzie.
2. Overuse of shaky-cam, something that was toned down a lot for the sequel.
3. Christian Bale’s voice as Batman is widely mocked due to him sounding like he has a severe case of laryngitis.
4. The villains are heavily underutilized especially Victor Zsasz who is only seen in two scenes.
5. The film was partly the reason for which Scarecrow, Victor Zsasz, Two-Face (who was going to appear in an early draft and was later featured in the sequel), Ra's al Ghul and the Mad Hatter were restricted from appearing in the Cartoon Network show *mh:besttvshows:The Batman* due the Bat-embargo.

## Reception

*Batman Begins* was met with highly positive reviews, with praising the tone, Bale's performance, action sequences, score, direction and the emotional weight compared to previous *Batman* films. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a "Fresh" approval rating of 84% based on 284 reviews, with an average rating of 7.67/10. The site's critical consensus reads "Brooding and dark, but also exciting and smart, *Batman Begins* is a film that understands the essence of one of the definitive superheroes.". At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted mean rating reviews, the film received an average score of 70 out of 100, based on 41 critics, which indicates "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.

## Videos

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## Trivia

* After the cancellation of *Batman Unchained*, elements from that film were used in this film.
* Originally, the reboot was originally gonna be a crossover with Superman as he fights against Lex Luthor, The Joker, and Toyman.
	+ Another one was originally loose adaptation of Frank Miller's Batman origin story, *Batman: Year One*, as it was supposed to be directed by Darren Aronofsky. The story would have deviated from the material such as:
		- Bruce Wayne becoming Batman from a T and W on a ring than a bat symbol when he was homeless after losing his fortune from his parents' death and is taught through books about combat than traveling.
		- Alfred Pennyworth being replaced by a similar character named Little Al, who runs a Auto-Repair shop called *AL and Son* and mentors the homeless Bruce as a brother.
		- Carmine Falcone being replaced by corrupt Gotham City Police Commissioner, Gillian Loeb, as the crime boss and the main villain.
		- Featuring new characters not found from the comics.
		- Batman could have used gas-related gadgets inspired from the golden age.
		- Jim Gordon still living in Gotham for so many years instead of moving from city to city.
		- Race-bending Selina Kyle/ Catwoman as an African American.
		- Changing the Batmobile as a modified, garage car as the Lincoln Continental.
	+ Another propose reboot would had have Bruce Wayne as "a morbid, death-obsessed kid" with overcoming griefing while dealing with protecting a harmed girl in the same alley where his parents were murdered, and including a villain exclusive to the pitch who was similar to Hannibal Lector from his self-titled novel/film series.
* In June 2020, *Fortnite* announced that it would livestream three of Christopher Nolan's films such as *Inception*, *Batman Begins*, and *The Prestige* through its "Movie Nite" event within "Party Royale". Epic Games partnered with Nolan and Warner Bros. to secure distribution rights in different languages and countries.

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