Batman Begins

I have been a Batman fan for many years, owning probably around 1000 comics starring the character, spanning from the 1970s through today.

The 1989 Batman with Michael Keaton and directed by Tim Burton was good. It was dark, moody, and gave us the “Dark Knight” for the first time on the screen. I enjoyed it. However, each sequel got a little worse, with the two Joel Schumacher movies killing the franchise with the poor choices the director made.

Memento is now one of my all-time favorite movies. Insomnia was insightful and intriguing, even if I did not ultimately like it. Christopher Nolan is someone I really respect. Upon hearing that this man would take over the relaunch of the Batman franchise, I was ecstatic.

As I watched Batman Begins, I kept thinking, “This is what I’ve been waiting for.” Although Act 1 was a little long, and I hated the use of flashbacks (and some in the audience became a little confused by them… just put the flashbacks at the beginning as actual story, and go from there!), it gave us a concrete background and foundation for this self-made hero. It was not word-for-word what I know from the comic’s history, but that is fine. They tied aspects together in a coherent fashion that made sense within the world Nolan depicted.

Once Wayne first dresses in a prototype costume (not involving bat paraphernalia yet) and meets with Jim Gordon for the first time, the movie really takes off.

As a geeky fan boy, the scene where Wayne initially wears his bat costume and attacks a gang of thugs in a container yard had me on the edge of my seat. It was like watching the first part of Jaws, where you never see the shark, only the effect it has on the world around it. Like Jaws, you only see flashes and glimpses of Batman as he takes the men down one by one at first, using many different tricks and subterfuges. Finally, when you are envisioning that the remaining group members have all stained their shorts and have ganged up, Batman jumps into the middle of the group and thrashes them all as only Batman can.

Now this is BATMAN! This scene could have been ripped right from any Detective Comics or Batman issue and it felt so true to the spirit of the character.

Christian Bale was inspired casting, the first actor to really show the dichotomy of the Wayne and Batman personas. In one scene he is interrogating someone for information. The anger and hatred that Bale is able to convey is so right on I smiled broadly and actually clapped my hands together. Later, when he acts like a drunken boor as Wayne at a party thrown in his honor, Bale once again shows that he gets it. Bruce Wayne died shortly after his parents did and is now the mask. Batman is the real person. Everything he does as Wayne is an affectation; a means to an end. Batman is his reality now. Surrounding Bale are stalwarts of cinema; Morgan Freeman is perfect as Lucius Fox, Michael Caine plays a very affable and sincere Alfred, Rutger Hauer is great as the CEO of Wayne Enterprises, Cillian Murphy made a very good Scarecrow, Liam Neeson is powerful as Henri Ducard, and special cudos go to Gary Oldman for his turn as Jim Gordon (it is nice to see him playing a good guy again). Katie Holmes didn’t seem to be doing much more than an older version of Joey Potter, but she looked good and didn’t take anything away from the movie with her presence. The role called for heart, and Katie delivered that.

This movie will quickly be considered one of the all-time great comic book adaptations. Outside of this, it is a very well done action adventure movie for those who do not normally see a “comic book movie” because they think they won’t get it or follow along. It is an adult story, with a lot of violence and some scary scenes and I would not allow a child under the age of 10-12 to see, and certainly not without supervision.