JD's Film Review: Batman Begins

As I wrote on Saturday I was fortunate enough to see an advance screening of the new Batman movie while I was in LA. To be clear, this movie is a complete restart to the franchise and it ignores the previous Burton/Schumacher films (Schumacher's never happened anyway). It’s an origin story.

Quite simply Batman Begins is fantastic. Easily better than the 1989 version and that's saying a lot because I LOVED that movie. If you're expecting something like the Spiderman/X-Men films, you will be very disappointed. This movie is a) not for the kiddies and b) very lite on special effects. They pushed the envelope for a PG-13 rating because this movie is pretty damn scary. Batman is a f*cking badass and Scarecrow’s gas-induced hallucinations were trippy. From the beginning scenes to the finish, fear is a major theme. The special effects were used sparingly and well placed when they were used. No wires, no bullet-time just realistic action and clever editing. And Jav, there is no driving up walls this time.

Unlike the other Bat-films, the star is Batman/Bruce Wayne, not the villains. We get to see why he chose a Bat in the first place, why he’s so damn angry, how he honed his skills and how he ended up with the costume and all the gadgets. Story is a fantastic character piece and a great story. The film goes into great detail to explain how each piece of Batman’s where they came from. And the Batmobile is awesome think part Hummer/part Ferrari.

Speaking of Batman, Christian Bale was perfect in the role. He displayed the rage and vengeance Batman of the comics always had. He made you believe Batman was willing to use any means necessary to fight crime, just short of killing (another Burton misstep). And best of all, he portrayed Bruce Wayne as the costumed figure and Batman as the real person underneath. I can’t imagine anyone else ever playing Batman now.

Aside from Bale, there were some other standout performances: Alfred (Sir Michael Caine) was played as an indispensable ally and father figure to Batman and much deeper than some witty one-liners (though he did have some good ones); Gary Oldman as Sgt. Gordon was great (not one of his typical over the top roles) and plays a huge role in Batman’s early career – you’ll see that there’s no need for any Robin in future films. Liam Neeson plays Wayne’s mentor (what else does he play nowadays?) but he shows more depth than I expected. You can also tell that Tom Wilkinson had a lot of fun playing mob boss Carmine Falcone.

And not to give anything away, the movie sets up perfectly for sequels. You’ll see what I mean but I think the audience could have sat through another 2 hours to see the next movie.

I HIGHLY recommend seeing this movie. And if anyone thinks I have a biased opinion because I’m a Batman fan (ok, geek), this is first time I’ve ever seen an audience give a standing ovation after a movie. Still don’t believe me, check out the reviews

Ebert/Roper – “best film of 2005”, “the definitive Batman movie”
NBC/Lyons – “brilliant”
BBC – 5 stars
Rotten Tomatoes – average review 9.2/10
Newsweek – 5 stars