Batman Begins

Starring: Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Katie Homes, Cillian Murphy, Liam Neeson

Directed by: Christopher Nolan

RS: 3of 4 Stars Average User Rating: 3.5of 4 Stars

2005 Warner Bros. Pictures Action

Shake off those cobwebs. There's a new Batman in town, and he's younger, fiercer and klutzier than before. What do you want from a rookie? The Caped Crusader that Christian Bale plays so potently in Batman Begins is still working out the kinks. He nearly gives himself a wedgie scaling a building in a self-designed Batsuit that weighs a stylish ton. Director Christopher Nolan, who wrote the script with David Goyer, shows us a Batman caught in the act of inventing himself. Nolan is caught, too, in the act of deconstructing the Batman myth while still delivering the dazzle to justify a $150 million budget. It's schizo entertainment. But credit Nolan for trying to do the impossible in a summer epic: take us somewhere we haven't been before.

This stripped-down prequel grounds the story in reality. If Tim Burton lifted the DC Comics franchise to gothic splendor and Joel Schumacher buried it in campy overkill (a Batsuit with nipples), then Nolan -- the mind-teasing whiz behind Memento and Insomnia -- gets credit for resurrecting Batman as Bruce Wayne, a screwed-up rich kid with no clue about how to avenge the murders of his parents.

Batman Begins answers a long-standing question about Bruce the tycoon playboy -- a Paris Hilton with balls as previously played by Michael Keaton, Val Kilmer and George Clooney -- by showing us what he was doing before he put on his Bat drag, accessorized with lethal toys and learned to kill like a vigilante.

If you expect Batman to flap his cape the second you sit down with your popcorn, snap out of it. Nolan wants us to know the real Bruce. At age eight, Master Wayne (Gus Lewis) falls into a well filled with bats and freaks out. The bats represent his deepest fear. Bruce later dumps Princeton and his virginal Rachel (Katie Holmes -- OK, Tom Cruise, start raving) and heads for the Himalayas to toughen up. He's tossed into prison and is rescued by Ducard (Liam Neeson, with a funny accent), who ninja-trains him. Ducard is a member of the League of Shadows, led by evil genius Ra's Al Ghul (Ken Watanabe).

Seven years pass, and Bruce is still Bruce. Back in Gotham, he learns from the family butler, Alfred (Michael Caine purrs with warmth and humor), that he's been declared dead and that the CEO (Rutger Hauer) has taken over Wayne Enterprises. To get it back, Bruce teams up with Lucius Fox (a wily Morgan Freeman), a company scientist who specializes in military body armor (think Batsuit) and designs a car that looks like a tank (think Batmobile). That's when Bruce asks Lucius if the car comes in black. Fans can now feel free to go batty.

The buildup is steadily engrossing. That's because Nolan keeps the emphasis on character, not gadgets. Gotham looks lived in, not art-directed. And Bale, calling on our movie memories of him as a wounded child (Empire of the Sun) and an adult menace (American Psycho), creates a vulnerable hero of flesh, blood and haunted fire. Bruce's blood may be too hot for Rachel, now an assistant DA. She fumes when Bruce frolics with seminaked models. Look, honey, a secret identity takes work.

The Bat earns his wings soon enough. He enlists an honest cop, soon-to-be commissioner Gordon (a goodie Gary Oldman -- huh?) to help him rid Gotham of Carmine Falcone (overhammed by Tom Wilkinson), a crime lord with connections to the Waynes' murders. Like any movie with a surfeit of villains, none of them stick. Cillian Murphy comes closest as Dr. Jonathan Crane, a skinny shrink they call Scarecrow when he puts a burlap bag on his head. Each person sees his own worst fears come to life when they gaze at the bag. The low-budget headgear is typical of a movie that succeeds best when it hews to the rule of less is more. Beginner's luck evaporates when Nolan ends with a tricked-out car chase and a doomsday plot about a poisoned water supply. Nolan's too good for Bat business as usual. His secret for making Batman fly is as basic as black: Keep it real.

PETER TRAVERS

(Posted: Jun 9, 2005)

Your Turn

Give us your review of
Batman Begins

Review 1 of 4

4of 4 Stars

I Hope The Reveiwer guy realized the Guy That Played Obi Wan Is actually Raz Aghul, But the movie is my Favorite Movie ever and i cannot wait to see the Dark Knight

Jul 21, 2008 16:37:16

Review 2 of 4

4of 4 Stars

Ladies and Gentlemen, Chris Nolan gives us Batman Unplugged. Growing up a self-professed Batman nut, I feel like I've been waiting for this movie since the beginning of recorded history. Burton's movies were too wacky for their own good. His imagination often clouded or convoluted what had the potential to be a great story. Then (dum dum dum) there was Joel Schumacker. I'll say this: If we still believed in punishment done in public, I'd put him at the front of the list to be tarred and feathered. His movies were shitty to a degree that I can't even begin to comprehend. And like a Godsend, Christopher Nolan rescued not just a franchise, but the collective image of the greatest all-time superhero.

Batman Begins proves Batman actually has a soul. He's not some monotone industialist who, like Pierce Brosnan's last few Bond appearances, is totally gadget dependent. This go around, Batman/Bruce Wayne is truly tortured and can legitimatly kick someone's ass. The acting is over-qualified which, to say the least, is an amazingly good problem. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, we're given a Batman that we can connect with on a human level. Christian Bale makes us believe that this is a tortured, vulnerable, driven and furious individual, he virtually breathes life into that emblem on his chest. This is Batman as it should've been done from the start. To Hell with Iron Man, this is the best Super hero movie by leaps and bounds. Having seen and loved this movie I can only imagine how brilliant The Dark Knight will be. Batman is back.

Jun 19, 2008 13:34:27

Review 3 of 4

4of 4 Stars

Only 3 stars peter?The is a great superhero film and a great film on it's own, the best batman movie and nolan is a genius.

Mar 8, 2008 00:09:21

Review 4 of 4

4of 4 Stars

Somehow, Hollywood has managed, over the years, to engrave it into our heads, whenever today's hottest actors appear in either romantic-comedies, or dumbed-down age-appropriate action movies, one intensely specific image. The world's most desperate screen-writers collaborating during breaks at their cozy little office, where they're probably meant to be. They're dreaming up their ideal protagonists. They come home with Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez on their shoulders, with the mood that they've accomplished something somewhat admirable. "Batman Begins" laughs in those screenwriters faces, as its two sexy leads seem to have more than just an inaccessible chemistry. Christopher Nolan has allowed to see that between Christian Bale (this year's Batman) and Katie Holmes nothing happens that doesn't need to happen. In the most general way, it's kind of brilliant. On their final note, everything is layed out with such subtle tact and dialogue, that it almost shatters our hearts to see it happen, though you've been expecting it the whole movie.

"Batman Begins" has all the fun of a typical first-rate super-hero movie, but twice the class. It has chillingly dark and fantastical elements that put the movie on a much higher level than most Batman movies. I made it an obligation to found some source (no matter how small) of fun in the last two Batmans, and succeeded - but only marginally. Being the longest of the Batman films, "Batman Begins" (at a sort of whopping 140 minute running time) only seems to be making up for the failed attempts and many, disastrously many flaws of the other ones.

I always felt that the Batman saga needed a much darker aspect, and this one completely unleashes. "Batman Returns" didn't get to me as much as this one did, because it was more disgusting than it was frightening. "Batman Begins" has a truely evil plot coming for a true villain, and a mask that - truth be told - scared the shit out of me.

It has every feaux quirk that the Batman legacy lives up to, and then drives beyond that -- accounting for its extensive running time. I'm hoping that another Batman movie will never be made, as this one is nearly perfect. Christopher Nolan is one immensely talented director, and at a mesely age of 35, he's at the height of his game. Let him have this one.

I sincerely believe that the modernism behind the way Batman Begins closes is meant to feed disorientingly into the first Batman film which is probably an example of the finest selection of 80's action that this decade will ever know. I believe more than anything that the movie is meant to feel like a satire not to today's action movies - but to today in general. It has endless layers of dark lack of redemption, and is one of the more visually wonderous film to come along this year.

I think, in many ways, that Batman Begins honors the older Batmans, and at the same time, holds dearly true to the comic book. Though it's not anywhere comparable to the legendary Tim Burton classic, the way the movie closes up on Batman shooting his last lines so flawlessly out the gunbarel of his mouth; you know the cycle well and are thirsty for more. More, more, more.

Jan 14, 2006 17:12:19

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