Batman Begins (2005)

If ever a movie series needed to be killed and reborn it was Batman.  The series of Batman movies that Tim Burton had begun had long since jumped the shark, with each movie progressively becoming more cornball and campy than the last one.  In 1989 Batman was dark and brooding, a sinister and mysterious protector of a wonderfully Gothic Gotham.  The Joker was brilliantly played in an over the top performance by Jack Nicholson, with more quotable lines than we might have hoped.  Even if the Joker's big evil plot at the end was stupid, the movie was fun and a fitting Batman story.

Batman Returns, on the other hand, gave us penguins with rockets strapped to their backs and a giant rubber ducky.  Batman Forever had an over-abundance of neon, plus Chris O'Donnell (a casting decision that any movie lover will tell you is always a bad one).  Batman and Robin went completely off-rails, with a bat credit card, bat ice skates, anatomically correct bat suits, -pretty much everything was bat-stupid.  It also turned one of Batman's most intelligent and dangerous foes (Bane) into a mindless goon.  There was a lot for a Batman fan to love about 1989's Batman.  There was nothing for ANYONE to like about Batman and Robin.

A few years later a new director enters the scene, with a new vision of what Batman could be.  The results are stunning.  Christopher Nolan wanted to take Batman in a fresh direction, attempting to keep everything in a gritty, realistic world the audience might actually believe could exist.  The result was Batman Begins, a movie that captured Batman like nothing before it.

As a Batman fan, I received the news of a reboot with strong trepidation.  After all, if the Batman films had been getting progressively worse, and if the last one was one of the worst movies of all time, then what chance did a new Batman film have?  As small details of the production leaked out it did nothing to ease my trepidation.  The new bat symbol was quite the change from the comics, and I didn't like it much at first thinking it far too industrial.  And the new batmobile looked nothing at all like it should -or so I thought.  Then I saw some clips and trailers and thought maybe it deserved a chance.

Perhaps you know what it is for a fan of something to hope that just perhaps a movie will capture what makes a beloved story great.  Perhaps you know the great disappointment involved in seeing a movie make a wreck of a beloved book, or a sequel absolutely destroy what made the original great.  With Batman Begins I simply didn't know which to expect.  You see, I've been a Batman fan for years.  I love everything that makes the character unique and interesting.  Batman is a great superhero because he doesn't have superpowers.  He's just smart, driven, and has the resources to wage his war on crime.  But the comics are never content to be simply about crimefighting -they are loaded with philosophy and psychology.  What would drive a man to do what Bruce Wayne does?  How can you reconcile breaking the law (being a vigilante) with your quest to uphold justice?  What lonely price is there to pay to be the Dark Knight?

Batman Begins takes those questions and runs with them.  There is so much packed into this movie it is amazing it works as well as it does.  We must see Bruce's motivation (death of his parents), understand his mindset, observe his training and drive, and discover along with him the symbol he will use to strike terror into the heart of Gotham's criminals -the bat.  After that transformation into Batman we get to see him fight and vanquish three dangerous villains from the comics: Carmine Falcone, Ra's al Ghul, and the Scarecrow.  There's barely room to breathe, yet it works with such a natural ease that you do not even notice how crowded and complex things become.  For all that I give full props to director Christopher Nolan.

Well, what works in this film?  The screenplay is great.  The acting is above average (for an action movie), with a fantastic cast.  The music is marvelous and draws you into the pulse of Gotham.  The special effects are well done.  The editing is great, and merged with good sound mixing you really think the stage punches the actors throw are as brutal as we are supposed to believe.

What doesn't work?  This list is short.  There are a few cheesy moments.  The Scarecrow effects either work for you or they don't (for me they do).

Batman Begins calmed all my fears that it would be bad.  In fact, I distinctly remember the awed feeling I had after the credits began to roll the first time I saw it.  Finally, Batman was good again.  Finally we had a movie that understood the character well.  And for the first time in a long time I had hope that the next Batman movie would be just as good (it turned out to be better!).

Entertainment: 8/10
Artistic value: 5/10
Technical merit: 6/10

Overall: 6/10