Cast: Christian Bale, Katie Holmes, Liam Neeson, Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine, Ken Watanabe, Cillian Murphy, Christopher Nolan (Dir). KERPOW!
The caped crusader is back. And Bam! He’s the coolest Batman ever. This is what we know about Batman Begins… Well, it’s about Batman, obviously. His beginnings, to be precise, as a twenty something Bruce Wayne gradually becomes the Bat, with the help of a training regime that would give Mr. Incredible a heart attack. Batman Begins takes us back to the hellish childhood that literally sent billionaire Bruce Wayne batty.
’Batman Begins’ explores the origins of the Batman legend and the Dark Knight’s emergence as a force for good. It’s got depth, it’s incredibly dark and CHRISTIAN BALE was born to bear the cape. He makes a superb Batman, delivering an ideal mix of deadly serious angst and sly humour. Director CHRISTOPHER NOLAN has rescued the ailing franchise after the last three disastrous Batman movies. Remember the 1997 stinker Batman & Robin?
He delivers a film which does what it says on the tin-explaining why Bruce got into latex and leaps around rooftops at night. Having witnessed the horrific mugging and shooting of the dad he idolised and the mother he adored, wimpy Bruce junior wants revenge. The tormented youngster rejects an easy life to find himself in Tibet, where he meets shady Henri Ducard, played by LIAM NEESON, who teaches him the skills he needs to become a crime-fighting superhero. Seven years later he returns to Gotham City to launch his caped crusade.
A shadowy military technology pioneer helps him build up the arsenal of weapons and gadgets he needs to become the ultimate crime-fighter, Batman. Bale is backed by an excellent supporting cast including GARY OLDMAN, as the only decent cop in Gotham, and MORGAN FREEMAN as Wayne Enterprise inventor Lucius Fox. MICHAEL CAINE does a good job playing himself as ever and steals the show and all the best lines as Wayne’s in-the-know butler Alfred. KATIE HOLMES is the only one to let the side down as Wayne’s childhood friend turned assistant district attorney Rachel Dawes. Despite the fact she’s 26 and TOM CRUISE’S girlfriend Katie looks far too young to be a real love interest.
It isn’t until a third into the film that Bruce actually dons the Batman costume-and some action fans might find the build-up too slow. But the preparation scenes as the dedicated Bruce spray-painted his bat suit black and chiselled away in his bat cave making his bat-shaped ninja stars are brilliant. There’s action aplenty here, as a fledgling Batman takes on Gotham’s most villainous, including Cillian Murphy’s fearsome The Scarecrow and Ken Watanabe’s regal Ra’s Al Ghul, a virtual mirror image of Bruce Wayne.
Ken Watanabe’s character is useful in terms of allowing the audience to judge Batman as he stands on that knife-edge between what’s acceptable and what’s unacceptable. Physically his Batman makes the grade with superhero muscles in all the right places and a gruff voice that makes even prim Rachel go all gooey. But it is the way the Caped Crusader is both haunted and isolated rather than a two-dimensional grinning saviour that makes Bale’s Batman truly great. This is a rare superhero film where the villians are not the stars. It really is absolutely all about Batman. We get to appreciate how Bruce Wayne got so intensely angry and where he acquired what the Joker once called ’those wonderful toys’. It’s all been told on screen before, but not so thoroughly, nor with such a gritty, visceral and stirring tone.
The movie is rooted in a heightened version of reality, not the fantasy world of previous Batman films. Driven by story far more than action set-pieces, Batman Begins could well be the finest Batman film of all time. Stunning production design means it’s as visually compelling as Tim Burton’s famously gothic 1989 film. With subtle, scary villians and a clear promise of a sequel, this has set the franchise firmly back on track.