Batman Begins
Directed by: Christopher Nolan
Written by: David Goyer, Christopher Nolan
Starring: Christian Bale, Katie Holmes, Michael Caine, Liam Neeson, Gary Oldman, Cillian Murphy, Ken Watanabe, Morgan Freeman

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I wasn’t hyped up at all for Batman Begins. I figured it would be another paint-by-numbers affair, with a villain soaking up equal screen time, one-liner after one-liner. I wasn’t convinced by the new look, the casting, the trailer, that we’d really get anything as good as the Tim Burton versions of the Dark Knight. I was wrong. For me personally, overall this movie tears the Burton films to shreds. Thanks to Memento director Christopher Nolan, I don’t want to see an even remotely campy version of Batman ever again.

In this film, Batman truly begins. It goes straight into action without a credits sequence, it never rushes itself in its pace, giving you all the details of how someone would pull it together to be a superhero, from the creation of a costume and gadgets to a very long opening sequence where Batman trains as a ninja in China (or is it Mongolia? I don’t know). Swordfighting in a Batman movie? You heard right. To be honest I thought the opening scenes where he trains were pretty ridiculous, for a bit I thought he was going to become Batman without us having any idea how the hell he got to the Far East in the first place… but it all comes together nicely and I now feel like a doofus not trusting Nolan to weave the story together.

The story itself is more complex than previous Batman films. It’s not simply “good person origin story, bad person origin story, they fight”. There are a lot of people, big names, involved here, that Christian Bale, the best Bruce Wayne yet, nicely plays off of. And most importantly, the movie takes itself very seriously. There are one-liners and funny moments here and there, but they are never overly goofy “chicks love the car” fare.

The performances, save Katie Holmes who I can’t take seriously (though she wasn’t terrible), are superb. Morgan Freeman is the same person he always plays though. Michael Caine is a fine Alfred, whose devotion to the Wayne family is incredibly believable. It’s weird seeing Liam Neeson in this film. He does a good job but I kept thinking of how funny it is that Qui-Gon Jinn has Batman as his padawan. Cillian Murphy is unrecognizable from his “28 Days Later” self, and turns in a much better performance as well. For me though, it was Gary Oldman who stole the show in every scene as a younger not-yet-Commissioner Gordon. It’s rare you get to see Oldman as a good guy who isn’t menacing. Every facial expression he makes is brilliant as he plays the underdog, the only good cop in Gotham. You see how in over his head and frustrated he is.

As for the action sequences? Tell you the truth: hit and miss. The first action sequence has things blowing up and Bruce Wayne saving his enemy from falling off a cliff. It�s the most ridiculous sequence in a movie and a shame it had to be, as it put me off expecting things to be bad later. They’re not. The camera is too shaky for my tastes in many scenes, and everything is shot so dark sometimes you can’t see whats going on, but its never anywhere near Daredevil level bad in that respect. The new Batmobile has a chase sequence that�s pretty fun.

However it�s really the acting, cinematography, and afew effects sequences that make the movie. Byeffects I specifically mean the Scarecrow, who is cooler and also scarier than any other dumb boogeyman they’ve created in horror movies over the last few years… zombies included. I won’t spoil it but there’s a special surprise waiting related to said villains’ powers that really got my pencil moving.

One thing I have to say though, is the movie isn’t as fun as Burton’s Batman movies. That isn’t to say its drab, but there comes a cost to making the film so much darker and artier. This is where opinions will be divided. Comic book geeks will love what they’ve done with the place. Some of your average moviegoers who just want explosions, cartoony villains and zingers might instead, sadly, want to wait for the Fantastic Four.

I read a review from the Toronto Star that basicallycalls this movie 2 hours of toy commercials. I justwanted to say that Geoff Pevere is full of crap in that regard. Sure it�s a superhero film, but this surpasses even Spider-Man 2 as far as smart, realistic, believable superhero storytelling is concerned. I’d say Raimi’s movie is still actually better though for other reasons, but this one is a stunning rival that will cause a lot of discussion and debate. — Goon

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