rating:
(out of
4 stars)United States; 2005
Directed by Christopher Nolan; produced by Larry Franco, Charles Roven, Emma Thomas; screenplay by Christopher Nolan, David S. Goyer
Starring Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Liam Neeson, Katie Holmes, Gary Oldman, Cillian Murphy, Tom Wilkinson, Rutger Hauer, Ken Watanabe, Linus Roache, Morgan Freeman
Below you will find a temporary review for this film. The real (better, more complete) review will be online very soon.
'Batman Begins' is the best film from the 'Batman'-series, mainly because it
really does not belong to the other films. After the terrible 'Batman &
Robin' this is a new start and director Christopher Nolan ('Memento') finds
the perfect note for the first two third of the film. I have complaints
about the third act, but I am very willing to forgive him that since the
first two acts are handled in such a terrific way.
In this film we finally learn why Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) wants to
fight crime and why he chooses the bat as his symbol. It is done in such a
precise way I was only able to appreciate it. Instead of wall to wall action
and special effects the film takes the human side of the story and handles
it as the most important part. We meet Wayne's loyal butler Alfred (Michael
Caine), the love interest Rachel (Katie Holmes), good cop Gordon (Gary
Oldman) and Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman), who is like Q from the James
Bond-films, as his friends. Ducard (Liam Neeson) is Wayne's friend at first,
learning him a lot about fighting techniques, but becomes his enemy after
Wayne rejects to execute a criminal. Other villains are the Scarecrow
(Cillian Murphy), Ra's Al Ghul (Ken Watanabe), Falcone (Tom Wilkinson) and
in a way Earle (Rutger Hauer) who wants to take over Wayne Incorporate.
Learning to know Wayne and who is and the way he becomes Batman belong to
the best moments of comic-book adaptations. In fact, you can hardly see you
are watching such a film. The material is handled in a way it all could
happen very easily and I liked it. Unfortunately the film becomes a cliché
in the final part where Batman becomes a real hero, where he has faced his
demons, where things are hard to follow. That the fighting sequences were
hard to follow was too bad since that is what most people at least want to
see a couple of time in a 'Batman'-film. I understood Nolan's approach. He
filmed and edited Batman's fighting in a way he was surrounded by bats and
that it was his greatest fear he was actually fighting. With that idea I was
able to appreciate it, although I rather see some nice stylized action.
Still, the film is better than most comic book adaptations. It comes close
to 'Spider-Man 2', still the best from the superhero-film ('Sin City' is the
best comic-book adaptation for me) and that is quite an achievement. It
really makes me want to see the next installment, something I could not say
after 'Batman Returns', 'Batman Forever' and 'Batman & Robin'.