The fans of the Batman comics are legion. And to be perfectly honest, they never have been truly satisfied with any of the Batman movies. I mean, they've been happy with the cartoon show, but they have never felt that the movies delivered. The first Batman made the Joker into a comical gangster, instead of the actually crazy man he's supposed to be. Batman Returns focused too much on the villians, and just felt a little too bizarre. And the next two Batmans, both directed by Joel Schumacher, took away any hints of darkness which tend to drive the series. They were more of a tribute to the Adam West series than the comic book. All of the movies had their fun parts, but they never held up, mainly because of how they treated the character of Bruce Wayne. His parents were killed as a child, and he becomes so disturbed he dressed like a bat and tries to wipe out all evil. In these movies, Wayne still seems like a fully functional person. He just happens to dress like a bat. They never seemed to peg down the dark place he must constantly be in.
Damn, did this movie ever get that right.
The newest installment, entitled Batman Begins, is directed by Christopher Nolan (Memento). It takes the series back to the beginning, starting with the death of his parents (not by Jack Napier, who turned into the Joker, like the first Batman movie would have you believe. Don't know where Tim Burton came up with that one.) From there it shows Bruce Wayne (now played perfectly by Christian Bale) as a troubled youth, and enventually leaving Gotham to live a life of crime, to try and understand criminals. He is there found by Ducard, played brilliantly in this movie by Liam Neeson. Ducard tells Bruce Wayne that he works for the crime boss Ra's Al Ghul, played by Ken Watanabe. They train Wayne, hoping he will join them in their ulitmate plan, the destruction of Gotham.
Bruce Wayne returns to Gotham, where he meets with his old butler, Alfred, played by Michael Caine. I want to note that this is the first movie without Michael Gough playing Alfred. I was a little worried at this change. Alfred in my mind is so identifiable in Gough. My fears were not grounded at all. Caine is amazing here, truly something to see.
Bruce Wayne sees that Gotham has decended into a city of crime and sin. He sets about to clean up the city, to give the people of Gotham a pure and good symbol to get behind. Hence Batman.
This movie set a more realistic tone for the series. Nothing here is truly over the top. The only thing that comes close to that is the Scarecrow, one of the movies villians. But Cillian Murphy, who plays Scarecrow, manages to take a character that would have been laughable in the other Batman movies, and makes him into a truly scary demented villian.
Christian Bale is Batman, not other way to look at it. He owns this role. He is dark and disturbing, and only plays the role of young billionare to make sure no one begins to suspect him being Batman.
No one scene in the movie truly stands out. There's no one scene that will be replayed time and time again. Instead, this movie manages to make every scene play towards one purpose, the telling of the overall story. It works on every level.
I'm giving Batman Begins 5 Batmoblies out of 5 (because that Batmoblie is bitchin'). It may very well be the best movie of the year so far. And yes, I know Star Wars came out this year.
