KarateParty.org - Batman Begins (2005)

Genres
Action
Adventure
Crime
Gangsters
Superheroes

2005

Directed by

Christopher Nolan

Written by

Christopher Nolan and David S. Goyer

Cast

Christian Bale .... Bruce Wayne/Batman

Michael Caine .... Alfred

Liam Neeson .... Ducard

Katie Holmes .... Rachel Dawes

Gary Oldman .... Jim Gordon

Cillian Murphy .... Dr. Jonathan Crane

Tom Wilkinson .... Carmine Falcone

Rutger Hauer .... Earle

Ken Watanabe .... Ra's Al Ghul

Mark Boone Junior .... Flass

Linus Roache .... Thomas Wayne

Morgan Freeman .... Lucius Fox

Larry Holden .... Finch

Gerard Murphy .... Judge Faden

Colin McFarlane .... Loeb

Sara Stewart .... Martha Wayne

Gus Lewis .... Bruce Wayne - age 8

Richard Brake .... Joe Chill

Batman's attempts to destroy the
sun with a grappling hook ended in
farce.

Batman Begins does two very welcome things. One, it restarts the Batman movie franchise. Two, it proves that the claim that you need to switch your brain off when seeing a blockbuster was just a refuge for the talentless hacks churning out moronic explode-a-thons. The bar has been raised. Let’s hope future blockbusters rise to the new challenge.

Batman Begins literally restarts the franchise, going back to the start of the story and ignoring the films that came before it. The opening act wisely goes straight to the dark depths of Bruce Wayne’s motivations, the area that the best Batman comics of the last 20 years have focused on. Probably everyone knows that Bruce Wayne’s parents were killed by a mugger, in this film after watching an opera (as opposed to the Zorro film in the comic). Bruce is determined to fight injustice and reclaim the Gotham city that has degenerated into a human cesspit. But he first must overcome his fears.

Liam Neeson in Kingdom of Heaven
... I mean Batman Begins.

He travels to the Himalayas to learn from the League of Shadows headed by Ra's Al Ghul. But he finds that the differ in the hope they have for humanity. The League believes in wiping out all human evil and starting anew, Bruce believes people and places can be saved and reformed. They have a falling out, which means a massive battle.

Bruce returns to Gotham and reassumes his role as head of Wayne Enterprise (he’d been on his journey for so long he’s been declared legally dead). With the help of his trusty butler Alfred (Michael Caine) he assumes the Batman persona, and begins his fight against evil. He first takes on the old school gangster Carmine Falcone, but soon learns that there are far greater powers working behind the scenes.

One great thing about having a lot of money to work with is that you can hire a dream cast, and cast of Batman Begins could just as easily be attached to an art house film. With so many great actors, scenes that may have been dull exposition are as, if not more, entertaining than some of the action scenes. Michael Caine as Alfred makes every scene good. Likewise Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox.

A production still of the new sand
worm from Dune II: Everyone in
the Pool.

There were only a few bum notes in the film (this paragraph may contain spoilers). Bruce Wayne’s initial meeting with Carmine Falcone seemed to jump to the point too quickly, as if a few lines of dialogue had been cut out. When the people of Gotham are supposed to be tearing the city apart through paranoia they seem to just turn into Romero zombies with an interest in Katie Holmes. And when Batman glides with his cape it looks kind of crappy.

The film is funny when it can be, but never at the expense of suspense. The script gets the themes across without laying it on too thick (well it may be a little thick at the start for some). And things link up in a way that doesn’t feel contrived. Batman Begins is, for people who have long believed that blockbuster films need not be a mental wasteland, a cause for celebration.

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