Batman Begins (2005)
A seriously epic revamp of a good old fandom by a director so talented that all his films will be eventually reviewed here. So, onwards!
As the title suggests, this film is about how the caped crusader came to be who he is. However, the film isn’t a huge flashback of angsty memories (for those who know Batman, Bruce has issues). In fact, only the first 43 minutes actually show how Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) became Batman, the rest of the 2.5 hour feature is about how he learns to BE the hero he created, including getting his signature look.
Now, I know lots of people probably won’t even read this review since they aren’t fans of comic books and think that the whole genre is silly. I won’t lie, a lot of the films that are based on comic books feel incomplete and are total flops, in my opinion, but some do shine through as very good adaptations. One is the Batman series (I don’t know how many Nolan plans to make and don’t want to limit) and another, I think, is the Iron Man series. But this review isn’t about the latter.
I watched tons of Batman movies and cartoon adaptations when I was younger. I remember that my favourite Batman movie was once Batman Forever (1995) and I had it taped off TV and knew where all the ad breaks were due. I loved Batman. I saw the entire animated series when it was on TV, and I read as many comic books as I could get hold of at the library (sadly, that wasn’t a lot of them, but I did read about many of the more popular Bat-villains like The Riddler, Penguin, the Joker – who was second only to the Riddler in my eyes – Scarecrow…). I guess I loved Batman so much because he is one of the few famous superheroes who has no powers at all. He has the means and the desire to be heroic, and so he is. And he’s also not the perfect good guy: he has serious issues, a real phobia, a rich-play-boy streak which he plays up, and he is, for all intents and purposes, a perfect bastard.
The film, as I said, revolves around how Batman came to be Batman. So besides fighting two villains (yep, Chris Nolan tackled two at once), Bruce is growing into his new persona. With that, you get indecision, hesitation, angst, and even hilarity. The film has a clever script that attempts to actually tell Bruce’s story instead of just making him a mysterious freak in a bat mask. Although, this isn’t surprising considering who wrote it. I’ll try to not gush about my favourite director in this post, but Chris Nolan has a WAY with words and weaving a story.
The cast is incredible. I remember already being obsessed with films enough to read and follow the debate about who the next Batman would be, following the footsteps of actors like Val Kilmer, George Clooney and Michael Keaton, Christian Bale won the title role in Nolan’s latest and people were iffy. Personally, I am a fan of Christian Bale, but I know many people aren’t. Anyway. Christian does a fantastic job in this film as the angry and rich Bruce Wayne. He is joined by a very powerful supporting cast, including Gary Oldman, Katie Holmes, Liam Neeson, Cillian Murphy and Michael Caine.
The music is written by Hans Zimmer (who later goes on to work with Nolan on some more of his films) and is truly spectacular. The man is a master of atmospherics and powerful pieces of music that capture you and never let you go. I cannot speak any ill of this man, ever.
The sheer scale of the film, too, is impressive. The sets are appropriate, albeit incredibly detailed, and many of the locations are real. This is usually how Nolan works; he doesn’t let impressive sets take over his movie. He lets them be a backdrop (as they should be) to his script and the acting of his chosen cast.
I would give this film a 7/10 and recommend it to anyone who likes a well-paced action movie. Because you take away the comic-book aspect and you are left with a pretty awesome action film. If you aren’t a fan of comic book heroes and know nothing of Batman, I would still recommend this movie to you. I know people who have never been Batfans, and who, after this film, really got into it. It is a violent movie, so do watch it first before taking your kids, but it’s comic book violence, thus not realistic and easier to show to children. But that’s just my opinion, based solely on myself as an example, when I was at that age.
