Batman Begins
June 16th, 2005 by park
It’s finally here. The beginning of the legend. And really, that’s what it’s all about. Batman Begins is the comic book superhero of the fiction city of Gotham. Once, we thought of the Batman as really somewhat out of kilter with the real world, in fact most of DC comics does that, takes us away from our earth and plants us someplace else that’s close, but not quite our world. Now, thanks to Frank Miller’s vision, Batman has taken on a darker, more realistic vision. Tim Burton first brought him to the big screen in this fashion. And in Batman Begins, the legend of the Dark Knight continues, or rather starts.Bruce Wayne, a child traumatized by a fall into a well on the family estate, looses both parents to a random shootist in the city of Gotham’s declining fortunes. The depression that is shaking the city to its core threatens to tear it to pieces. Bruce, full of unfocused rage, and seeking answers to his own personal demons, leaves the city and travels the world. Finally finding himself in a undisclosed Asian nation, and under arrest, he is sent to prison. Serving some time there, he is released and finds his way to a mountain retreat. The home of the shadowy organization that is Ra’s Al-Ghul’s hideaway. They teach Bruce to beat fear, to make it his own, and to use that as a weapon to defeat evil. After his training is complete, they want to make him a member of the group. At this point, they want him to demonstrate his loyalty to justice by slaying a man for murdering another. Bruce declines, and defeats the men, burns down the building and flees back to America.You may think this is odd, that I am telling you the plot. Well. I am not. This is nothing any Batman fan doesn’t already know. What happens next is where the strangeness starts. Goyer did a remarkable job of keeping true to the back story of of Bruce Wayne. And even managed to surprise us along the way. The story centers around Batman’s beginnings, and it is more generally about man versus fear. A very elemental storytelling style. Goyer’s script lacked in nothing. We meet Jim Gordon at the start of his career long before he becomes commissioner. We see why he and Batman have a long standing relationship, and where that strength comes from. After all, what self respecting commissioner would keep a vigilante in his town? We FINALLY see where “he gets those wonderful toys”. We also finds out how the famous Batcave came to be, how it has stayed a secret, and even how the Batmobile can do fantastic jumps. They did an incredible job of tying up all the loose ends and answering all those long standing questions. The script is tight. It moves quickly, and fluidly. My only real complaint would be that there is something wrong with the pacing. Especially in the beginning. But I am fairly certain that is an editing problem. It feels like they start to say something, then don’t finish. And if they manage to finish it, I no longer care what is being said. No worries though, that’s really about the biggest flaw in the movie. Well, that and Katie Holmes‘ eye. She’s a fantastic actress, but directors need to worry about the camera angle so she will stop looking like she has vision problems. Christian Bale brings in a great performance as Bruce Wayne. He has that stoic, straight laced stance that really works for Bruce. He always looks like he has something to hide, and it really works here. My only complaint with Bale would be his “Batman Voice”. When he drops his voice an octave as bats he sounds…strange. Almost distorted. You know those guys who wanted to scare you by acting tough in school? That’s about the way it sounds. But let’s face it, a man who can drag you into the rafters for a beating is just scary…even if he spoke with a squeaky toy.
I won’t bother going down the list of FANTASTIC actors in this picture, this review can’t possibly contain it, and it would bore you to tears. Let’s just say this, they all did their jobs, with the level of performance you have come to expect from them. You literally will forget Gary Oldman is Gary Oldman, he just channels Jim Gordon from start to finish.
It’s like the gathered all my favorites, old and new and gave them a playground to come play in. I won’t bring everyone else’s name here, but believe me when I say they live up to it. Bear in mind when you watch this that it is about Batman, not the villains. So all our favorite villains have any real screen time to speak of. This is not a problem, as you won’t likely forget the villains when they are off-screen with the performances they deliver. The movie uses some CGI, but they use it in the way I have always favored, moderation. Someone might have the numbers for how often they used it, but the only time you KNOW it is when people are hallucinating, because the stuff they see just isn’t humanly possible. You will see a man fly. And he ain’t wearing blue, and he wearing wires. I don’t want to talk much about the plot, as I don’t like spoilers. But if you are familiar with Batman at all (especially if you’ve read Frank Miller’s Dark Knight Returns), you will see some powerful images pulled right off those pages. Batman begins much like he ends. In smoke, fire, and big theatrics. This thing is one wild ride of Batman goodness.