Batman Begins (* * * *)

The new Batman franchise has started with a bang. Batman Begins is the first of a series of "new" Batman films with an entirely different look and feel than the previous films. I am giving Batman Begins 4 stars, it was a really good movie. I was skeptical about this movie and actually I didn't even want to see it until my friend Jeff saw it and told me how good it was. I am just getting a little burned out with the comic book genre and I think Hollywood is becoming over saturated with movies that are not original. There is too many sequels, and movies based on comic books or novels. So when I saw they were making another Batman movie I was really disappointed, and especially because it's another Batman movie about the beginning, didn't we already see that? We did already see how Batman becomes Batman, but not like this. In fact, this is how we should have seen it so many years ago, maybe the earlier Batman franchise wouldn't have gone to crap. Beware if you haven't seen it, spoilers ahead.

The first thing that was good about this Batman movie is that it was entirely different than any of the previous films. Instead of trying to build upon what was already there the film makers decided to start from scratch, with everything, even the story. Christopher Nolan who isn't really well known directed the movie, and brought a really good style to it, the colors and the settings were really unique and impressive. Check out one of his earlier films Memento which is also really good.

We begin with the story of young Bruce Wayne and how he attains his fear of bats, by falling into a cave as a child and being swarmed by them. The story continues as Bruce grows and his parents are murdered by a thief attempting to rob them one night. Bruce grows up and has much anger inside, feeling that the death of his parents could even have been his fault. He resorts to a life of crime, although due to the death of his parents despises criminals. In a way, his life of crime is chosen so that he can learn about criminals and he ends up enjoying fighting with them in prison. He is approached by a man named Ducard who tells Bruce that he can help him find his way, so upon his release from an Asian prison he makes a journey to see this man. He receives training from Ducards master Ra's Al Ghul the leader of the League of Shadows, his training consists of learning to battle his fears as well as physical training. He is also taught about justice, and the purpose of the League of Shadows, to rid the world of evil. Upon completing his training Bruce is placed in a situation where he must execute a murderer or he will not be able to leave the League alive. The League believes that the only way to bring justice is to kill criminals and they have a plan to destroy all of Gotham City in the hopes to build it again from scratch. He refuses to execute the prisoner and must fight his way out of the league. Thinking he has left Ra's Al Ghul for dead in the burning building he caries Ducard away and leaves him to be cared for. Bruce returns to Gotham City, his home as a boy, with the intention of cleaning up the city somehow. He returns and is reunited with his former childhood friend, Rachel Dawes who is now a district attorney trying to make Gotham a better city as well. With the help of his butler Alfred and Luscious Fox an employee in the research and development department of Wayne Enterprises, Bruce begins to become Batman. He and Alfred create the Bat Cave and with the help of Fox Bruce is given access to many of the cool gadgets that make Batman's weapons. He begins his cleansing of Gotham by seeking the crime boss, Carmine Falcone. During his investigation into Carmine he realizes that the drug trade is not what it seems. There is someone that is smuggling something other than drugs through Carmine's dealers, and Carmine doesn't know much about it. He finds out that Carmine is being used by none other than The League of Shadows, to smuggle a hallucinogenic substance into the city's water system. He discovers that Ducard did indeed survive and he is actually just the alter ego of Ra's Al Ghul himself. Their intentions are to drug the entire city of Gotham with this substance therefore tearing the city apart and then they can begin to rebuild a city without the crime and corruption it now has. Well, of course Batman with the help of the policeman Jim Gordon, Luscious Fox, Alfred and even from Rachel is able to stop the League of Shadows and save the city from destruction. Now he will focus on getting rid of the bad guys one by one and saving the innocent.

I know that was a long summary of the plot for this movie, but that is another thing that was great about the movie. The story was deep, there were a lot of twists and exciting situations although it wasn't so difficult to put together that it didn't come together in the end. In fact the ending of the movie was great, there was even a little foreshadowing about the villain for the next Batman movie, The Joker. There was even a few nice theme's in this Batman, don't let fear conquer you, one person can make a difference, when we fall down it's so we can get back up again stronger and I am sure many others that people will find.

By far though, the best thing about this movie was the acting. I know that the producers and Christopher Nolan as director took a long time to pick the cast, they obviously felt that it was important to get the right people. I really think it paid off, there are some new people and there are some big names in the film such as Liam Neeson who plays Ducard/Ra's Al Ghul, Morgan Freeman as Luscious Fox and Gary Oldman as Jim Gordon. All of the actors did a really great job. Morgan Freeman didn't have a lot of screen time but was good at playing his usual supporting role as the always wise and experienced character. Liam Neeson was great, the good thing about Neeson's character is the he gets to be the guy who trains Batman and also the villain in the movie, he does a great job pulling it off and showing both sides of his character. Gary Oldman was really funny and when he delivered his funny lines it wasn't cheesy or lame, it was funny. Due to all the publicity with Tom Cruise, everyone now knows who Katie Holmes is. I was a little worried that she might not be so good in the film but she really was, she did a good job and I was surprised. It's too bad that she overshadowed the movie so much about her relationship with Tom Cruise because she has not been asked to return for a sequel, the other actors have already signed on to do it. One person who I only knew from one film was Cillian Murphy as Dr. Jonathan Crane, this was the Dr. that created the Hallucinogenic drug. He was really good as his alter ego The Scarecrow as well as the Dr. Cillian actually auditioned for the part of Bruce Wayne/Batman but was turned down, although they liked him enough to give him this part. They did pick Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne, some people know him and some don't. He was a child actor in the late 80's starring in Empire of The Sun a Stephen Spielberg movie set during World War II. (If anyone hasn't seen Empire of The Sun, it is a great movie, also starring John Malkovich.) Anyway, Christian Bale has been in a few movies since Empire of The Sun but they haven't been big hits or real popular. (IE: Rein of Fire). But he was really good as Batman and Bruce Wayne. He looks the part and was especially good during the fight scenes early on in the film before he heads back to Gotham. I thought it was good to pick someone young, that could grow with the series.

The Bottom Line... Batman Begins is really good, the story is deep, fun and intense, the acting is great and the film makers started from scratch to distance themselves from the less good earlier batman films. Because of this I am giving it 4 stars. There is a lot of action and the pacing is fast, the movie does not get boring. The music is thrilling and helps keep the mood of the film up, the look and feel of the move is unique and there are just some great "cool factor" things in the movie. ("Cool Factor" = Things that make you think to yourself "That's Cool"). I am recommending this movie to pretty much anyone, even if you are not a Batman or a Comic Book fan, it's just a well made movie. Batman is rated PG-13 and it is violent, there is no sexual content and no bad language, there are some frightening scenes. Although the film is violent, Batman doesn't use guns and if he does actually kill people, you don't see it. As always if you are worried about your kids seeing it, go see it first and decide if they can handle it.