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Batman Begins
Directed by Christopher Nolan
Starring Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Liam Neeson, Katie Holmes, Gary Oldman,
Cillian Murphy, Ken Watanabe and Morgan Freeman.
Ahh, Batman. Like a lot of comic book fans, I got into him big time thanks
to that Tim Burton film in 1989. And then, from there, the animated
series, and finally, the comics. And, once I finally got my hands on the
source material, I noticed something strange about the films. They were
wrong. They weren't as good as they could have been. Like many
disappointed fans, I consoled myself with reruns of the animated series and
curled up by the fire with The Dark Knight Returns. The movies
finally faded from existence...until Spider-Man and the X-Men came along and
jumpstarted the whole superhero movie genre. It wasn't long until Batman
returned...again.
Bruce Wayne (Bale) is a tortured soul. After seeing his parents gunned
down before his eyes when he was a kid, he just hasn't stopped running.
Finally, he finds himself in a remote northern European prison where he beats
the crap out of the inmates with ferocity. This gains the interest of the
League of Shadows, led by the immortal R'as al Guhl (Watanabe) and his chief
lieutenant Ducard (Neeson). They take Wayne into their secret society, and
train him how to use his fear and anger to fight the evil around him. But,
when the League shows its true colours, Wayne turns on them, and is cast out
from the order. The League, though, has given Wayne inspiration. He
returns to Gotham City, determined to clean up the town. And it's just in
time, too. That dastardly psychiatrist Dr. Jonathon Crane (Murphy) is
running around as the Scarecrow and is determined to destroy the city.
It's not long before Bruce Wayne becomes that which he fears the most...a bat.
The Batman, to be specific. Of course, Batman needs allies, and he finds
them: his trusted butler Alfred (Caine), Wayne Enterprises head of Applied
Sciences Lucious Fox (Freeman), the last good cop, a detective by the name of
Jim Gordon (Oldman), and Bruce Wayne's old childhood sweetheart Rachel Dawes
(Holmes), who's now a crusading Assistant District Attorney. It'll be this
alliance, led by Batman, who saves the city.
Wow. Wowie wowie wow. This movie rocks. At long last, we
finally get to see all those great "Batman-isms" that have been lost in the
nipples on the batsuits. It almost reminds me of the first Superman
movie, in that at least the first half is dedicated to the origin; Bruce Wayne
doesn't don cape and cowl until at least halfway through the film. And
that's good. At long last, on the big screen, we get to see Bruce Wayne,
Batman, and why he does what he does. This is just a good movie.
I remember one time a friend was visiting, and she read the classic Batman
Year One. At the end, she screamed and threw down the book.
"That can't be the end!" she said. "I've got to see what comes next!"
I just semi-sarcastically said, "It's meant to be the beginning...the entire
Batman universe comes next!" That's how I felt at the end of Batman
Begins. (Yes, it's left wide open for a sequel.) That can't be
the end. I've got to see what comes next.
4 Nibs
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