Batman Begins (2006, HD DVD)

Batman has been one of the most popular comic book characters for years. I have never read any of the Batman comics and I didn t see the television show. When the first Batman movie was released in 1989, I had no desire to see it even though I had liked other shows, movies, and cartoons about comic book characters. I m not sure why I didn t want to see it then. I did see bits of a few of the movies on television and was intrigued, but it wasn t until late in 2004 that I actually saw all of Batman. I had seen most of the other Batman movies before that and was entertained by them even though there were problems. Batman seemed to be finished in movies after Batman & Robin, but that has changed with the release of Batman Begins.

The previous Batman movies dealt with things that happened after Batman had been established in Gotham City. Instead of trying to continue on from what happened in those movies, Batman Begins goes back to explore how and why Batman was created to fight crime. I thought that was very interesting since I didn t know as much about the back story of Batman as I do a few other comic book characters. Since I haven t read any of the comics or books about Batman, I don t know how close the movie stayed to the way his beginning was described in them.

Batman Begins delved into the past of Bruce Wayne, a billionaire that created Batman. Events from Bruce s childhood that helped to explain why he did what he did were shared. He saw his parents killed in front of him, which really impacted the man he would become. He was tormented as an adult and disappeared from his life and Gotham City for seven years. During that time, he met Ducard and Ra s Al Ghul, and trained in some kind of fighting style. He decided that he wanted to return to Gotham City and work to take the city back from the criminals. He returned to Wayne Manor and Alfred, the butler, helped him in creating his crime fighting alter-ego.

The beginning of the movie was devoted to exploring Bruce and showing why he created Batman. Some flashbacks were used to show the murder of his parents and a few other events, so the movie did jump back and forth for a while. That didn t bother me, but it could be jarring or confuse some viewers. The pace during that portion of the movie was slower, which was necessary to fully show that part of the story. I thought that part was interesting since it did explain a lot about Bruce for me. Other people may feel differently and think that part is too slow. There were a few fights during that part of the movie which did pick the pace up, but overall the pace was slower until after Bruce returned to Gotham City. Once he was back and got started with creating Batman, the pace did pick up.

Batman Begins did have action scenes that included several fights, some explosions, and a car chase. Most of the action scenes took place after Bruce returned to Gotham City and became Batman. Within the first few minutes of the movie, Bruce was involved in a fight where he took on several men. That was before the training he went through that included other fights. I thought that the action scenes were very well done. The car chase featured the Batmobile, which looked somewhat like a tank for this movie but it still fit in. The car had all kinds of interesting features and could get through all kinds of barriers. It could be very handy to have a car like that. It was shown how Bruce got the car, as well as some of the other gadgets he used as Batman and how he ended up using the bat cave. I think some special effects were used for the action scenes. The effects were very well done and didn t seem excessive or overdone. The movie was violent, though not as violent as some other movies I ve seen recently. This is not a movie for children and parent s shouldn t assume it is just because it is about a comic book character. Children will probably be bored by the slower parts of the movie.

Bruce lived in the fictional Gotham City. I think that the comics made by DC Comics all took place in fictional cities while the comics from Marvel took place in real places. In the previous Batman movies, Gotham City looked very dark, even during the day. Aspects of the city didn t look real in any way, especially in the last two movies. There were some rather strange looking buildings in those movies. In Batman Begins, Gotham City looked like a normal city, making the movie itself seem more realistic. One area of the city had a skyline that looked very much like any real large city. There were areas of the city that were more run down, like there are in real cities. The city did still look dark and gloomy at times, but that worked for the movie. I liked that Gotham City looked more like a real city instead of how it was depicted in the previous movies.

Batman is different from other superheroes because he doesn t have an actual super power. He is just a normal man inside the suit. He had a special suit and gadgets that he used instead. Bruce was extremely wealthy and had a lot of advantages in his life which did help him create Batman. He wasn t invincible and did get hurt. It was explained in the movie why he decided to dress up like a giant bat to fight crime. Batman faced a few villains during the movie that were also regular men. One did use a few gadgets of his own, but he was still just a man. In the previous movies, the villains did end up being a bit campy, especially in the last two movies. That didn t happen in Batman Begins. I think the fact that Batman doesn t have super powers makes the character more believable. After seeing this movie, I am more interested in the character and think I will try to find some books about Batman like I have for the X-Men and Spider-Man.

Batman is a dark super hero. Bruce was tormented as an adult because he d seen his parents killed. He struggled for years with his need for vengeance before deciding to fight crime as Batman. Bruce was complex, which was shown in Batman Begins. Christian Bale was very good in the part. I believed him as both Bruce and Batman. I wasn t sure about Michael Keaton as Batman. I did think he was good as Bruce, it was harder to believe him as Batman. He was all right in the part, but I do think that Bale did better with both aspects of the part. Alfred worked for Bruce s parents and remained at Wayne Manor even when Bruce was away. I liked Alfred in the previous movies, and I liked him in this one as well. Michael Caine was great in the part. Alfred was very different from the parts that Caine played in Secondhand Lions and Miss Congeniality. Liam Neeson played Ducard, the man that trained Bruce. Neeson was wonderful in the part. Ducard was like a mentor to Bruce for a while. He did remind me a little of the part Neeson played in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace.

One of the flashbacks showed Bruce playing with Rachel, the daughter of a woman that worked at the manor. As an adult, Rachel was an attorney that worked for the district attorney. She was aware that many people in Gotham were corrupt, and she wanted to do something about that. She still had her ideals. Katie Holmes was fine in the part. She was believable as Rachel. I have only seen her in Abandon and in some episodes of Dawson s Creek before this. I still see bits of episodes of the tv show, which I think is why I had been thinking she was younger. Rachel was a strong woman, though she did end up in a situation where she needed to be rescued. Gary Oldman was wonderful as Jim Gordon. In this movie, he wasn t the police commissioner yet and it was shown how he and Batman met and started to work together. The character wasn t as bumbling as he was made to be in some of the previous Batman movies. Oldman is a very versatile actor and has played many different types of characters like the parts he s had in The Fifth Element and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Morgan Freeman played Lucius Fox, a man that worked for Wayne Industries. He was good in the part, but it was smaller than the roles he had in High Crimes and Nurse Betty. Cillian Murphy played Dr. Jonathan Crane, a psychiatrist that was up to something. Tom Wilkinson, Rutger Hauer, and Ken Watanabe also had small parts. The cast of the movie was amazing.

CAST

Christian Bale - Bruce Wayne/Batman
Michael Caine - Alfred
Morgan Freeman - Lucius Fox
Rutger Hauer - Earle
Katie Holmes - Rachel
Cillian Murphy - Dr. Jonathan Crane
Liam Neeson - Ducard
Gary Oldman - Jim Gordon
Ken Watanabe - Ra s Al Ghul
Tom Wilkinson - Carmine Falcone

Christopher Nolan - Director

Christopher Nolan, the director of Memento and Insomnia, chose to make Batman Begins more serious than the previous movies were. The character was treated with a respect that fans should appreciate. This is the Batman movie that fans have been waiting for. The movie was very entertaining and is definitely worth seeing. I will be adding it to my DVD collection once it is available.

Batman Reviews
Batman ~ Batman Returns ~ Batman Forever ~ Batman & Robin ~ Batman: The Ultimate Guide to The Dark Knight ~

Other Superhero Reviews
Elektra ~ Fantastic Four ~ The Incredibles ~ Lois & Clark: The Complete First Season ~ Sky High ~ Spider-Man ~ Spider-Man 2 ~ Superman Returns ~ Superman: The Ultimate Guide to the Man of Steel ~ X-Men ~ X2: X-Men United ~ X-Men: The Last Stand ~ X-Men: The Legend of Wolverine ~ Ultimate X-Men ~