Batman Begins Review (2005)

In many ways, superhero films are amongst some of my favourites throughout cinema. I've wanted to get back to reviewing and in particular reviewing a superhero movie in particular and so I have chosen one of my favourite to begin with (get it?) and not only will I be reviewing Batman Begins, but I intend to review and analyse all three of the films in Christopher Nolan's trilogy. So lets not waste time and get to the beginning (I promise I will stop) of this epic trilogy.

A young Bruce Wayne

Batman Begins isn't just a good movie, its a great one. It is not simply the origin to Batmans tale and his vengeance filled start, but its also a character study into the psyche of not only Batman, but also Bruce Wayne. This wasn't just the best Batman film up until its release, but it is one of the best films of all time. I'm slightly biased because I love Batman, I read the comic books, I play the video games, I have Batman t-shirts everything.

Now everyone by now probably knows the story of Batman but for the sake of making a good review I will go over the plots. Bruce Wayne a young man suffered the fate of watching his parents be murdered in front of him by a man named Joe Chill, and once a young Bruce realises that the city of Gotham, the city that his parents strived to better is rotting, filled with crime, corruption and poverty. Bruce removes himself from Gotham for an unknown duration of time in order to become the symbol of fear he needs to be. Becoming trained by the mysterious Ras Al Ghul, or Ducard (played by Liam Neeson) he learns the way of the League of Shadows, hoping that they will help him in his fight against crime, despite the fact they intend to purge Gotham of all its inhabitants. Upon his return to Gotham, Bruce finds things are worse off than imagined with Carmine Falcone running the organised crime and the illusive Scarecrow turning the city into insane crazed psychopaths. Batman must don the cape and cowl in order to bring order and justice to the city of Gotham.

Nolan on set

I'm not usually a fan of origin stories, they are long, drawn out and often boring. I prefer established characters, but Christopher Nolan turns this story into one more dramatic and emotional than one we have seen for a superhero before this. We feel Bruce's anguish as we see his parents murdered in front of him, we are taken through the earliest parts of Bruce's life from his fear of bats to the murder of his parents at the same time that we are shown his training to become Batman. The film does not feel slow as you think it might, instead it engages you, showing us all the important details of Bruce's life before he puts on that famous Cowl.
Despite the film moving through the origin quickly, some of my favourite scenes are the slower ones building up to Christian Bale putting on the suit. His scenes with Morgan Freeman are extremely fun to watch, I like the idea of the character, Lucius Fox working alongside Bruce's father to build the train that runs through Gotham, it feels like the character has more of a reason to work and help Bruce than the character of the comic books. Other scenes the assembly of the Bat-Cave and the equipment the Batman uses.

The "good" cinematography

Nolan also made other characters, not popular in the public eye much more recognisable, of course there was Michael Caine as the ever reliable Alfred but I'm mainly talking about the law enforcement in the film, Gary Oldman almost steals the show as Lieutenant James Gordon, Batman's GCPD partner. We see a more realistic take on the hero, of course the police force would be weary of a vigilante dressed like a bat, Nolan knows this and he makes it clear that the police are weary of Bruce.
The cinematography throughout the film is both good and bad. I love those Gothic shots of Batman stood on a building overlooking the corruption that has taken grip of the city. Then there are those god awful action scenes were everything feels as though it is zoomed in and you can;t tell what the hell is going on! Similarly the casting of Katie Holmes feels about as bad as the fight scenes, she is unconvincing and boring as the supposed love interest, Rachael Dawes.

Ras Al Ghul and the League of Shadows

Despite these minor flaws however I do still love this film, the combination of a villain like Ras Al Ghul and Scarecrow is an unusual one but it really works, again I wish that Cillian Murphy as the Scarecrow had a little bit more to do, and him being one of my favourite Batman villains I did find it slightly disappointing that he isn't given too much to do and takes more of a back seat to Ras Al Ghul but it does feel appropriate to the overall storyline.

The only thing to fear is fear itself

The inclusion of Scarecrow as a villain also adds to the main theme in the film which is fear. The theme is important throughout, from the influence of Bruce's initial fear of bats to the literal fear gas that spreads throughout Gotham City in the climactic third act. Nolan was clever in displaying the literal effect that Fear has on people through the use of the fear gas to the way that Ras Al Ghul teaches Batman to instill fear into his enemies through the use of the iconography that made him fearful as a child, a bat. Carmine Falcone's infamous words "You always fear what you don't understand" rings true throughout the film but I will leave you to find out what it truly means.

My final thoughts are that with the release of "The Dark Knight" I feel as though Batman Begins is somewhat neglected now, people always think of the second film as being far superior and whilst I do agree for the most part, this film is a lot better than you probably remember it being. Also I quite like the Batman's raspy growling voice in these films, It adds to the intimidation factor that the character is often known for. So check out Batman Begins, I promise it won't disappoint.