Batman Begins- 4/5 stars

Batman.

That name brings many things to mind, but the greatest of the Batman films are Christopher Nolan’s.

Batman Begins brought Gotham’s knight back out of obscurity. An instant hit and many hailed it, rightly so, the greatest Batman film ever made, even better than Tim Burton’s original Batman. With an all-star cast, showing the likes of Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Katie Holmes, Morgan Freeman, Gary Oldman, Liam Neeson, and Tom Wilkinson, this movie showed what a superhero movie can be. In a time of horrible comic book films, Christopher Nolan brought a new take on this genre.

For those who have not seen this movie (SPOILER ALERT), as Bruce Wayne is mourning the loss of his parents, he tries to take revenge on their killer. He is too late when that man is killed outside a courtroom. Bruce runs away after he faces Gotham’s biggest mob boss to observe the life of crime. He makes his way to China where he meets a group called the League of Shadows. Here he is trained to fight against injustice. He passes their tests but learns that they plan to destroy Gotham, the “heart of criminality,” and told to lead their men to the city to destroy it. He kills their leader and makes his way back to Gotham to take up his mantle as Batman where he fights the mob and faces the last members of the League of Shadows who try to finish what they started. (END OF SPOILERS.).

What I liked most about it was the fact that Christopher Nolan incorporated real life problems cities face, such as the mob and corrupt cops, into the films and he didn’t turn it into a bizarre sci-fi film with unrealistic technology. All of the villains were mellowed down and not larger than life characters. He used Arkam Asylum in a way that a real asylum is like. Many of my friends felt that the Microwave Emitter (a device that evaporates water in a certain radius; a key part in the ending of the film) was used too much and it was unrealistic. However, one unrealistic aspect compared to the rest of the film is pretty good.

Another great aspect of the movie is the screenplay, written by Christopher Nolan and his friend David S. Goyer. The first hour of the movie goes into flashbacks of the death of Bruce’s parents and the trial of their murderer. This gives tremendous depth and story that no Batman film had yet delivered. It isn’t a simple linear story that goes from Point A to Point B. There is more heart and feeling in the movie than in past adaptations, which is partly due to the acting as well.

Overall this is a great movie. Batman Begins has great action, great story, great acting, and great directing. If you have not seen it yet, make it the next movie you rent as well as The Dark Knight, which will be the next review.