BATMAN BEGINS is a substantial recovery from the cod piece extravagances our Dark Knight endured at the hands of Joel Schumacher. While the new film works with a more realistic approach and deeper characterizations, director Christopher Nolan's style (or lack thereof) makes us wish he at least kept some of Tim Burton's Gotham in the translation.
As you can tell from the title, this is the film that shows us how Batman got started. The film opens about as far away from Gotham City as you can reasonably get. Billionaire Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) has dropped out of society to search the world for adeeper understanding. The knowledge he seeks has todo with the criminal world and the fear they wield. Wayne's motivation is simple... revenge.
The tragedy that sparked this journey is one familiar to even the most casual Batman fan. Bruce Wayne's parents were murdered by a street thug (not Jack Nicholson). Hungry for revenge but too afraid to walk down the path, Wayne finds himself in the Himalayas. Lost and without direction.
Enter Ducard (Liam Neeson). Ducard recognizes Wayne in a Bhutanese jail and identifies with his pain. He takes Wayne to study with Ra's Al Ghul (Ken Watanabe). There Wayne is schooled how to master his fears and use them to punish wrongdoers. It's almost what he wanted. Ra's' League of Shadows turns out to be a little too vengeful for Wayne's taste. In a fiery disagreement, Wayne leaves the League of Shadows and returns to Gotham City. There he will put his newly developed skills to the test and, in honor of his father's philanthropic past, save Gotham from its underbelly.
This is the first act of BATMAN BEGINS and it lasts for the better part of 45 minutes. As the film goes on, you realize its almost a separate movie unto itself. The training sequences are mysterious and intense. They are helped by Liam Neeson in his best Qui-Gon Jinn role yet. The fight scenes whet our appetites for Batman's coming scenes. Unfortunately, as staged by Nolan, these early fights are the only time we'll actually be able to "see" any of the moves. I'll rant about that in a moment.
Wayne returns to Gotham with the intention of giving the city a symbol for good. A symbol that will also strike fear in the city's criminals. Helped by his father figure butler Alfred (Michael Caine) and a Wayne Enterprises' loyalist, Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman), Wayne begins the process of making Batman a reality. The sequences where Bruce picks out his gear (including a tank version of the Batmobile) are thoroughly entertaining in a "boys and toys" kind of way. It also offers some much needed levity to BATMAN BEGINS. From here on out, things get pretty dark (as they should).
Crime kingpin Carmine Falcone (Tom Wilkinson) and Dr. Jonathan Crane (Cillian Murphy) are up to no good at Arkham Asylum. Dr. Crane (soon to be known as The Scarecrow) is also playing with fear. He has created a toxin that makes the victim experience their darkest nightmares. It is a plague Crane and his employer plan to unleash on Gotham. There may even be more sinister forces at work behind this scheme. Someone from Bruce Wayne's past.Crane's poisonous gas provides some disturbing visuals. Whenever Crane gasses someone, he pulls on a canvas mask that intensifies their hallucinations (hence the Scarecrow moniker). His face becomes an undulating mass of worms. His voice becomes a devil's growl. There are still scarier visions whenever Batman enters a victim's view. One, in particular, will keep the kids up for a few nights.
Fear is a running theme throughout BATMAN BEGINS and it is a theme Nolan plays well. One of the best realized moments is the horror film experiences Falcone's thugs go through when they first encounter Batman. Nolan stages the sequence with boogeyman flashes of the Bats as he swoops out of darkness to claim his victims. The thugs even inch toward their doom like they were in a slasher film. This is a crucial element of Batman mythology. Batman is someone who inspires terror in criminals. It is appropriate that their first meeting with him go down like they met a monster.
Once the fear is established, however, Nolan should have refrained from mere glimpses. He should have pulled the camera back and let us see Batman in action. That we never really see our hero is a major failing of BATMAN BEGINS (and dark lighting isn't the only thing to blame here).
The flash cutting in the fight scenes doesn't help either. We have the same "what the hell am I looking at?" editing style that marred THE BOURNE SUPREMACY and a lot of other recent action films. It's almost as if Nolan, realizing that action wasn't his strong suit, decided to cover up in editing and this is exactly how it comes off.
A greater sin is Gotham City's utter lack of character. Here Nolan could have taken a page out of Tim Burton's book. Gotham comes off as a hodge-podge of looks. An afterthought. Part CG / part Chicago, the different elements never gel. The projects of Gotham (called the Narrows) look like they're from some Depression era while everything else looks like standard location work.<!--page-->
There's also (once again) too many villains in BATMAN BEGINS. The plot to spread fear through Gotham is intrinsically a Scarecrow plot. To tie it in with Ra's Al Ghul requires some shoehorning that doesn't become that character. It also short changes Scarecrow and Falcone, two villains dispatched for the sake of time just as they were getting interesting. Since the Ra's Al Ghul section of the film already feels like a separate piece, the primary baddies would have been better served if they were spread out over two films. Fortunately, unlike the Joel Schumacher festivals, too many villains doesn't keep us from getting to know Bruce Wayne. A great deal of these insights are due to David Goyer's fleshed out script (perhaps a little too fleshed out - this story could have used some snipping). BATMAN BEGINS garners its true strength from the performances.
Christian Bale is perfectly disturbed as Bruce Wayne/Batman. He even plays the billionaire playboy with a well placed wink.
Michael Caine is the best Alfred in the series. His dedication is more than duty deep and his wry sense of humor is much appreciated.
Cillian Murphy can do creepy better than anyone in recent memory. Too bad his character is shoved aside by the villain heavy script.
I could go on forever since BATMAN BEGINS' cast is stacked with top of the line talent (Liam Neeson, Gary Oldman, Morgan Freeman, Tom Wilkinson, Ken Watanabe, Rutger Hauer). The only weak link is Katie Holmes and this has nothing to do with her performance. In yet another Hollywood attempt to graft a love interest where it doesn't belong, the character of Rachel Dawes barely serves any function. To justify her being there, the character is given redundant business. Nothing she contributes isn't already offered by Caine's Alfred or Oldman's Lt. Gordon. Holmes tries her best.
Despite its many flaws, BATMAN BEGINS is engaging enough to make you curious about the next installment. When the audience applauds the set up for a sequel, you realize BATMAN BEGINS has satisfied its primary function... to re-energize a franchise. In the current climate of bland "re-imaginings", that counts for something.
You can access media from the movie in our database and view photos of the premiere on this page.
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