Batman Retrospective Review Part 6: Batman Begins

Welcome to part 6 of my retrospective review. If this is the first of my retrospective that you've read please check out part 1 before continuing. Also I apologize since I mentioned this review would be up yesterday. I had problems with my connection. It shouldn't be a problem anymore and my Dark Knight review will be up tomorrow morning while my Dark Knight Rises review will be up either tomorrow evening or Saturday morning.

Anyway let's continue with a look at the start of what is already being considered one of the greatest film trilogies of all time.

HISTORY

After the flop that executives refered to as Batman and Robin, the Batman franchise was put on the backburner as they decided how to continue it. Several ideas were thrown around including a team up with Superman and a proposed Justice League movie. The only thing that was certain was that this would be a new Batman in a new continuation. Finally it was decided to present a story, inspired by the graphic novel Batman: Year One, that the story would follow a young Bruce Wayne and show the steps he would take to eventually becoming the legendary Dark Knight. In a move similar to what they did with the original Batman movie they hired a director who had no real experience working on a big budget blockbuster (in this case Christopher Nolan) and it gave us an incredibly talented cast in the form of Micheal Caine, Gary Oldman, and Morgan Freeman.

The interesting thing about this movie corresponds with my last review for Catwoman. That movie was released in 2004 while this movie was released in 2005. Since Catwoman was set in the old Batverse it meant that if Catwoman was entering a franchise then there would be no way Nolan could use Catwoman in future installments (we know this wasn't the case but I'm wondering what they were planning).

Anyway with this being the predecessor to one of the greatest comic book movies of all time, does it still hold up? let's find out.

1) THE PLOT

Batman Begins follows Bruce Wayne through his life from a young boy watching his parents getting killed to his first adventure as Batman. In this story get a rather detailed look into Bruce's motivations making this more than just a revenge tale.

What I like about this plot is that it gives us the ability to see a more human Batman (how come we could see a human side to Superman in the 70's but we waited this long to see that side of Batman). Most of this plot deals strongly on the performance of the lead man so I won't get too deep into that until later but I will say that the second half seems to get a bit clumsy in terms of what we've seen in the first half. The first half takes a good amount of time to set up the conflict and present the tone in a unique way but the second half seemed like they wanted to get Bruce into the cowl A.S.A.P. and gave us a more traditional superhero story that feels out of place from the rest of the movie. It's still a lot of fun but that can get to be a problem at times.

2) THE HERO

Our hero once again is Bruce Wayne/Batman but this time played by Christian Bale. From the very moment we see this new actor in the film we could tell that this wasn't the same Bruce played by the likes of Keaton, Kilmer, Clooney, and Conroy. This is a Bruce who's very unsure about himself or what he wishes to do in the wake of his parent's death. This is something I liked as he loses the desire for revenge pretty early on (that option was taken away quickly) and instead they found a way to rather ingeniously cause his motivations to be in a way honor his parent's legacy. I still say that Keaton had the best Batman of them all but Bale was certainly the best Bruce, and from what I could gather out of all the live action actors he was the closest to the comics (a friend of mine who reads the comics a lot pointed out that he's supposed to have the raspy voice in the comics). With that being said he doesn't have the same kind of intimidating presence that Keaton had and the voice does just ask to be mocked but he still does a terrific job in the role.

3) THE VILLAIN

Even though this movie is supposed to simply follow Bruce as he transforms into Batman, we do get a villain in the second half of the movie in the form of Jonathan Crane/Scarecrow played by Cillian Murphy. This is one of those casting choices that's just absolutely perfect. Murphy brings a geniusly corrupt and manipulative villain that manages to even make the mob boss Falcone (who basically runs Gotham) cower in fear at his presence. Definitally the first time we had a villain other than the Joker in these movies that I could consider truly great.

Now there's a second villain that plays a major role toward the end of the movie and I debated if I should talk about this villain but I decided not to because there seems to be a good amount of people who haven't seen this movie and I don't want to spoil it (I know several Batman fans that either never saw this movie or who only saw it after the Dark Knight). Just know that this is an incredible development that will cause major nerdgasms in anyone who sees it.

4) SUPPORTING CAST

Where this movie truly shines above the previous movies is the supporting cast. Both Alfred and Gordon are legitimate characters with their own major points to the story. I'm currently debating which Alfred I like the best, Gough or Caine, it's a fact that this movie has the best Gordon in the form of Oldman (just try and explain how any Gordon could beat Oldman). Lucius Fox makes an appearance in this movie played by Morgan Freeman who, well, plays Morgan Freeman. Henri Ducard is also featured in this movie as Bruce's mentor in his global training and provides a father like figure to Bruce early on.

Again I didn't include a love interest in a separate category because the interest Racheal Dawes, played by Katie Holmes, acts more like a role model for girls then to be a legitimate character. It's nice how she does things in the movie but she needs more development to compete with Pfieffer.

5) FINAL VERDICT

All in all this is a movie any Batman fan should see. Several fans on this site claim they enjoyed this movie over the Dark Knight and I can see why, but I don't agree. It's a bit clumsy with the second half and while the action is exciting you could tell this was Nolan's first time with a big budget action movie. So I say you'll definitally enjoy it but watch it for yourself and see how it compares with the sequel.

So there's my review of Batman Begins. like if you liked it and comment below on your thoughts on the movie. And please tune in tomorrow for my final retrospective review for the Dark Knight.