Batman Begins (2005)

Batman Begins: Directed by Christopher Nolan. With Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Liam Neeson, Katie Holmes. After training with his mentor, Batman begins his fight to free crime-ridden Gotham City from corruption.

“Finally, after the previous 2 outings of the caped crusader, the Batman franchise is back on track. Having been a big comic collector over the years and a long time fan of the Dark Knight, I was especially disappointed by u0026#39;Foreveru0026#39; and u0026#39;Batman and Robinu0026#39;. To me, these film lost the essence of what drives Bruce Wayne to do what he does and turned Batman into more of a pop star than misunderstood hero.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThankfully though, Nolan has gone back to the roots of the character, portraying a confused and angry Bruce Wayne, who ultimately rises to become Gothamu0026#39;s greatest champion. Donu0026#39;t expect to see loads of shots of Batman in this film though. It is the story of Wayne and focuses mainly on his years of training and preparation for becoming Batman. You are almost teased throughout the first half of the movie, waiting to see the excellent Christian Bale in the costume, as it keeps holding back to keep you in anticipation. When Batman does finally turn up on screen, it is well worth the wait. In my opinion, Bale was born for this role and for the first time when watching a Batman film, I enjoyed the scenes of Wayne being Wayne as much as Wayne being Batman.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eOne of the strongest features of the film, is the way that it manges to suck you in believe that a u0026#39;Batmanu0026#39; could be a reality one day. The technology is current, with no use of silly OTT weapons and gadgets, again making the film work by todayu0026#39;s standards. Plus, we are not allowed to forget that Batman is still just a man under the costume and there are times when he gets a bit of a kicking and shows that he can be vulnerable too, something we sometimes forget when watching a superhero flick. Gone too, are the silly villains!!! Jack Nicholson was the perfect Joker but from there it went downhill. Thankfully, in this movie the bad guys are actually fairly u0026#39;normalu0026#39; and manage to be menacing at the same time.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eWhich finally brings me to the cast. I always had high expectations for this film when the cast was announced. Letu0026#39;s face it, what a line up! Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, Gary Oldman, Liam Neeson, Katy Holmes, Ken Watanabe and Tom Wilkinson are not to be sniffed at. Even an old favourite of mine makes an appearance: Rutger Hauer! Awesome. Actors of this calibre would never have gotten involved in this project if they didnu0026#39;t have faith in Christoper Nolanu0026#39;s talents and thankfully they took the leap…u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eFor the comic book fans out there, waiting to see this movie, let me assure you that you wonu0026#39;t be upset. Imagine the darkness of the u0026#39;A Death In The Familyu0026#39; and the u0026#39;Year Oneu0026#39; story lines. I have never met a fan of Batman who didnu0026#39;t love these books. Well, this is the kind of Batman you can expect from Bale: Dark, brooding and tortured by his past, yet the hero we have come to love. For those of you who are not comic fans, then just look forward to seeing how Batman should be. This film is a credit to Bob Kaneu0026#39;s original vision and a testament to all the talented artists and writers who keep the legend of the Dark Knight alive in the comic books today….u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThank you Mr. Nolan and thank you Mr. Bale. In fact thanks to everyone who worked on this film. Batman finally Begins from here….”