Several years after the murder of his parents, the young Bruce Wayne disappears from Gotham on a soul searching journey. As he travels around the world he gains the skills, both physical and mental, which will help in his attempt to get revenge. When her returns to Gotham, he sets about creating his alter ego, Batman. With the assistance of this trusted butler, Alfred, and his newly found ally, Lucius Fox, the caped crusader is born. A man who uses his strength, brains and a whole host of high-tech gadgets to strike fear into the hearts of the criminals of Gotham.
After the last run of Batman films, which went from initially being good to absolute dire, I approached this latest incarnation with much hesitation. Too say that I was pleasantly surprised is an understatement. Gone are the comical characters and unbelievable plots, and replacing them is some very deep characters and a brilliant plot. The whole film feels more real, although still with that little bit of fantasy which makes the film exciting. What is particularly good is the way that it fills in the gaps between the deaths of Bruce's parents and when he becomes the caped crusader. It also shows how he learnt to be such a formidable fighter, and the special bond between him and his butler Alfred. This is a much darker film that its recent predecessors and thankfully dispenses with the outrageous characters (Mr. Freeze for example) and has also dispensed with the cliché ridden acting and dialogue.
The main star of the film is Christian Bale (Captain Corelli's Mandolin) as Bruce Wayne/ Batman. In reality he is actually playing 3 characters in the film. Firstly, there is Bruce Wayne, the disillusioned traveler in search of himself and the knowledge and skills to gain revenge, in desperate need of guidance.
Next we have Bruce Wayne when he returns from his travels and is thrown back into the empire and life he inherited. None of it interests him and it becomes a burden as he has to put up the façade of actually enjoying it. Finally we have Christian Bale as Batman, the vigilante in search of vengeance. This is the most tactile Batman I have seen, as he has more of an animal instinct about him and a very sinister side to his character. All in all Bale has done a remarkable job of creating a new Bruce Wayne and Batman which is more realistic than those portrayed by George Clooney, Michael Keaton and Val Kilmer.
In a supporting role is Michael Caine (The Italian Job) as the loyal butler Alfred. Too be honest the character of Alfred is more of a substitute father figure than a servant, who disperses little pearls of wisdom. Caine was a surprising choice for the role of Aflred, but carries it off with remarkable ease. Through the performances of Bale and Caine you can really see the special bond between the two characters, and I would imagine this carried on off of the set.
A new character in this film is Lucius Fox played by Morgan Freeman (The Shawshank Redemption). Fox was on the board of Wayne Corporation when Bruce's father was in charge, but was demoted to the depths of the corporation when it came under new management. In his new position he is in charge of a wealth of high-tech gizmo's which would make James Bond jealous. Freeman brings his trademark charisma to the role and provides another wise head to assist and guide the young Bruce Wayne.
The rest of the supporting is absolutely magnificent and I could have expanded this review to detail all of them. But with the likes of Liam Neeson, Gary Oldman, Katie Holmes, Tom Wilkinson, Rutger Hauer, Linus Roache and Cillian Murphy you will not be disappointed by any of them.
The film is directed by Christopher Nolan, who had previously directed Insomnia. My hat goes off to Nolan for resurrecting Batman from the dire previous outings. It is down to his brilliant direction and the writing of David S. Goyer that has made this film so good. The film is really on an epic scale, with scenes of Wayne traveling through what looks like Thailand, to his martial arts training in a monastery high up in the mountains, back to the modern Gotham city and the stately Wayne mansion/ bat cave. Each location is steeped in detail and provides a beautiful backdrop for the film. He has also explained through the story how the bat cave was created. I always wondered how the secret location came about. I cannot emphasise enough what a great job Nolan has done in creating a pacey movie, with plenty of action and drama without loosing focus on the story.
A special mention should go to the set creators, as they have done a brilliant job of creating a realistic Gotham City which could easily be mistake for New York. For me it is even more amazing as they created Gotham City just up from me at some huge airship hangers. Of course there has been a lot of CGI used in the film but it all looks very convincing and you really cannot tell the difference between real life and CGI.
= The Cast =======
Christian Bale .... Bruce Wayne/Batman Michael Caine .... Alfred Liam Neeson .... Henri Ducard Katie Holmes .... Rachel Dawes Gary Oldman .... Jim Gordon Morgan Freeman .... Lucius Fox Cillian Murphy .... Dr. Jonathan Crane Tom Wilkinson .... Carmine Falcone Rutger Hauer .... Earle Ken Watanabe .... Ra's Al Ghul Mark Boone Junior .... Flass Linus Roache .... Thomas Wayne
*****************************======= Bonus Material =============
The DVD extras are very good as they cover everything from the initial concept, casting the characters, creation of the sets, the new bat mobile, the stunts, the high tech gadgetry and the use of CGI. All of these give a great insight into how the movie was made. The downer is the way they are presented on the DVD. They appear on the second disc and are in a form of a comic strip which you step through. In each frame of the strip is one of the extra's but it is not always that easy to find them, as there are extra features such as a profile on one of the gadgets. Too be honest I am still not sure if I have discovered them all. Also on disc 1 is the theatrical trailer, but no audio commentary.
Below are the features as listed on the cover
- Theatrical Trailer - Inner Demons Comic - Batman The Journey Begins - Shaping Mind And Body - Batman The Tumbler - Gotham City Rises - Saving Gotham City - Genesis Of The Bat - Confidential Files
*****************************======================= The Message & Christian View Point =============================
An important message in the film is what is the difference between revenge and justice? Originally the driving force behind Batman was to get revenge, but as he grows he is more focused on stopping injustice, as revenge would only make him the same as his parent's killers. It's all to easy to think of revenge when we have suffered at the hands of someone else, but it is much harder to rise above it and not lower yourself to your perpetrators standards.
This is a great interpretation of the Batman theme, which is a huge improvement on the previous efforts. In Batman Begins we get a great story, decent characters with depth, brilliant performances, stunning locations, plenty of action, brilliant CGI and brilliant special effects, what more can you ask for. Fans of super hero movies will love this, but it will also appeal to a much wider audience as it is a very good action thriller in it's own right..
Batman Begins is only £9.97 on Amazon, which for a brilliant film and a load of bonus material, is a very reasonable price.
*****************************= Trivia =======
- The sets were built in the Admiralty Hangar No. 2, one of the largest hangars in the world. The floor area is the size of 16 Olympic-size swimming pools. - Courtesy of IMDB
- During the interviews he performed to promote the movie, Christian Bale continued using the American accent he'd adopted to play Bruce Wayne/Batman. He explained that he didn't want potential moviegoers to be confused about why Batman, an American institution, was being played by a Welshman. - Courtesy of IMDB
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Batman Beginsdiscards the previous four films in the series and recasts the Caped Crusader ... more
as a fearsome avenging angel. That's good news, because the series, which had gotten off to a rousing start under Tim Burton, had gradually dissolved into self-p...
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Feb 15th, 2006
(Apr 13th, 2006)
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