Lets get his out the way first, I loved the original Batman film with Val Kilmer and Jack Nicholson, but Batman begins does a fairly better job by focusing more on Bruce Wayne and his reintroduction to Gotham City after his absence, and in building relationships with those around him, i.e. relations with his butler Alfred, city attorny Rachel Dawes, Jim gordon the future commisioner and Lucius Fox.
This take on the dark knight means you feel pain when Batman gets hit, and you feel the tension when Batman is in a tightspot or against the clock, i.e. when he needs to get rachel back to the cave to administer anti-venom.
Which brings me onto to my next part, the gadgets :D. We all know Batman has gadgets for every ocassion (bat-repellent chark spray anyone?), well if you loved him using loads
of gadgets you might be a little dissapointed. As i stated earlier the focus on the film is the relationships Bruce/Batman and as such the gadgets take a bit of back seat. Once again the film builds on Batman as being human, not a super. There are some very notable gadgets and gizmos he uses though that will please fans (I won't mention here just to keep the fun in them).
Usually in this sort of film you have a larger than life super villain for the hero to face off against (Batman: The joker, Fantastic Four: Dr Doom etc), however the writers have decided to have the villains play minor roles and not be prodominent through out the film, you get your usually end of film brawl, but the villain is not shoved in the viewers face for the full 140 minutes.
Like all films, this needed the right sort of cast (otherwise we might of had an american red dwarf :S), which thankfully for the most part, work very well for this film. Christian Bale does an excellent job of playing a red blooded multi-millionaire thats hiding a secret identity (like while he is at the resturant with a few "friends"), he is also able to throw himself into the role of the confident and mysterious Batman despite the opposite of the characters. Michael Cain as Alfred works suprisingly well, he manages to create a new kind of Alfred that is slightly playful with his wit and character towards certain situations, its also apparant the chemistry between Bale and Cain is outstanding, it works as though is the way Bruce and Alfred would be. The choice of Katie Holmes as Rachel Dawes did suprise me, she doesn't seem to have enough of a rough persona to play an attorny in Gotham City, her general appearance is good as a object of Bruces feelings (you can believe that Bruce Wayne would fall for a woman that looks like her) however her mannerisms and characteristics didn't fit the character that well, but it still worked to a certain extent.
Lighting is what you would expect, bright and colourful for the outdoor scenes, dark and dismil for shots in gotham city. Praise goes to the choices for the set designs as they were able to a "colourful" city that seems vibrant and alive even in the darkest of shadows. Musical score fits well with the film, keeping in tone and emotion to the scenes they are in, drawing the audience even more into the fictional world of Gotham.
As far as action goes, its kept sparse and well placed in the film. I agree with the way in which this was done, as the film (as i mentioned before numerous times) is about the relationships around Bruce, and too much action could deter the main focus of the film. When the action does turn up it turns up in true Batman style, like when Batman first goes out on the prowl in his full costume. Stunts are well choreographed and designed, giving excellent action and seat gripping scenes.
In summary this is a great prelude of films to come, it has setup Bruce/Batman as a human character and his relationships with those around him, and now allows future films to delve a little deeper into the characters whilst allowing for more action and bigger stunts.
Overall - 9/10
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Production Year: 2008 - Action/Adventure - Director: Christopher Nolan - Original Language: English - Classification: 12 years and over - Starring:Maggie Gyllenhaal, Aaron Eckhart, Morgan Freeman, Heath Ledger, Gary Oldman, Christian Bale, Michael Caine
Production Year: 1964 - Action/Adventure - Director: Cyril Endfield - Original Language: English - Classification: Parental Guidance - Starring:Stanley Baker, Jack Hawkins, Ulla Jacobsson, James Booth, Michael Caine, Nigel Green
Action/Adventure - Director: The Wachowski Brothers - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring:Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss, Hugo Weaving, Monica Bellucci, Jada Pinkett
Production Year: 2002 - Action/Adventure - Director: Vincenzo Natali - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring:Lucy Liu, David Hewlett, Anne Marie Scheffler, Joseph Scoren, Matthew Sharp, Jeremy Northam
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Jul 10th, 2007
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