Batman Begins Review
3.5/4 Stars
A Spellbinding and Effectively Creepy Thriller
Superhero movies are usually a favorite amongst many. What is it about them though that we love? Is it their sentimental romances? Their important messages about life? The importance of good vs. evil? Hell no! It's about the enthralling adventure and the bad-ass hero who saves the town. Not saying those other themes I mentioned aren't important, but that is, for the most part, what draws us in. Now, I personally am not very acquainted with comics and superhero movies. However, from the huge frenzy my friends and family seemed to be in about it, I decided to give Batman a try. And you know what? I couldn't be happier I did. This isn't some ordinary, all fighting superhero movie; it's a very complex, well-acted, and highly absorbing action thriller that knows what it's doing. Here is the plot outline:
We learn of a kid named Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) who is the son of a very wealthy and powerful couple in Gotham City. One night the family was attending a play, when Bruce asks his parents to take him out of the theater because of the many people dressed as bats on stage, which he has hated since he fell in a hole and they swarmed around him. As Bruce and his parents are standing outside a desperate man walks over and pulls a gun on them, demanding the father's wallet. He obeys and gives it up, but the mugger decides to shoot the parents anyway. Bruce is left an orphan. Many years later, he is trying to avenge his parents by doing justice to criminals, but gets an invitation to an order which fights for justice by a mysterious man, Ducard, (Liam Neeson) who visits him in the asian prison Bruce is in. He accepts and escapes the prison, to make it to the top of the mountain ways away which is the headquarters. He is soon to discover that this orders vision of justice includes exucution, which he is not comfortable with. He flees the order, yet saving Ducard from the fire that was resulted from him trying to get out of there. He then goes back to Gotham City and assumes his parents business, corporations, and house. Quickly realizing the corrupt ways of the city because of crime, he and his house servant Alfred (Michael Caine), decide to take matters into their own hands and make Bruce a masked vigilante, eventually called Batman. With his long time love interest Rachel (Katie Holmes), his friendly partner who provides him his gadgets, Lucius (Morgan Freeman), Officer Jim Morgan (Gary Oldman), against the evil doctor Crane (Cillian Murphy), and a bigger threat which threatens to destroy him and Gotham City altogether.
A huge round of applause for the director Christopher Nolan, who not only proves himself a great director, but that even comics can have surprising depth if you dig deep enough. I have to say Batman really opened my eyes to remind me that I can't rule out certain movies just because they don't seem like my type, because this film blew me away and I was never that intent on seeing it in the first place. Well, tomorrow hopefully I'll finish up Dark Knight and go buy the Dark Knight Rises because I know I'm going to be dying to see the final installment of this series. Oh, and this movie doesn't seem to have an official tagline, but my suggestion would be "What are You Afraid of?"