In 7 words or less: How shall I fight crime? Batsuit!
What's it all About? After Bruce Wayne's parents are murdered, he finds himself travelling the globe and after receiving extensive combat training decides to go back to Gotham City, put on a black suit and confront crime head on as.....The Batman.
Best bits? There's a small spoiler here but I assume everyone who will read this has seen the film anyway. The bait and switch with Ken Watanabe supposedly playing the character of Ra's Al Ghul was nice as were the scenes whenever someone got spayed with The Scarecrows fear gas. A demonic looking Batman is fearsome and actually scary.
Did it make you think thoughts? This film should have been called Bruce Wayne Begins as we get so little of The Batman. He doesn't appear until an hour in and after that has little scene time. And when he does show his face it's a fat chubby face. I'm not really a fan of Bale and even though he's ok as Mr Wayne, when he dons the suit he just looks silly. Add in the laugh inducing, cringe worthy attempted gravel voice and, for me, the films biggest downfall is it's main protagonist. Not great. Katie Holmes is pointless and annoying and still looks like the 15 yr old girl she played on Dawson's Creek and Tom Wilkinson's yankee accent is sketchy. On the plus side, Cyllian Murphy as The Scarecrow is good fun, Michael Caine is great as beleaguered family butler Alfred,Gary Oldman is pretty solid as a Gotham copper and Morgan Freeman slots in nicely as Wayne's inside man with all the tech and gadget.
The word around Slumpy Towers is that The Chief is a hater of the Nolanverse Batman saga. This is not the case. Sure there are many things I don't like but at the end of the day it's a solid action adventure. Would it have worked without the eponymous 'Bat'? Yeah it would. It could just have easily been some kind of combat gear wearing vigilante. I suppose you can repost by saying that it was the start of the franchise and was never going to be a balls wild cape and cowl fest. Herein lies another issue I have. For me, the best super hero films are the ones that don't take themselves seriously but have a cheeky knowing nod to all things campish and jesty. Iron Man, The Avengers, yes even The Fantastic Four and the first couple of X-Men films all do this well. The world was obviously ready for a grim and gritty 'realistic' take on super heroes but not I. You have to remember we're dealing with a silly genre filled with silly names and silly costumes but I suppose Nolan probably did the best he could. At least the action is tight, the sets spectacular and the script (on the whole) is good. Ultimately Joe Public ate it up.
Worst bit? This had me cringing
Would you watch it again? Yeah. It might seem like I've trampled all over this but there is enough to like to warrant repeat views (in the event I can't find my copy of Burton's '89 version)
Rating (out of 100%): One of the main criticisms levelled at the recent Spider-man flick could also apply here. Did we really need another origin story. We all know Bruce Wayne's parents were murdered and then he chose to dress up as a creature of the night to fight crime. Maybe we do but an hours worth of build-up? No. Anyway, when the dust has settled I give give Batman Begins an over hyped but still enjoyable 80%
