Dir: Christopher Nolan
Starring: Christian Bale, Liam Neeson, Michael Cane
Synopsis: The legend of Batman had to start somewhere, somehow. Batman Begins charts the events that lead to the billionaire Bruce Wayne beginning his double life as Gotham's most successful businessman and its misunderstood hero.
Verdict: With The Dark Knight Rises only a few weeks away from release, this is the first of a build up to that event, to be followed shortly by the review for The Dark Knight.
The first thing to be said for Nolans latest offering of the Batman story is the dramatic change in style. We're used to the camp-ness of the 60's Batman, and the surreal world of Gotham created by Tim Burton and continued by Joel Schumacher still holds on to vestiges of that silliness. Nolan's re-imagining is instantly darker, less OTT and a lot more serious and believable.
From a Gotham inhabited by genetically altered super-villains, fantastic architecture and a hero with muscles built into his suit (including nipples), we have come to a Gotham that is much like any major city, with organised crime at its centre and a new style of Batman as its protector.
Where we were once used to Batman having a video-phone in his Batmobile with a direct line to Commisioner Gordon, he is now a vigilante who is, 'officially', hunted by the police and, with this simple twist on the narrative, his character is changed from hero to anti-hero.
The story itself still clings to the unbelievable that is a requirement of comic-book movies. The gadgets, the new Tumbler Batmobile, the science behind the evil master-plan is all straight out of the pages of a comic, but wrapped up in a far more believable guise than turning a telescope into a freeze ray (Batman and Robin).
Christian Bale provides us with a good new Batman/Bruce Wayne, although the deep, gravelly voice he adopts as the caped crusader to disguise his true identity is a bit off, his performance is otherwise good and, though people may disagree with me on this, Michael Cane as the new Alfred is better than Michael Gough's, due in part to sarcasm, wit, and that his character isn't as doddery as Gough's portrayal of the billionaires butler.
Gary Oldman also stars as Lieutenant Gordon (which means we get to chart his progress through the police ranks) and lives up to his reputation as a great actor with his performance of the tough and honest cop who cautiously trusts the masked Batman to help clean up the street of the City.
It is also noteworthy to add that the idea of Wayne developing his gear himself is now out of the window, with the introduction to the films of Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman), a scientist with Wayne Enterprises R&D Department who has much of the gadgets pre-existing and mothballed in the basement of the company.
The special effects used in the film also add to the overall experience. Without giving too much away, the use of CGI to creating terrifying images and play on the theme of fear throughout the film works really well which, coupled with the hard FX used in chase and fight sequences, do a lot to progress the movie.
While this imaging is short lived (DKR being the last film Nolan will make in the series before another re-invention of the franchise to play into a rumoured Justice League), it is proving to be a brilliantly popular incarnation of the DC Comics hero, largely due to it's superb direction and his vision of a darker Gotham.
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