Batman Begins

The dark knight has had a colourful past in visual mediums. Starting out on hilariously campy daytime TV shows the Bat emerged onto cinema screens in 1989 with Tim Burtons’ dark and wonderfully weird Batman. He followed it up with Batman Returns before leaving the series in the hands of Joel Schumacher, who went on to made the entertaining Batman Forever and the truly awful Batman and Robin, whose critical mauling ended the series. Now Bruce Wayne is back in hands of Christopher Nolan (Memento, Insomnia) and better than ever. While I did enjoy Tim Burtons Batman films, they often focused on the villains. Here Nolan returns as the title suggests to the origins of the character and re-imagines it. Sticking more closely to the original comic books this is Batman as you’ve never seen him before, dark, moody, scary and downright brilliant. This is a Batman film firmly rooted in a realistic world. Gotham city still exists as a degraded city of the night, full to the brim of corruption and evil. But rather than previous incarnations as a neon nightmare, this Gotham is industrial, rundown and derelict, and much more believable for it. Similarly Batman is very human in this. He has no special powers, except those of concentration and dedication and Nolan meticulously maps out Bruce Wayne’s transformation into Batman in a new and exciting way. Unlike a lot of superhero movies where you have to suspend your disbelief, here it makes sense. This Batman you can understand. How his fear and anger manifest themselves in this form. How he hides from the world in a mask. Bruce Wayne is an anti-hero, he’s not on anyone’s side except his own – and while he fights for justice, he doesn’t necessarily do it in a ‘just’ way. Christian Bale is perfect as Batman and Bruce Wayne, and is surrounded by loads of great actors whose performances also elevate this film above all the recent superhero films – even Spiderman and X-Men. The movie is wonderfully designed, has a superb atmospheric soundtrack and works on every level. The villains that are here work perfectly in the setting, the plot is clever and never does the movie talk down to the audience. This is the most adult superhero film yet and is all the better for it. The film is slower than some may expect, for the first half at least it is a character study, but when Nolan cranks up the action he does it masterfully with a breathless ending that leaves you wanting more. The Special effects also deserve a mention for being seamlessly integrated and unobtrusive. Overall this film has it all, it is touching, funny and exciting. It is also dark and moody and in taking a radical departure from the other Batman films the series has seen a revival. The movie perfectly sets up further movies and I for one can’t wait. Batman Begins is not to be missed. Dark and mysterious, this is the Batman people have been waiting for. Rooted in reality and brilliantly constructed this is one of the greatest comic book films ever and a brilliant opening chapter to an ongoing saga.