I am sure most of you have been waiting for or at least heard of this little summer movie that has opened in theatres called Batman Begins. Well I am here to tell you that you would NOT be wasting your money if you decided this was a movie on your must see list. In fact it would be worth it if you were able to see it on the IMAX screen in your area, depending on whether or not it is available. I took my wife to see this movie Friday night. We arrived an hour before showtime and the dedicated and sometimes scary fans of the comic had already beaten us to the front of the line. Lucky for us the movie opened on a wednesday night when most of the die hard fans come dressed up in the Batman costumes to see the Caped Crusader.
With anticipation and high expectations for the fith installment of the Batman Franchise we enter the theatre and spot the good seats about halfway up and just to the right of center (in case of a bathroom break). With 12,000 watts of raw unadulterated power and a digital projection the movie began.
Now for those of you who don't read daily the news of what is going on in the Movie world like I do, this is the reinvention of the Batman story told by David S Goyer and directed by Chris Nolan. First off I tip my hat (if I wore one) to these guys for finally getting it right. This is the way Batman's story was always meant to be told; RAW AND GRITTY. This is a man who has some definite baggage and with it some pyschologically issues to boot. Nolan and Goyer have captured this side of our hero beautifully, allowing us to see the inner struggle this man has on the journey to becoming that which all criminals will ultimately fear. In previous versions of Batman we have seen what big budgets do to a story as the producers and powers that be "conjure" up with what they think we want to see. Now don't get me wrong my brother and I had the 1989 version memorized to a tea and even perform scenes from the movie to my family, and we thought it was the best thing since the slip and slide, but as I got older and came to understand a little more about batman and the film industry I understood a little of my disillusionment of the movie and the horrors that followed called Batman Forever and Batman and Robin. What Joel Shumacher was thinking I would love to know! Sorry I digress, back to the real deal.
This Batman is the one that most who understand the mythos will come to love and hold as the standard that all batman movies should live up to. Sure there was a few flaws here and there but nothing but nitpicky things that most people won't catch or even care about. I would not recommend this movie for younger viewers due to the scary images and mild violence throughout the movie. Including a young Bruce Wayne watching his parents being taken from him by a thug in the streets. I will say that anyone who has sat through the later of the 90's editions will breath a sigh of relief and gratitude for making us Batman fans happy.
What I liked about he film besides the story is the extremely talented and diverse cast including Christian Bale, Katie Holmes, Michael Cainc, Morgan Freeman, Liam Neeson, Gary Oldman, Cilian Murphhy, Ken Watanabe, and Tom Wilkinson. The fact that all these names signed on to something that had the potential to be another neon colored fiasco shows that the script has to be worth their time, and it was. I have heard news that they have already agrees to make a sequel and I will be one of the first in line to see what villains Nolan decides to tackle next. Doing a great job with the Scarcrow and Ra's al Ghul in this film. I would love to see the evolution of some of Batman's gadgets and maybe even the batmobile. While I loved the fact that it could crush pretty much anything in its path, the batmobile's aesthetics have always had a clean line dating back to the 60's tv series. However, I do applaud Nolan's attempt to keep things based on reality, but if you can have a weapon that makes water into steam with using magetic waves with three tiered subway stations running through the city then you can have a little cooler looking ride.
With all that said, please pay the money to see the movie so that we will have to pleasure to see more! 4 1/2 out of 5 stars.