Woah! Good film!

Actually, I don’t know why I’m surprised. Christopher Nolan has impressed me with his first three films (Following, Memento and his remake of Insomnia which, although not as good as the original, still worked well) but what surprises me is how, well, good Batman Begins is. I mean really good. And intelligent. And adult (erm… as far as a Batman film goes!)

Primarily I think it works because it does fill in the gaps that other Batman stories always missed or glossed over. How does he get to be Batman? I don’t mean about the killing of his parents, but what happened between then and him taking to the streets in a cape and a mask. The origins of Spiderman and Superman were always well founded but while we know what event caused Bruce Wayne to become Batman, we never saw how he got his skills and his toys because, let’s face it, he hasn’t got any powers to speak of.

But, and this is important, Batman Begins doesn’t just deal with where he got his gear from, but also with Bruce Wayne’s internal conflict and how his sense of revenge is replaced by a sense of justice. It explains more fundamental things like why he will not kill. It shows the human side of Batman (for example, the “morning after” scene where he’s still in bed and covered in bruises after taking on a load of perps the night before) and how, although he’s a one man army, he actually relies on other people to help.

Christian Bale gives a great performance of Bruce Wayne/Batman and is far more believable than any of his predecessors (mostly because of the striking difference between his “millionaire playboy” portrayal of Bruce Wayne juxtoaposed against the moody and sombre presentation of the Dark Knight but also probably something to do with a good physique, Aryan looks and a very strong chin) and he is ably supported by a wonderfully strong supporting cast (although I was slightly dubious of Michael Caine’s accent - looks like Alfred the butler originally came from Walford!) Katie Holmes is suprisngly strong as Rachel Dawes, Wayne’s childhood friend and assistant D.A. for Gotham City. I had heard that this was the relationship between Bruce and Rachel was the weakest part of the film and perhaps it was but I thought it worked well and grounded Bruce’s character as someone who wasn’t a loner and wasn’t entirely independent.

Special mention should go to Cillian Murphy for a terrifically freaky turn as Dr Johnathan Crane, aka Scarecrow, the insane doctor who uses a special fear inducing neurotoxin as his weapon. The character was underused but it would be nice to see him come back and play a bigger part in a future sequel (although I can’t quite imagine how much mileage you can get out of his character). Although I’m disappointed that Scarecrow was underused, this was Batman’s film and was the first Batman film where the hero didn’t play second fiddle to the villain. A sensible choice.

The screenplay was by David S. Goyer, the man responsible for both penning and directing the lamentable Blade: Trinity. Now here’s a man with ups and downs on his CV. Kickboxer 2 and Crow: City of Angels followed by Dark City and Blade (followed by Blade: Trinity and the TV Movie “Puppet Master vs Demonic Toy”) I mean, what’s all that about? Fortunately, he had good material to work with on Batman Begins as it’s a very good version of the graphic novel, Batman: Year One by Frank Millar. It isn’t a fantastic screenplay - the theme of fear is hammered into our brains all the way through, just to make sure we get it, but it follows the recent successes of X-Men and Spiderman in giving us more character driven moments than just pure action and effects.

Concerning action, this is a weak point of Nolan’s directing. I felt a little let down by the action sequences, and although they tended to convey a sense of stealth and cunning, when there was a scene that contained a battle we wanted to see, it felt restricted and static and didn’t really excite me. But that’s a minor fault compared to all the things that did work.

I hope that Warner Bros don’t fumble the ball on this one. Fox have had it good with two successful Marvel franchises in recent years and it’s about time that Warner Bros make amends for the travesties of the two Joel Schumacher visions of the Dark Knight by keeping the cast and director intact for any sequel.