The action starts in an east Asian prison, where Bruce Wayne (Bale) is "exploring the criminal fraternity" according to a dapper, mysterious figure (Neeson) who appears and offers him a way out. He says he can give Wayne a chance to "devote yourself to an ideal". This suits Wayne, who "seeks a means to fight injustice, to turn fear upon those who prey on the fearful." Why is he so driven? Because, as we're shown in flashbacks, his childhood was destroyed by the slaying of his philanthropic parents (Roach and Stewart) by a random mugger in a Gotham City back alley.
Neeson's character, who calls himself Ducard, mentors Wayne, a man driven by anger but also naive and undisciplined. Ducard is involved with the League Of Shadows, a kind of Templar / Illuminati organisation that has worked as "a check against human corruption for thousands of years". Neeson gets a bit Jedi while recruiting Wayne, telling him, "Your anger gives you great power, but if you let it, it will destroy you". The training strengthens Wayne, hones his skills and philosophies. "To conquer fear you must become fear," Ducard tells him. And what is our hero most afraid of? Bats, after an encounter with them in childhood left him terrified and troubled by recurrent nightmares.
When Wayne finally returns to Gotham, to his family home and avuncular butler Alfred (Caine), he finds the city in a terrible state. According to Rachel (Holmes), a childhood friend of Wayne's who's now assistant district attorney, "this city is rotting", because of gang lord Falcone (an oddly cast Wilkinson) who "keeps the bad people rich and the good people scared".
With his new-found sense of purpose, Wayne vows to transform the city. But he won't be able to do it alone. One of the more considered elements of the film is how Wayne could realistically (well, realistically-ish) become Batman. Here, he amasses his arsenal, costume, kit and vehicle through his connections with his father's company, Wayne Enterprises. A former friend of his father, Lucius Fox (Freeman), has been buried in the Applied Sciences Division by the corporate-minded CEO Richard Earle (Hauer). It's through Fox that Wayne acquires his remarkable body armour, surveillance equipment and kit for enabling him to negotiate the alleys and rooftops of Gotham. Wayne also makes a connection with detective Jim Gordon (Oldman), one of the only straight cops in the Gotham police.
Here Batman is a figure of horror, designed to strike fear. One perennially interesting strain of the Batman mythology is the tension between Bruce Wayne and the dark Batman. Effectively, the real Bruce Wayne is the one who is subsumed into the "monster" he creates, while the playboy the public sees is a ruse, a feint.
At the core of Batman is a moral dilemma, and questions about the distinctions between justice and revenge. Wayne is motivated entirely by anger, but his thirst for vengeance is expressed by a desire to uphold the law, despite him bending it with his nocturnal activities. Here, Alfred is explicitly Wayne's moral compass, who keeps Bale's character a step away from being another American Psycho. Our hero also stays on the ethically straight-and-narrow through his association with the benign Fox, and both Rachel and Gordon, figures within the legal structure who remain uncorrupted. The fact that this interesting characterisation is framed within a suitably broody, handsome and dynamic film makes it all the better.
"The curse if lifted, but who cast blank slate Katie Holmes? The bottom line is Batman isn’t gay anymore but the homoerotic tradition lives on in Scarecrow. "
-- Victoria Alexander, FILMSINREVIEW.COM
"A fully formed Batman, fleshed out in a glossy veneer."
-- Boo Allen, DENTON RECORD CHRONICLE (TX)
3.5/4 "Strong writing, acting, directing. A surprisingly very strong film. You'll get your money's worth."
-- Ross Anthony, HOLLYWOOD REPORT CARD
A- "Dark, dazzling and engagingly original."
-- William Arnold, SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER
" Psychology of a Knight. Batman finally gets worthy back-story. "
-- Angela Baldassarre, SYMPATICO.CA
3/5 "There's nothing particularly wrong with Begins, but in a way, that's exactly what's wrong with it."
-- Josh Bell, LAS VEGAS WEEKLY
"Batman Begins is the kick-butt movie of the summer. It will lure you back to the multiplex to see it again."
-- Bob Bloom, JOURNAL AND COURIER (LAFAYETTE, IN)
3.5/5 "If not for "Spiderman," I would argue, there'd be no beginnings of Batman."
-- Jules Brenner (FC), VARIAGATE.COM
3.5/4 "Dismissing this as merely escapist entertainment would ignore the myriad adult themes that bulk up the picture, issues ranging from the duality of man to the politics of fear."
-- Matt Brunson, CREATIVE LOAFING
"They finally got it right."
-- Sean Burns, PHILADELPHIA WEEKLY
4/4 "The ne plus ultra of comic-book films...an appropriately tough movie, busy but efficient, rich and thoughtful, and ornamented with visual appeal and exciting action."
-- Peter Canavese, GROUCHO REVIEWS
A - "Nolan steadfastly refuses to turn this film into the special effects catastrophe it could so easily be."
-- Jim Chastain, NORMAN TRANSCRIPT
A "This film is serious, real, and most of all BELIEVABLE. This is both why the it's amazing and fails to elicit a "strong" emotional attachment. Almost too serious. "
-- Michelle Alexandria, ECLIPSE MAGAZINE
3/4 "Fortunately, the film's cruddy action sequences and over-reliance on fireballs and explosions do not diminish the rock-hard depiction of its central character."
-- Jeffrey M. Anderson, COMBUSTIBLE CELLULOID
8.5/10 "Tim Burton's Batman could probably lick Nolan's Batman Begins. But in a fight between Nolan's Batman and Burton's, I know who'd kick whose cape-draped ***. "
-- Tim Appelo, SEATTLE WEEKLY
'3.5/4' "The boy in the bestial batsuit is bigger and better than ever thanks to a dark veil of secrecy and the menacing genesis of family skeletons."
-- Jeanne Aufmuth, PALO ALTO WEEKLY
'2.5/4' "Offers much to admire, but it's shrouded in the pall of the comic book industry's hard-won 'respectability' ..."
-- John Beifuss, COMMERCIAL APPEAL (MEMPHIS, TN)
2.5/4 "The pragmatic reinvention...is countered by several equally pedestrian blunders that hold the film back as if Nolan and Goyer were standing on the back of Batman's cape."
-- Rob Blackwelder, SPLICEDWIRE
4/4 "Gothamly speaking - The Batman rules. The cast is like a checklist of talents; from Christian Bale, to Michael Caine, to GARY OLDMAN for crimeny!..."
-- Emily Blunt, BLUNT REVIEW
3.5/5 "Christopher Nolan's reinvention of the Dark Knight gives this fabled franchise a sturdy, stylish structure that should last for years."
-- Jeffrey Bruner, DES MOINES REGISTER
"(...) Se ubica en un muy digno punto intermedio entre el pasatiempo comercial promedio y el cine de autor hollywoodense (si es que algo así todavía existe)."
-- Enrique Buchichio, URUGUAY TOTAL
2.5/4 "This new Batman is thought-provoking, certainly, but rarely fun."
-- Robert W. Butler, KANSAS CITY STAR
3.5/5 "Batman Begins isn’t perfect, but it’s one heck of an improvement over the films in the past - and it’s a great way to welcome the DC heroes back to the silver screen."
-- Kevin Carr, 7M PICTURES
4/4 "It's all about fear and loathing, this high profile, big-budget product of a post-millennial United States--and it's about as good as it gets."
-- Walter Chaw, FILM FREAK CENTRAL
