Movie #115 - Batman Begins

"Beginning in Summer 2005."

In my opinion, this is definitely one of the best films from 2005 and probably one of the most underrated. Many fans missed this movie the first time around, mainly because movie goers were getting tired of the prequel idea, especially if it meant changing the storyline of the main character.

In terms of Batman Begins, Director Chris Nolan and Writer David S. Goyer went back to the basics and re-told the original Year One storyline. Being a former comic book collector, the Year One storyline is probably one of the strongest stories of the Batman franchise, as it delves into his past, why he became Batman, and obviously how he went about doing it. This movie holds true to many aspects of the original storyline, as opposed to the 1989 Tim Burton version.

Although many fans loved the 1989 version as it was dark and action-packed, not to mention stellar performances by Jack Nicholson and Michael Keaton, this Batman is better than all of the ones made thus far, including The Dark Knight.

Without the development of the key characters such as Bruce Wayne/Batman, Lucius Fox, Alfred, Jim Gordon, and Rachel Dawes, you cannot appreciate the villains of this first film and the critical success achieved by Heath Ledger in the sequel. In fact, having three villains in this prequel was a tremendous challenge to overcome and was done quite nicely - mainly by having the movie be longer than your typical action film.

Christian Bale does a wonderful job in portraying the conflicted lives of Batman and Bruce Wayne. The telling of his rise to the cape and cowl is a tribute to the original Batman character developed by Bob Kane many years ago. You generally feel the pain that he suffers through and the determination he has to fix Gotham in order to bring justice into the lost lives of his family.

The cast is spectacular in terms of ensemble and overall resume. There are supporting roles offered by veteran actors Morgan Freeman and Michael Caine. The villains are portrayed by Cillian Murphy, Tom Wilkinson, Liam Neeson, and Ken Watanabe. While there are other cameos from recognizable actors such as Rutger Hauer.

I especially like the casting of both Katie Holmes and Gary Oldman. Holmes does a better performance in this film than her re-casted doppleganger in the sequel by Maggie Gyllenhaal. No offence to the Gyllenhaal's, but they really cannot act and it was difficult to take things seriously when both Bale and Aaron Eckhart (Harvey Dent) are fighting over the Dawes character - Gyllenhaal is not very attractive... I just don't see the appeal.

In Oldman, this was a very strong selection for Gordon - he's one of my favourite actors of all time and is quite versatile and brings a ton of credibility to the role and the franchise.

With Holmes, I don't understand the reasoning behind not doing the sequel... ever since she's become affiliated with Tom Cruise and Scientology, she's become a lost cause. Having the main characters fight over her beauty would've made sense in the sequel, but the re-cast was poorly executed and was my only complaint about The Dark Knight.

Overall, enjoy this film. 2005 was a great year for movies and you can easily catch this film on television as the popularity generated by Ledger's death in 2008 really pushed The Dark Knight and the remainder of this franchise in the forefront. Many probably regret not seeing this film in theatres the first time around, but the wife and I were fortunate to catch it before it left theatres. We almost missed the sequel due to similar reasons... however, I am grateful to have seen all of the Batman films in theatres... even if some of them were duds.