Batman Begins
Batman Begins' journey was clear from the start, re-build, only better. But does it succeed? Yes, and no. There were
many valuable lessons learned from the dark old Schumacher days, while some of the lessons taught by Burton appear to have
been watered down. Batman Begins is a new style of Batman, and it's a style entered into with the best of
intentions.
There is a new Batman on the block, and his name is Christian Bale. To start with the positives, Bale is without argument
the best actor to slide into the bat suit, and delivers a command performance while portraying Bruce Wayne's alter-ego. He
is a scary Batman, a Batman with a purpose and a Batman with in ideal. Bale fits the part, and in the world that Batman
Begins creates, he's the glue that attempts to hold the fabric of the film together.
Casting is the strongest advantage that Batman Begins had going into production. With a competent enough actor ready
to delve into the meaty role of Batman, Warners' faith in director Nolan to choose the rest of the cast was for the most
part well placed. Katie Holmes is all grown up as Bale's childhood friend and now assistant district attorney Rachel Dawes.
She's the steadfast moral compass of the film, and for Bruce. Teaching him a thing or two about himself, Bruce comes to
understand how important actions are towards the sum of a person. As far as acting goes, she delivers a fine-tuned portrayal
of the most serious character in the story. Her Rachel doesn't succumb to comical relief and is all the better for it. It's
the same story with Liam Neeson. As Ducard, the man responsible for training Bruce and refining his quest for a purpose,
Neeson comes off as a solid mentor and a father figure for Bruce. Admittedly, a role he's probably typecast for nowadays.
Rounding out the list of actors that fulfill their promise is Michael Caine as Alfred. There's some poignant moments
in the Bruce-Alfred relationship that work so well, and his defense of Thomas Wayne's name in the face of Bruce's
carelessness was particularly well done. He's also responsible for some of the film's best laughs. Caine's dry
observational humour is delivered with the confidence you'd expect in such an accomplished actor. Tom Wilkinson shines in
one scene where he berates an all-guns-blazing Bruce in his club, but becomes a standard bad guy of the piece when he
breaks so easily in his first meeting with the bat.
Gary Oldman can't be accused of faxing his role in through a jaffle iron as he did in The Fifth Element, but he's
as equally miscast, if not more so as Batman's man on the inside Jim Gordon. Painfully unsure of himself in seemingly every
scene, Nolan used Gordon as the film's secondary character for comic relief, and it just feels so wrong. A mixture of
bumbling detective, corny one liners and situational convenience for a few sight gags, Gordon borders on deaf, dumb and
mute, but rests on lame. His partner Flass is as equally lamentable, even if he is a crook.
Cillian Murphy is great in the small amount of time he's given. His Scarecrow, while decent, doesn't really find the screen
time that's needed to develop him properly. Add to that that's he's actually the secondary villain of the story and his
inclusion seems like a waste. One of the reasons Burton's bat films worked was because of ultra-charismatic villains. Not
necessarily the most well developed or believable villains, but enjoyable and workable villains none the less. They shared
the screen with Batman and were villains you could remember. In Batman Begins we have a crazed cult leader who's
iconography is less developed than Poison Ivy. Ra's Al Ghul just seems like the easy way out for a villain, he's the
appropriate father-figure for Bruce in his time of need and he's the educator required for someone like Batman. But he
turns out to be just another crazed nutter out to destroy Gotham. It's an insult to Batman's trust and the ideals that he
used to craft Bruce into the crime fighter he was searching for. Ultimately a character to forget completely.
The action in Batman Begins is as poorly executed as anything in any previous Batman film. The 'tumbler' or
the new batmobile is ridiculously overblown. Smashing through concrete, flipping cop cars, causing however many millions of
dollars damage to public infrastructure, batman or not, and for whatever mission, it's just insanity. Batman has more
respect. Batman Begins is supposed to be more grounded in reality than previous attempts, yet this chase scene,
sloppily edited and thumping along as uncoordinated as that oversized tank will allow, boggles the mind. Batman has an
ability to disappear quickly, he's powerful yet agile in battle, shows intuition and grace in combat, they're important to
the character of Batman, they're essential. Yet this vehicle single handedly ridicules and pisses on each of those rules.
It's an ever so out of place new batmobile that ensures Begins is never too far away from your standard thoughtless
summer smash and forget flick. Insult is added when Gordon implies that he'd like to own one of them, as if stealing
dialogue from Independence Day was necessary. And why did Batman have to chew the pedals to make the car jump?
Editing issues are carried on from this sequence (see when Gordon's rushed line in response to the commissioner is cut off
by the roaring entrance of the batmobile) carries on into the final action scene. While the idea of the microwave weapon
that Batman and Gordon rush to take out is quite interesting, it raises too many questions to be logical. The threat would
have had an added burst of terror had actual people been exploding, as would happen with intense microwaves (70% water
anyone?), rather than just sewer lids exploding from boiling water. Then there's the absurdity of having a mass-transit
monorail at what looks like 200 meters up in the air. While a convenient finale device in which to deliver the weapon, the
finale of Blade II made more sense. The parallels between both Goyer stories in which a device emits whatever kind
of energy to have whatever desired effect is lazy and poor writing at best, second only the standard giant blob creature
with tentacles ending. Here's hoping that the Joker doesn't turn into a giant mutant creature in Batman Continues.
All that said, Batman Begins is still an enjoyable film. Had it taken it's time it could have been a great film. Too
rushed from the beginning, the opening 10 minutes feel like a story is unfolding without much reason or thought to it.
Bale deserves accolades for both the best Wayne and Batman so far, the same for Caine as Alfred. He's fine with the
characters, but after finding a new editor Chris Nolan really needs to hire a competent second unit director who has
experience with big action pieces, because they're painfully inept in Batman Begins. Whenever there's concrete
collapsing it feels like a low budget stage show. He can also afford to spend more time making sure all scenes are
purposeful, yet not rushed. There's some superior elements to Begins, but while his world is sometimes realistic,
it's at other times overly ridiculous. Nolan was unable to run with the consistency that Burton stylised his world with,
and it stands weaker for that.
out of ten
Reviewed by Paul Boschen
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