Batman Begins (2005)
August 28th, 2006Anew. It fell upon Christopher Nolan (wizard of Memento) to revive the legacy of the BatMan. Retelling the story of the loner billionaire Bruce Wayne who lost everything as a Child and takes up the fight against crime in the dusk of the night, this is truly a film in the spirit of Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight. 5/5.
Revisioning (or retelling – as Nolan stays pretty true to the legacy of the DC Comics Dark Knight) we follow Bruce Wayne’s (Christian Bale) fall from the light as it may be to his rise through years of training, from the playboy billionaire to the scourge of crime known as the Batman. Eventually returning to Gotham he is confronted by the love interest of this flick, young District Attorney Rachel Dawes (Katie Holmes), and spurred into action against the Scare Crow (Cillian Murphy) – possibly the best incarnation of the particular villain I’ve seen. The excellent cast is rounded out with stellar performances from Liam Neeson, Michael Cain, Gary Oldman, Morgan Freem, Ken Watanabe – and even Rutger Hauer manages a presence.
The film is much more to my envisioning of the Batman. I’ve always been more fond of the dark and gritty hero vs. villain stories – a place where Mr Freeze and his like does not fit in. And luckily this is a film that quickly lets you forget the atrociousness that was Batman Forever and Batman & Robin. In my book it trumps Batman and Batman Returns aswell.