Film Review: Batman Begins

Directed by Christopher Nolan and the first instalment in his The Dark Knight Trilogy, Batman Begins follows a young Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) who travels to the Far East to be trained in the martial arts by Henri Ducard (Liam Neeson), a member of the mysterious League of Shadows. When Ducard reveals the League’s true purpose – the complete destruction of Gotham City – Wayne returns to Gotham intent on cleaning up the city without resorting to murder. With the help of his loyal butler, Alfred (Michael Caine), and the tech expert at Wayne Enterprises, Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman), Batman is born.

Rating:

Finally, a new Batman franchise that I can onboard with. Director Christopher Nolan does an excellent job of making it his own with a fresh and more realistic approach. He uses a much darker setting and more serious tone which suits the City of Gotham perfectly, making the need for a caped crusader more logical and relevant.

Starting from scratch, Christin Bale is introduced brilliantly and makes both a fantastic Batman and Bruce Wayne. He has the charisma, arrogance, ability, and appearance, completely possessing the role and capturing everything that this character needs to be the hero that we deserve.

The whole cast is spot on. Gary Oldman has always been one of my favourite actors so I was thrilled to see him cast as James Gordon, Michael Caine is the best Alfred I have seen yet, and Morgan Freeman, Liam Neeson, and Tom Wilkinson are great additions, too. And let’s not forget Cillian Murphy who is an absolutely superb villain, emphasising the real sense of darkness and fear that Nolan has created, as well as giving the audience hope of more high-quality iconic villains to come.

But it’s not just the performances, as there’s so much more that comes together to make this such a masterful piece of cinema. The visual effects are stunning, the soundtrack by Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard suits the film perfectly, and there are so many memorable moments and lines of dialogue that this will certainly be a difficult superhero film to better.

It’s the perfect crime thriller, comic book adaptation, and opening film to what’s obviously going to be an unforgettable trilogy of films. It was always obvious that things could only get better from here.