Batman Begins (2005)

            There must be something about bats that intrigues us all, since this is the fifth Batman movie in 16 years.  Furthermore, the mention of the Joker in the last few minutes of this film indicates there's another bat-film coming (target 2008).

            The UK born, Christian Bale makes an impressive Batman.  And as in other Batman films, the cast is peppered with star power: Michael Caine as Alfred, the personal manservant, Liam Neeson as Henri Ducard, a mentor, Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox, the scientist and Tom Wilkinson as Falcone, a bad guy.  You can see the strong cast in previous films listed at the end of this review. 

            As the title indicates, the plot kicks off with Bruce Wayne as a boy and takes us through his motivating experiences, his training by Ducard and the development of his bat-character.  The rest of the storyline relates his confrontation with the evil decadence of Gotham City and its bad guys.

            Overall, this is a dark story and much of it is filmed in darkness.  Of course bats are nocturnal, so it's logical although it gives the film a depressing feel.  What disturbed me the most was our hero's disregard for the well being of Gotham's police force during his first escape.  Crunching cars could be understandable if you ignore the police department budget, but there certainly had to be some injuries - of the good people.  This seemed to me to be a case of the end justifying the means - not a good message.

            Also, this two-hour film is about thirty minutes too long.  The build up to Batman's emergence as a character dragged on and I got bored with the overwrought and overextended action-disaster scenes at the end.  The last half of the film was mostly special effects as opposed to interesting plot or character development.  Of course, this is the comic book genre and it is aimed at the teen and pre-teen age levels.

Here's a list of the previous Bat-Films:

Batman (1989) with Michael Keaton, Jack Nicholson (Joker) & Kim Bassinger,

Batman Returns (1992) with Keaton, Danny Devito (Penguin) and Michelle Pfeiffer (Catwoman). 

Batman Forever (1995) with Val Kilmer, Tommy Lee Jones (Two-Face), Jim Carrey (Riddler) and Nicole Kidman. 

Batman & Robin (1997) with George Clooney, Arnold Schwarzenegger (Mr. Freeze) & Uma Thurman (Poison Ivy).

There was also Catwoman (2004) with Halle Berry that was kind of a spin off from the Batman films.

            Reviewed November 15, 2005                      Copyright 2005 Charles T. Markee

            MPAA: Rated PG-13 for intense action violence, disturbing images and some thematic elements.