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Batman Begins

Review By: Andrew Casertano
AndrewCasertano@TheCinemaSource.com

For years, there have been all different types of Batman movies. Each film seemed to take on a more humorous, more demented approach. Beginning with fantastically cast and portrayed villains like Jack Nicholson’s The Joker and Michelle Pheifer’s Catwoman, to the spontaneous and over the top Jim Carrey version of The Riddler and the God awful Tommy Lee JonesTwo-Face fiasco. The Batman series came to an end, it seemed, after doing just about everything it could. What direction could it take after Spider Man and X-Men have captured the minds of the new, younger generation. With a stroke of brilliance, it takes a totally different direction, an angle that would recapture the attention and love of its core fan base which followed the Batman series back in the day. Thus, Batman begins…

American Psycho star Christian Bale is this years Batman. Alongside Katie Holmes, (who by the way needed permission from Tom Cruise to view the screening of this film) Michael Caine, (who plays a phenomenal Alfred) Liam Neeson and Morgan Freeman, the cast is deeper and more captivating then any other previous Batman cast. The movie begins not like a superhero genre, but more like a dark drama that has you wondering what’s going on. We follow Bruce Wayne through jail, training, childhood, and just about all the background information anyone would need to grasp the plight of this warrior. In fact, Batman doesn’t appear until mid way into the film. That’s when the superhero fantasy comes into action. Batman must bring justice to his poorly run town, “Gotham City,” where drug shipments and mafia governed influence is ruining the city. Batman must fight a drug that is a panic inducing hallucinogen that makes the victim witness over exaggerated images that would scare the pants off anyone.

This latest Batman installment would shock anyone. It’s similar to the first Batman, but much darker. We now understand the struggle Bruce had to endure before becoming a superhero. It is not predictable, as we jump around from his childhood where his fear of bats made him who he is today, to the trial of his parents murderer, to his present situation as Ducard (Liam Neeson) trains him to master physical and mental disciplines that will thrust him in the world of fighting evil. All this is very captivating.

On the down side, however, (yes there is a down side) all of this information isn’t always so great. There is great action, but sometimes takes too long with explaining all the scientific mumbo jumbo that takes away from the film. It is not science