Hey
Just to clear something up, I am very much aware that I said that that my review would be up by last Friday and it wasn't. A ton of last minute plans came up for me in between school and home and I found myself so busy that I didn't find the time to do this review. I was also a little sick through the end of this week. With that aside however lets get this review underway!
I wasn't really into superhero movies until half way through my first year of high school but now that I've become more open to the genre of movies I've seen quite a few of them in the past two years, notably Batman Begins. All through my childhood I made up Batman as an uncool wannabe superhero just because he doesn't have any super powers. When my stepfather moved in last fall, however, I put all this crap aside and just watched the DVD one night and it was pretty cool. I guess its safe to say that Batman wasn't as bad as I made him out to be. The character himself is a dark, intimidating vigilante figure who fights crime because of his hunger for justice and the will to avenge his parents whom he saw murdered before his eyes when he was a kid. I understand now that he doesn't need to have super powers to be appealing. You kinda have to look at Batman from a different perspective to enjoy these movies. What more can I say, he's just really cool as he is. The reason I'm choosing to review this movie as my first review ever is because last week, The Dark Knight, one of this past summers biggest and most hyped films was released on DVD. I saw it in the theatre and I really enjoyed it. Part of the reason that I was slightly interested in The Dark Knight was because of my appreciation for Batman Begins and I find it appropriate to review the Batman movies in honor of The Dark Knights release. I'll be reviewing the Batman movies in the order of which of I have seen them, not their chronological date of release. So lets finally get to talking about Batman Begins!
The title of this movie really lives up to its name because story is about exactly what the title says it is: the origins of Batman. I think I got lucky seeing his film as my first ever Batman film considering the nostalgic nuts who saw this movie wouldn't really care to know Batman's origins. The journey that Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) takes to become the Batman is an interesting concept about how he is so desperate to fight criminals that travels the world to understand the criminal mind by committing crimes only to be thrown in prisons. The movie opens with Bruce in some unspecified Asian country. We see that in the prisons, he picks many fights with the most strong and brutish of criminals. He is eventually approached by a man by the name of Henri Ducard (Liam Neeson) who represents Ra's al Ghul, the leader of The League of Shadows, a group of vigilante ninjas who fight crime with a passion. Ducard makes Bruce an offer to fight justice under their teachings and after he is released from the prison he climbs a mountain to begin his training. The whole goal of the training is to confront you're ultimate fear, which in Bruce's case is of bats. Through these training scenes we see several flashbacks including how Bruce's fear of bats came to be, the death of his parents, and how he intended to kill the guy who killed them. When Bruce completes the training he learns that the philosophy of the League of Shadows is not in agreement on how he believes justice should be dealt with. The vigilantes believe that criminals should be killed with out mercy while Bruce refuses to be an "executioner". He then discovers that this group has a plan to destroy Gotham City, the city Bruce was raised in. Gotham has been through many hardships over the years and has been deemed a "hellhole" by many. Bruce believes that there is still hope for Gotham so he abandons the deadly group while killing Ra's al Ghul and destroying his hideout in the mountains in the process. After seven years of traveling, Bruce returns to Gotham with the intention of saving it. He plans to do this by becoming the Batman and taking on the corrupt mob that practically runs the city.
I'm not really going to get into what happens after he becomes Batman because in my reviews I have no intention of spoiling the ending. For the last half of this movie, what basically happens is that a plan to destroy Gotham unfolds as the crazed Dr. Crane, also known as the creepy psychopath Scarecrow, works in co-operation with Ra's al Ghul to destroy Gotham by letting loose a fear-inducing gas through the sewer system. By the way, in case you are wondering, Ducard was Ra's al Ghul the whole time. The man Bruce killed in Asia was just a decoy. Can Batman save Gotham?
I thought this move was well written, well acted, and probably the most well-received Batman film up until The Dark Knight. I really liked the cast they chose for this movie. Christian Bale, Michael Caine, and Katy Holmes all made great performances. I thought that Liam Neeson could have done better in his role though. Most of the time he has a blank expression on his face and has a monotoned voice but his performance certainly wasn't terrible. Believe me when I say that I've seen a lot worse ;). No one really stole the show for me in this movie though. The action scenes and special effects where pretty good although a lot of the fight scenes were shot in close-up. This didn't really bother me but I think if I saw this in the theatre the movie would have been less enjoyable because of the larger screen.
Over all, this movie was great
My personal rating: **** out of a possible five
So this concludes my first review. Rather than continue my reviews of the live action Batman movies, next week I'll be reviewing one or two Christmas films with it being that time of year. This is not a 100% guarantee here, If I am busy over the next week I'll let you know.
If you have any questions or just want to talk with me about movies, feel free to email me.
Thanks
Evan
