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Movie Review - Batman Begins (2005)
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(What this rating means)
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| Director: |
Christopher Nolan |
| Starring: |
Christian Bale, Liam Neeson, Morgan Freeman, Gary Oldman, Michael Caine, Cillian Murphy, Katie
Holmes, and Ken Watanabe |
| Rated: |
PG-13 (for intense action violence, disturbing images and some thematic elements) |
| Length: |
141 minutes |
| Genre: |
Action/Comic |
| Tagline: |
None. |
| Studio: |
Warner Bros. |
| Website: |
Batman Begins |
| Release: |
June 15, 2005 |
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PLOT
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After his parents were brutally gunned down before his eyes, young Bruce Wayne must decide how to respond.
Constantly tormented by guilt and anger, Wayne tries to reconcile his desire for revenge with his need to continue
his family's philanthropic legacy. He eventually vanishes from Gotham and travels the world, seeking to educate
himself in the ways of the criminal mind so that he'll know how to defeat his enemy. A vigilante group, the
League of Shadows (headed by Ra's al Ghul), wants him on their side, but he refuses.
When he returns to Gotham, he finds that the city is consumed by crime and corruption. The justice system is now
as polluted as the criminal system, and as a result, notorious criminals easily escape conviction. Making matters
worse, Dr. Jonathan Crane, Gotham's most prominent psychiatrist, is able to secure insanity defenses in exchange
for less-than-honorable favors.
Wayne has no choice but to release his inner superhero - Batman - and execute his own brand of justice on the
decaying city. However, his biggest challenge comes when the League of Shadows appears with its own plan to clean
the streets of Gotham. An exploration of the origins of the Batman legend and his emergence as a force for
good in Gotham ensues.
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JOHNNY'S TAKE
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"He's unpredictable, his actions may be questionable, his motivations less than pure. Yet we know he is
ultimately a force for good," Christian Bale says. "This complexity makes Batman the coolest of
superheroes."
The failure to fully capture that complexity is one of the things that has hurt all previous incarnations of the
Batman character, a character with three main facets: Batman, the masked warrior who is a channel of Bruce Wayne's
rage; the private Bruce Wayne, a scarred man who is dedicated to ridding Gotham of the type of evil that killed
his parents; and the public face of Bruce - a spoiled playboy who'd never be suspected of caring about the city's
decline into debauchery.
Batman Begins is the first of the movie franchise to fully develop the character, all while keeping him and
his origins grounded in reality. It's a perfect introduction, especially for the uninitiated. His uniform and
gadgets all have practical origins (military prototypes) and practical applications, and Christopher Nolan is to be
applauded for putting forth the effort to make us believe that Batman could actually exist and that it doesn't all
just happen by magic.
The "reality" of Batman is another reason he has always been my favorite superhero - he's a character we can
all relate to on some level. Bruce Wayne has to deal with feelings of intense guilt, anger, loneliness, and
confusion. The pain of loss and the outrage at injustice is familiar to most of us. We all need an outlet to vent
our anger and turn our negative emotions into positive actions, and the Batman character does this in a more
believable fashion than most superheroes. He's a regular guy (albeit with tons of money) with no real "super
powers" who uses what's available to him to fight for justice.
But the most important thing about the character is that he exists on the edge between good and bad. His parents
were BRUTALLY MURDERED in front of him, so it's about time we see a Batman who is filled with a little more anger
than someone who's slightly miffed that he witnessed someone kick his dog. The REAL Batman doesn't whip out a Bat
credit card with an expiration date of "Forever" claiming he never leaves the cave without it. Criminals aren't
nice guys, so Batman has to be dark enough to strike terror in their hearts, and Bale is the first actor to
accurately portray all three facets of the character, and he's definitely the only one who really brings the dark
edge that embodies Batman. He plays it intense and to the extreme.
For me, this is exactly what a Batman movie is supposed to be - dark, atmospheric, and creepy. Bale portrays Batman
as a man who is more interested in revenge than he is in cracking one-liners. He shows that Batman has a potentially
violent side, and I loved it.
I do have some minor complaints - my main one would be that some of the fighting suffers from the Bourne
Identity Syndrome - at times things are just too close and hectic to tell who is who and what exactly is
going on. Pull the camera BACK! I would like to actually see the action. I know Nolan felt this style gave
it a grittier feel and wanted to stay away from choreographed, dance-like fighting, so in that regard it makes
sense. There are also a couple of cheesy one-liners that I could've done without, but I can deal
with it.
After the movie, my sister Amber was brave enough to admit that when she was little she loved the Adam West Batman
series, and it made her really wish Batman was real. Later in life when she saw George Clooney in Batman and
Robin she thought it was incredibly stupid and cheesy and no longer wished Batman was real. She lost interest.
But now, after seeing and loving Batman Begins, she once again wishes Batman was real.
"Aww, that's cute Johnny! How old is your sister, 11? 12?"
Nope. 18. She starts college this year, folks. But if you're willing to let yourself be taken to this comic
book world then you can see there actually is wisdom in her comments. Joel Schumacher and George Clooney nearly
erased all good memories I had of Batman. Fortunately, Christian Bale and Christopher Nolan have restored
them.
My favorite line from Batman is when he tells one of his enemies, "I'm not going to kill you. But I don't have to
save you." At least the franchise has officially been saved.
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ODDS & ENDS
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- Ra's Al Ghul is Arabic for "The Demon's Head."
- According to IMDb, Viggo Mortensen turned down the role of Ra's Al Ghul.
- IMDb also claims that Chris Cooper turned down the role of James Gordon and that Kurt Russell and Dennis Quaid
were considered for the role.
- Before the shooting began, Christopher Nolan invited the whole film crew to a private screening of Blade Runner.
After the film he said to the whole crew, "This is how we're going to make Batman."
- Katie Holmes' character, Rachel Dawes, is the only main character in Batman Begins who is not based on
one from the comic books. Nolan and David Goyer created the character to "represent the life Bruce Wayne might have
if he weren't tied into his destiny of having to create a very dark alter ego through which he helps people."
- The Tumbler was to be used by the military to jump across ditches and to facilitate the moving of men and
equipment over water and vast open space.
- Every aspect of the Tumbler was custom-made, from the wheels to the chassis to the bodywork. Special effects
workshop supervisor Andrew Smith and his team built five fully operational, gas-powered Tumblers from
scratch.
- It's equipped with a 5.7 liter, 350 cubic inch, 340-horsepower engine with approximately 400 pounds of torque.
It is 9 feet, 4 inches at its widest point, 15 feet long, and it weighs 2.5 tons. It accelerates from 0-60 in under
5 seconds and can jump 4-6 feet in the air, up to a distance of 60 feet.
- It has no front axel and is equipped with six monster truck tires.
- The Tumbler got up to 105 mph during its big chase scene (which is awesome, by the way). Cars rarely go more
than 50 to 60 mph in a chase sequence.
- Johnny owns a 1969 Camaro. Although it's dark green, his friends in high school used to refer to it as
the Batmobile. Johnny thought he was so cool.
- Stephanie says, "Johnny's Camaro has been sitting under a car cover after it caught on fire on his way to work
years ago, after which his father took ownership. Johnny has no interest in doing anything with it himself, but he
secretly hopes his dad will fix it up so he can take it back."
- Johnny replies, "If I ever find the time to rewire the car and fix it up, then I'll be interested. But that
won't happen until I'm wealthy enough to retire and can spend all day doing such things. Any investors?"
- This is the first Batman feature film in which the Batsuit allows full head movement.
- It took three people to suit Bale up every day.
- Bale said the suit was quite uncomfortable and would induce headaches and send him into a foul mood after
half an hour. But he "used the pain as fuel for the character's anger."
- Batman is cool again.
- For the movie, Batman used the Keysi Fighting Method, a low-grounded technique that was founded 20 years ago
and is based on a series of tight, controlled, efficient methods.
- After getting down to 121 lbs for his role in The Machinist, Bale was so
weak that he couldn't even do a single push up.
- Johnny Betts once won a push up contest for his high school wrestling team. He got to 60 and could've kept
on going, but everybody else had quit.
- Liam Neeson and Bale used an ice rink to train for their big Icelandic sword fight.
- Nolan's vision of Gotham City is "an exaggerated, contemporary New York." Sort of a "New York cubed."
- Johnny Betts has never been to New York, but the rest of his family has.
- The big chase scene with the Tumbler was filmed on Lower Wacker Drive in "The Loop" area of Chicago.
- Johnny has been to Chicago, and he feared death after realizing nobody there seemed to know how to drive.
- Most of the film's Gotham City exterior sets were built at Cardington, a former airship hangar located
approximately an hour north of London.
- Rather than using an abundance of CGI, miniature-scale versions of sets were created to flesh out the
numerous environments.
- The interiors and exteriors of Wayne Manor were filmed primarily at Britain's Mentmore Towers, an estate
dating back to the 1850s.
- There's a scene in the movie where Katie Holmes slaps Bruce Wayne. Lots of people in the audience inexplicably
laughed. After the movie, the Movie Marks discussed this and wondered what everybody thought was so funny about
Katie Holmes slapping Bruce Wayne in the face. Mr. Shade remarked, "I'd laugh if Stephanie slapped Johnny in the
face right now." Stephanie slapped me in the face. Mr. Shade laughed. Silly way to prove a point if you ask
me.
- The ending perfectly sets up the antagonist for the sequel. Most of the screening audience applauded. Not me
though - I refuse to clap at movies. I might clap if Josh Brolin punches Paul Walker in Into the Blue
though.
- Not only is this the best Batman movie, but it's now my favorite comic book movie.
- Christian Bale was in American Psycho with Josh Lucas who was in Coastlines with Josh Brolin who
was in Hollow Man with Kevin Bacon.
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MAMA'S APPROVAL
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There isn't much here to offend you, but parents should use good judgment with little children. It's a little too
dark and scary for the youngest of moviegoers. There is a light amount of profanity (one instance of both G-d**n
and a-hole).
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TRAILER COMPARISON
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If you like the trailer then there's no reason you shouldn't like the movie.
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THE GIST
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Batman Begins is the best Batman movie ever, Christian Bale gives the best portrayal of Batman ever, and fans
of the Dark Knight finally get to see a dark, more revenge-fueled version of their favorite Caped Crusader. If
you have even an inkling of interest in the Batman character then this is a must-see.
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