Batman Begins (2005)

Overall: A

Cast: A

Plot: A+

Special Effects/Stunts: A

Similarity to Comic: B
Director: Christopher Nolan
Comic Company: DC
Stars: Christian Bale, Liam Neeson, Katie Holmes
Rating: PG-13 

See the IMDB page
See the Rotten Tomatoes page

Wow, what an incredible way to begin my blog.  This has to be one of the greatest superhero movies of all time, and yes for the purposes of this blog I AM counting batman as a superhero, we don't need to get into that argument just yet.  This movie was a pretty good representation of the darker batman comics, and in my opinion a great way to tell his origin story.

The Good: The cast, almost all of them.  Liam Neeson was at his best in his role as Ra's Al Ghul and Morgan Freeman and Michael Caine provided excellent comic relief as well as memorable deep lines that really makes you fall in love with their characters.  Gary Oldman is the perfect Gorgon, exactly how his character should be portrayed.  Christian Bale does a great job as Batman, although he left me wanting a little more out of his Bruce Wayne character.

The general plot of the movie was entertaining, deep, and complex, everything a Batman movie should be.  I like that they went with Ra's Al Ghul and the Scarecrow for the villains, instead of the Joker or other better known Batman villains.  The action sequences were spectacular and the special effects were good for the most part.  The most fascinating and riveting part of this movie was how realistic they made it, it really gets your mind thinking about what one man could possibly accomplish in a city of scum.

The Bad: Is anybody else going to say it?  Christian Bale's Batman voice is almost unbearable.  I nearly died laughing when he said "SWEAR TO ME!" as he was questioning the crooked cop on the rooftop.  Arkham Asylum wasn't portrayed as sinister as I've always imagined, or as it is in other Batman representations like the animated series or the Arkham Asylum video game (GREAT game by the way).  Other than that the only other drawback to this movie is Katie Holmes.  Her acting is not very good, and that's putting it nicely, she looks like she struggles saying every word longer than 5 letters throughout the entire movie, yet she's supposed to be an assistant D.A.? No way, she's a pretty face, and although this movie needed one they should have found someone, anyone, better.

The Interesting: I was confused throughout the whole movie as to who Rachel Dawes was.  Her character isn't in any other Batman representation I could find, at least, not in such a big role.  I don't understand why they felt the need to add in a character like that to a franchise that already has so many memorable characters, did they really need another?  If they were to add another character to this movie shouldn't it have been detective Bullock? Or at least some other character that helps Bruce Wayne that isn't a love interest.

The batsuit.  Where to begin.  Well, at least it didn't have nipples.  But on a serious note, it needed a little more color; the all black thing didn't look as cool as it could have.  The mask didn't have very many intense or intimidating lines, making it appear a bit dull, and not very threatening.  Along the theme of bat gadgets, the batmobile was definitely a shock.  I was expecting a long narrow rocket on wheels like it's always portrayed, but instead got a stubby thing that looks like a mix between a tank and a lunar vehicle.  It wasn't bad by any means; I liked how it sounded like a pod-racer, and had some pretty neat gadgets of its own.

Conclusion: This is a must-see movie.  There are so many good things to say about this movie and not very many bad things at all, if you can stand Christian Bale's bat-voice and a ditsy Katie Holmes, you're really going to enjoy this movie.