REVIEW #150 Batman Begins (2005)

Batman Begins is the first instalment in Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy and explores the origin of the Batman. After witnessing his parents murder Bruce Wayne grows up with the hunger to fight injustice. He leaves Gotham a but returns a man determined to fight for his city.

CAST & THE ACTING 

Christian Bale was cast as Bruce Wayne and he certainly hit the ground running, cementing his place as one of the best actors to ever don the Batman mantle. Physically he got in incredible shape to play the character and mentally he portrayed the troubles of an orphaned Bruce Wayne really well. I do think the combat choreography was a little stiff, but up until this point that seemed to be one of the issues every actor had when playing the character. So I would assume that’s down to the suit hindering agility rather than the actors themselves. Michael Caine was cast as Alfred and he suited the character really well, I do prefer the modern depictions of Alfred where he is military trained and slightly younger but nonetheless I still enjoyed Caines performance. Two iconic villains had great castings in this film with Liam Neeson playing Ra’s Al Ghul AKA Henri Ducard (alias) and Cillian Murphy playing Scarecrow. You would think after the big names mentioned already that would be it but it continues with Gary Oldman playing Jim Gordon, Morgan Freeman playing Lucius Fox and Katie Holmes, who played Bruce Wayne’s love interest Rachel Dawes. They all performed really well with Oldman’s portrayal of Jim Gordon being my favourite incarnation of the character out of all the films. So an outstanding cast here.

THE STORYLINE

This was another origin story for the Batman and probably still the best one to this day. I think it has a much deeper dive into Bruce’s psyche and why he decided to take the path to becoming Batman. The scenes at the start of the film with the league of shadows were great and it perfectly introduced them into Nolan’s universe. It also gave the audience the first glimpse of Bruce Wayne’s internal battle with his no killing rule and it’s ultimately what sends him back to Gotham, meanwhile making an enemy of Ra’s Al Ghul and the league of shadows. Fast forward to his return and we’re introduced to Scarecrow and we see a second confrontation between Bruce and Carmine Falcone but this time it was Batman confronting him. I think both characters were handled really well although I would have liked to have seen more of the scarecrow. His arc was sort of hijacked by the league of shadows and unfortunately we didn’t see Cillian Murphy reach his full potential as the character. But overall it was a really strong origin story and it had me hooked into Nolan’s universe.

CINEMATOGRAPHY & SPECIAL EFFECTS 

In terms of the cinematography there were some amazing visuals, from the snowy mountains with the League of Shadows to the gas infected streets of Gotham, it seemed like there were a wide variety of cinematic shots that looked fantastic. The editing of the action sequences could have been a little better but it still kept it exciting nonetheless. The special effects were kept very minimal which helped establish a sense of realism for the film and that worked really well. Nolan certainly improved the next two films in regards to this category but it was a good start which set strong foundations for future films.

OVERALL (8.5/10)

A really strong opening film for Nolan’s trilogy, introducing a stellar cast that performed very well, doing justice to the iconic characters they were portraying. It was a great origin story that introduced three iconic Batman villains in Ra’s Al Ghul, Scarecrow and Carmine Falcone, without ever feeling overcrowded. The combat choreography did seem a little stiff at times and it does seem like the suit really did effect the agility of Bale but despite that, the action sequences were still really exciting. Batman Begins gives us a deep dive into Bruce Wayne’s Psyche and establishes Bale as one of the best actors to ever take on the role of The Dark Knight. Nolan’s direction of realism grounds the film and makes it such a likeable instalment of the Batman franchise.

Thanks for reading.

Callan