Somewhere in Asia, Bruce Wayne feeling guilt, anger and despair over the death of his parents when he was a child, searches for an answer as to why criminals behave the way they do in a way to better understand them so that he can one day seek a means to fight criminals who prey upon the weak. During his travels, Bruce Wayne met Henri Ducard, an agent of the League of Shadows, a vigilante group headed by Ra's Al Ghul. Ducard offers Bruce Wayne a path of enlightenment and a means to fight injustice by offering him to join the League of Shadows. Under the guidance and mentor of Henri Ducard, Bruce Wayne learned how to master mental and physical disciplines, his own fears, and the ways of the ninja. But soon Bruce rebelled against the League of Shadows as their ways of no mercy to your enemies was against what he stood for. Returning to Gotham City and reclaiming his father legacy that Bruce had left behind when he went off in his search for answers, Bruce begins his crusades against injustice and the criminals that now harbor Gotham City. This time around, using money from Wayne Enterprise, Bruce created an alter ego called the Batman using armory and weaponry from Wayne Enterprise Science department to begin his campaign on the criminals of the underworld. The introduction of Batman begins…
In search of a cave.
They call me, "Bat Man."
Good
The first thing you notice about this movie is that the story is very good. This is the first Batman movie that actually defines Batman and gives insight into the person behind the Batman. Every good super hero need to have something that defines them and gives them purpose. With Spider-Man it was "With great powers comes great responsibility." The Batman franchise previously was missing that defining phase that defines the Batman. Batman Begins now has a phase that the audience can connect Batman to which is, "It's not who you are inside that define you, it's what you do that define you." With that theme as the central theme of the story, Batman Begins becomes more of a personal story about a man trying to find his place in the world and his purpose in life, something that movie watchers can relate to. Now a good story also needs a good cast of actors to help tell the story. And Batman Begins provides one of the best casting around. Every single actor played their roles perfectly and convincingly. Liam Neeson gives an excellent performance as Henri Ducard, a mentor and trainer that help guide Bruce Wayne out of his path of despair into a path of purpose. Gary Oldman not only plays a young Commissioner Gordon as a Sgt. Gordon in his early days before he became Commissioner of Gotham City exceptionally well, he also looked like a Gordon in the film. Michael Caine was perfectly cast as the butler Alfred. In general the entire cast of Batman Begins was perfectly cast by the casting director. The best improvement was Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne, the infamous Batman. In the previous Batman movie franchise, there wasn't one leading actor that can fit the role of both Bruce Wayne and Batman. The Batman movies became a misfit casting of various different leading actors as Bruce Wayne/Batman and people couldn't identify one actor as the Batman. People would pick Michael Keaton as Batman simply because he was Batman for 2 movies but in all honesty Michael Keaton was too wimpy to be a Batman. Christian Bale not only provided the look of a younger Bruce Wayne in Batman Begins, but he also provided that buffed up muscular look that can make him as a Batman. So for the first time, you actually have an actor who can play the roles of both Bruce Wayne and Batman which makes the movie a little bit more believable. Then there's the new look of Gotham City. This new look of Gotham City has a more larger and futuristic look that gives Gotham as a city that's been around for centuries. It's not as dark and brooding as what was presented in the previous franchise movies but it's still dark but not dark in a way that it looks a bit too faked to be a real city. One of the things I didn't like about the previous movies was that the presentation of Gotham city looked too faked to be a really big city. Here Gotham City look like just a regular city in daylight but underneath the city there's the dark side where poverty hits with homeless people in various places. So the presentation of Gotham City has definitely improved. There are three things that will make a movie good; the story, casts, and presentation. Batman Begins has all three of these categories in a good rating.
Are you scared?
Driving down the road.
Bad
Most of the bad things that one can say about this movie are more or less nick picking than anything else. Generally speaking the story and the entire cast of characters in the movie are either good to excellent. From a point of view, the new design of the Batmobile is consider a downgrade than the Batmobile of the previous Batman movies. The Batmobile should look cool and slick in design in this reviewer humble opinion. The new Batmobile in Batman Begins look very unattractive with big wheels looking like a monster truck but smaller than a monster truck. I have to say that I prefer the look for the Batmobile in the previous films than this new one. One can only hope that they redesign the Batmobile to a better looking one than this one for the sequel. In terms of characters and the cast of actors or actress in Batman Begins, I find the character, Rachel Dawes, played by Katie Holmes to be the weak link in this movie. Her character isn't very convincing as this District Attorney that the underground world should be afraid of. Nor did I find Katie Holmes as convincing as a leading lady opposite of Christian Bale. The last thing to nick pick on is that most of the action sequences of Batman in action seem to be done poorly. You don't really see Batman fight in this movie at all. What you see is quick flashes of Batman moving around and the camera spinning around with noises of action fights going around. When the fight is over, the camera zoom in on Batman indicating the fight is now over. Yes we know in reality it's really hard to move around in that Bat suit so they have to limit the fight scenes down but still we sort of like to see Batman fighting more than actual flashes teasing us of a fight. That's about all there is that's worth a mention in terms of what could've been done better.
Join us or die.
A Joker's Card.
Bonus
Unfortunately what sort of Bonus additions you get depends on what DVD edition you happen to buy. This review is base on the single DVD Widescreen edition and as such there aren't any bonus features in this single DVD widescreen edition at all. The only thing the single widescreen DVD edition has is a theatrical trailer and that's pretty much a disappointment in terms of bonus. If you are looking for some major bonuses than you need to purchase the 2-Disc Deluxe Edition which is loaded with bonus features.
Final Analysis
Of all the Batman movies made so far, Batman Begins is the best one from a storytelling point. This is what makes Batman Begins such an enjoyable movie is that its story is more humane and emotional to the audience than the other previous Batman movies. Audiences are able to connect with who Batman is and what drives him to do what he does to a point where they can relate to him as a person. With the other movies you never really cared too much about Bruce Wayne, it was more about seeing Batman kick some butts. Here it's more about Bruce Wayne than Batman. Batman Begins is more of a drama movie than an action packed movie and that's the way it was set up as. Not as a 2 hour marketing movie for the sole purpose of selling Batman toy merchandise to kids but as a serious movie for young adults. A movie is like a book, if the story is very good than it doesn't matter if there aren't enough action in it because it's the story that will have a lasting effect on you well after the movie is over. And I guarantee you that you can't help but have a sense of satisfaction after finishing the movie the first time around that you can't help but want to watch it again the second time because by then you actually care about all the characters in this movie that you just want to revisit them again. The bottom line is that Batman Begins is an excellent movie showcasing the human side of Batman and his origin.
