Batman Begins (2005)

Rating: *****

Director: Christopher Nolan

Cast: Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Liam Neeson, Morgan Freeman, Gary Oldman, Ken Watanabe, Katie Holmes, Cillian Murphy, Tom Wilkinson, Rutger Hauer

Review: Batman Begins is director Christopher Nolan�s attempt to build the foundation for a new movie franchise amid the smoldering ruins left by Joel Schumacher. By upping the realism, putting the focus on Batman instead of the villains and producing the first coherent plot in the series � he has managed not only to resurrect the Batman franchise, but to far surpass his predecessors� work.

The movie opens with Gotham City suffering from the twin demons of crime and poverty. After witnessing the brutal murders of his parents, young Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) abandons Gotham in a quest to understand the criminal mind. By the time he returns seven years later, the city has decayed into a cesspool of crime, misery and hopeless corruption.

Batman Begins is a classic coming-of-age story. For the first time, the demons that drive Bruce Wayne to fight crime are not only implied, but shown and explored to the fullest. Nolan and screenwriter David Goyer are not afraid to keep Bruce Wayne out of the Batsuit for the first half of the film as he slowly comes to the realization that he needs to become more than a man to fight the evil that is threatening to overtake Gotham City.

The villains in the movie were chosen not for their popularity or Q-rating with the general public, but in order to serve the storyline of Wayne�s development. Batman must conquer his internal fears in order to become a figure that strikes fear in the hearts of criminals � and during that journey he is forced to fight fear personified in the form of the villainous Scarecrow (Cillian Murphy). Ra�s Al Ghul (Ken Watanabe), an obscure villain only known to geeky comic fanboys like myself, represents what Bruce might become, if he loses his humanity and allows his fight for justice to devolve into a quest for vengeance.

The casting is first-rate across the board. Bale makes a believable Bruce Wayne and a frightening Batman. Michael Caine brings a very British sense of propriety and a dry sense of humor to Alfred. Gary Oldman is incredible human as Sgt. Jim Gordon, Gotham�s last honest cop. Liam Neeson, Morgan Freeman, Tom Wilkinson and Rutger Hauer all contribute grounded, believable performances which make this fantastic story seem all the more real.

The only person not quite pulling her own weight is Katie Holmes as District Attorney Rachel Dawes, whose performance can best be summed up as �not bad.� But �not bad� doesn�t cut it when you�re surrounded by Liam Neeson, Morgan Freeman and Michael Caine. She doesn�t detract from the film, but she fails to make an impression in almost every scene.

In her defense, Holmes does contribute exactly two superfluous nipples worth of entertainment towards the end of the film. Personally, I was very glad to see those nipples. Not so much because they were attached to Katie Holmes, but more because they weren�t attached to the Batsuit.

Nolan and company have created a fantastic movie that successfully manages to erase the memory of its less-than-noble forerunners and firmly re-establish one of the greatest icons American literature has created.