It's the year 2005, a movie of a new generation has just been released, "Batman Begins." I only knew two things walking out of the movie theater after seeing the updated caped crusader: it spooked me a little, and I had to get a set of the plastic Batman armor from ToysRUs. I never read any kind of comics during my childhood, especially because there was no way to get the full story, being that most of the issues are rare to get. The only kind of experience I had with Batman up until "Begins" was a few episodes of the original '60s show and the laughable '90s movies.
To begin, the plot of "Batman Begins." The movie begins with young Bruce Wayne playing with his best friend Rachel Dawes, who goes on to be one of the main characters in the series. Bruce ends up falling into a dried out well and is attacked by bats while laying at the bottom. For the first half of the movie, Bruce is trying to find himself, and while doing this, he realizes that Gotham needs a beacon of light. But before he gets to the epiphany of becoming the Caped Crusader, he is slightly turned to being a bad guy. Bruce's parents were killed in an alley by a mugger when Bruce was young. Bruce, now grown up and currently lost, decides to kill the mugger during his trial. In the end, Bruce does not shoot Mr. Chill, the mugger, but instead takes a ride with Rachel to look at the crime world in Gotham. This is where Bruce realizes GC needs justice, however, before he transitions into being a hero, Master Wayne has to train, which through this, he realizes that his biggest fear is bats. Bruce goes to China and begins to practically steal from himself to lose everything, he then gets caught and goes to prison. While in prison, he meets and begins to train with a man named Ducard, who works with the assassin group, League of Shadows. As training with the LoS comes to an end, he is told the real ideology behind the group, which in turn is very sinister. Bruce ends up acting fast and destroying the HQ of the assassins while saving Ducard's life. From here, Bruce goes back to Gotham after being gone for seven years. He immediately tells Alfred that he will fight crime and proceeds to go to Wayne Corp's applied sciences manager, Lucius Fox. Here, he starts to round up certain equipment to become the 'BAT'. Now, being Batman, Bruce finds out a villain is trying to destroy Gotham and fights to protect himself, and his city.
Next, let us take a walk down memory lane with analyzing the old movies and how they relate to 'Begins'. The original series connected a lot with the comics, like bringing in all kinds of villains and heroes, i.e. Robin, Batgirl, Catwoman, etc. The worst thing about the old movies is that they were too animated. No, I do not mean that the movie was an animated film, but that certain aspects made the movie look a certain way to not be as dark. I remember the first movie being a little dark but for the most part it was just a good v evil superhero movie, with Joker being the villain. The second one was darker, and blatantly a little off, but it was okay. From there, the next two movies were close to a being joke, nowadays. The latter was very goofy and just bad. The effects were okay and for being the only superhero movies since the '80s Superman movies, the were up to par, for their time. However, looking at Christopher Nolan's first Batman film, with Scarecrow being the main villain, and a side of Ra's al Ghul, the movie takes a plunge into the serious side of the winged detective. Although, there is still a touch of the old movies in this new vision. When looking at Gotham, the city of Batman, you can still see the animated quirks of the older series. For instance, the first series had a train running through the entire upper portion of the city, (not a subway); and in "Begins," there is the same kind of train. Which this is kinda of weird, because this lively train is not in the following two Nolan movies, but that could be because the train runs off the Also, Gotham was made very gritty in BB, which reminded me a lot of the before series. In a way, I do not believe that Nolan wanted this feel exactly, which is off the record. Of all the "Syncopy" films that I have seen, the filmmakers have a certain style, along with near perfect aesthetics. At the time, "Syncopy" was not an actual producing company, yet. In my opinion, Warner Brothers pushed Nolan to make "Begins" have that comic, "Batman Forever/Returns" look. WB's film studio has been known to add their own effects to the final cut. This can pertain to the Wayne Inc. being digitally added to the base of the Chicago Board of Trading Bldg. Whereas in the following "Dark Knight" films, Wayne Tower is a sleek building shot from a corporate skyscraper in New York City. By any means, this is not a bad thing, just bugs me that this is different from the rest of the series.
The final point would be looking at the movie itself. Christopher Nolan, director of the film, brings Batman back to being the best superhero on the silver screen. The story of "Batman Begins" is, of course, the beginning, but the screenplay brings certain linear effects that an audience has never seen in any Batman film before. David Goyer, the writer, successfully adapts the Bruce Wayne/Batman character in this film. In the movie Bruce is trying to act as if there is no way possible he can Batman after he comes back from his trip to China, he does that by being the playboy billionaire he truly is. For example, Batman is fighting to figure out Scarecrow's plan for GC, while Bruce goes to dinner and begins swimming in the lobby of a hotel. There is no pool in the lobby, it's simply a water fountain. So when the manager of the hotel comes to Master Wayne to tell him that he cannot swim in the fountain, Bruce just pulls out his checkbook and buys the entire hotel. And that is just a touch of the master storytelling. When you bring in a cast as great as this movie's, you honestly cannot go wrong. Christian Bale playing Bruce, Michael Caine - Alfred, Morgan Freeman - Fox, completely underrated Cillian Murphy - Scarecrow, and to name just one more, Liam Neeson - Ducard. Plus, that's not even close to the whole cast, which is amazing to me. One of the final aspects for me to freak out about is the cinematography. Willy Pfister, Nolan's go-to cinematographer, turned this blockbuster flick into an Academy Award nominated film. Unfortunately, the film did not win the award, but still shows that a superhero movie can be formed into a masterpiece.
Being 8 years old when I first saw this movie, and rewatching it a week ago, I love this film. In the series, it comes third with the next two being above it. "Batman Begins" is not perfect by any means, but for being a movie about a guy who dresses up like a bat, it is the prime of comic book movies. Of the few mistakes I did find, near the end of the movie, Bruce is in a building that is on fire. While trying to escape, a wood beam falls from the ceiling and lands on Bruce. In the wide shot of the beam, you can almost catch as it falls toward his feet. However, when the zoom shot shows Bruce laying on the ground, the beam is now more upward by his neck. I am saying this to prove that this movie made goofs, as all films do. Still, for this being the first live-action movie since Batman & Robin, the movie was great. Overall, I give "Batman Begins" a 9 out of 10.
