Batman Begins

Released 2005
Stars Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Liam Neeson, Morgan Freeman, Gary Oldman, Ken Watanabe, Katie Holmes, Cillian Murphy, Tom Wilkinson, Rutger Hauer
Directed by Christopher Nolan

It's more Bruce Wayne than caped crusader in "Batman Begins," a telling of the legendary character's formative experiences that gives precedence to psychology over super-heroics. While developing an elaborate backstory for the 66-year-old comic book figure, director Christopher Nolan delivers a very serious would-be franchise launcher that, perhaps inadvertently, bears closer thematic comparison to "Kill Bill" and aspects of "Star Wars" than to what audiences primed on the Burton/Schumacher films or the TV series might expect.

Summary by Todd McCarthy

This is the first Batman movie to focus on Batman. The others focused on the colorful villains, but here's one that finally finds Batman interesting. Surprisingly, the movie works reasonably well as a drama, and it handles Bruce Wayne's guilt over his parents' deaths rather powerfully. This aspect resonated with me since I had a similar event in my childhood, and I found much of it moving. I also thought they handled his learning to become Batman well. He was clumsy and had to figure it out as he went along, but the weapons from Wayne Enterprises helped him tremendously. There was so much to appreciate about this movie, that it made the disappointments even worse. I know Hollywood worships youth, but I get tired of 20-somethings filling mature roles. I'm specifically referring to Katie Holmes and Cillian Murphy. First of all, I thought the Katie Holmes character detracted from the rest of the story. I know they needed someone to argue against vigilantism, but I didn't think that character worked. I also would have liked an older actor in the role of Dr. Crane. Cillian Murphy was so young he'd still be in medical school instead of being the prominent criminal psychologist of this major city. The biggest weakness to me though, was the plot of the League of Shadows wanting to destroy Gotham, because their plan made no sense at all. I could have gone with it if the Scarecrow had wanted to do it because he's insane and it fit his character, but what on earth did the League expect to accomplish? I was ready to put this movie up on a pedestal as one of the best superhero films of all time, but this twist kind of derailed the movie for me. I still think it's a good film, but not the great one it could have been. --Bill Alward, November 29, 2005