It was hard to know what to expect from a Chris Nolan Batman movie going into it; presumably it would be a film where the Caped Crusader solves a crime at the beginning, then slowly backtracks to when the scheme was hatched by the end. But seriously though, Nolan is a filmmaker known for crafting smaller psychological films, and for a while I had reservations about how he would fare with a more action-oriented film. Rest assured, those fears have been assuaged: “Batman Begins” is a terrific movie.
“Batman Begins” is the story of how Batman, well, begins. It follows young Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) along the path to his ultimate destiny as the Dark Knight of Gotham City. Surprisingly, we join Bruce not in the Batcave or Wayne manor, but as an inmate in an ambiguous Asian prison. There he is rescued by a shadowy man named Ducard (Liam Neeson), and sent to study at an equally mysterious dojo run by the unfathomably enigmatic Ra’s Al Ghul (Ken Watanabe).
Under Ducard’s tutelage he learns the way of the ninja: all the kicks and flips that would become the hallmark of Batman’s fighting technique. All seems well at the school, until Bruce discovers that the goals of his new friends (destroy Gotham City) don’t really mesh well with his own motivation (save Gotham City). At that point Bruce dispatches the ninja clan, and heads back to Gotham where the film begins in earnest. There he acquires the Batcave/Batsuit/Batmobile, a few allies, a whole mess of enemies, and a plot involving that old Batman staple, poison gas.
That’s actually where a lot of the fun lies- in the development of the character of Batman and his mythology. Much like in the first “Spider-Man,” a good portion of this film is devoted to showing the progression of the costume, gadgets, and other elements of the overall universe. All of this allows Nolan to achieve something his predecessors failed to do: make Batman interesting! Previous incarnations have famously been overshadowed by their on-screen adversaries, which this time, in addition to the Neeson/Watanabe contingent, include Cillian Murphy as the creepy Dr. Jonathan Crane (AKA Scarecrow) and the great Tom Wilkinson as tough guy gangster Carmine Falcone. All of them make good foils, but it’s nice to see a Rogues Gallery that finally doesn’t upstage the Bat.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t also mention the great work done by Michael Caine taking over the mantle of Alfred, Katie Holmes as Bruce’s would-be squeeze Rachel Dawes, and the surprisingly subtle (meaning not crazy) performance of Gary Oldman as Jim Gordon. Which brings us to Christian Bale: quite honestly, I’m not a big fan of his American accent- there’s something about it that comes across as phony. To me, all his stateside characters seem to sound like Patrick Bateman from “American Psycho,” which is problematic here, to say the least. However, as said before, getting to see the development of Batman more than makes up for any minor quibbles on my part.
Finally, big kudos goes to the city of Chicago, which served as a magnificent stand-in for Gotham City. Perhaps I’ve been away from the city too long, but I have never been more pleased to see Chicago locations in a film. I can barely describe the glee I felt watching the Batmobile cruise through Lower Wacker, knowing that it was the same stretch of road the Blues Brothers were chased down 25 years prior. Here’s hoping we can all visit Chicago/Gotham again, as soon as possible.
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