Nice effects though.

Most undeservingly overhyped movie of all time??

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Despite the previous attempts at a decent Batman movie by DC, Batman Begins finally hits the mark. This movie is generally not regarded as the best of the Dark Knight Trilogy, and I tend to agree, but this film really opened the audience's eyes to what a true Batman film is and prepared them for the grave yet entertaining sequels, The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises. Christian Bale (Bruce Wayne/Batman) was an excellent choice by the casters as his acting truly depicts the dark and mysterious side of Batman which has never been shown before in a film. Christian Bale along with other exceptional and well known actors such as Liam Neeson (Ducard) and Michael Caine (Alfred) really made the movie as interesting and exciting as it was. Without the impeccable acting, I fell the movie would not have the same impact. The plot, which I found interesting, was incredibly easy to follow. I'm this case, with multiple younger children watching this film, I think it was a smart choice. But I believe it needed just one intricate story piece or another scene of Bruce Wayne's childhood for the older portion of the audience. The setting in which the movie took place was crucial to the entire movie. The dark and fear-filled setting that was used starting around the 30 minute mark, was useful in the form of getting the audience into a prepared mindset for the rest of the film. I do have one minuscule problem with the setting...it was very repetitive. After the setting became fear-filled and intense, it rarely ever came out of that environment which for me wasn't a problem but I felt that it needed another 2 minute clip of a lighthearted scene. The soundtrack for this movie was absolutely impeccable and useful in every aspect. I greatly enjoyed listening the to the frightening and fierce music throughout the movie. In the end, Batman Begins was an outstanding film and through every twist and turn that it took, you were along on the ride. I 100% recommend this film.

Okay, the movie started off promising by showing Bruce Wayne in his quest to become Batman. The movie portrayed him as this big kid who never really grew up, because he witnessed the death of his parents and his childhood was robbed off of him. He sought to become adept at detective work so he can solve crimes, he learned various martial arts to be able to defend himself in physical confrontations, and he worked undercover to see how criminals operate. Quite promising because we were seeing Bruce Wayne in a way that wasn't shown before. We see his frustration not being able to deal with gangsters. We see him get his ass kicked by casual thugs. We see him get preached by a woman and literally slaps morality into his head. We see him in his existential quest to become what he wants to be, a frightening figure who can strike fear into criminals, so he can get release for his trauma and avenge the death of his parents. But what went wrong? Well. to be honest I think the movie got too preachy. It started with Rachel slapping morality into Bruce's head, I know it's noble, it's the ideal and it's a really romantic thought of a superhero who never kills. But this is supposed to be a grittier and more realistic Batman than before, but instead we're given a politically correct to the bone hero. How is it supposed to be realistic with Gotham being overflooded with corruption and we've a dark avenger who doesn't kill? Sure, the criminals can go to jail, but isn't it highly likely they'll just get released again because of high corruption in the Gotham Police Department?Another problem: Bruce Wayne receives training from Ninjas. Really? What is this the 1980's? How cheesy is that? Get training from cringeworthy men running around in black garb, who wield swords and daggers in the "realistic" World and boom! You can suddenly hang upside down and appear out of nowhere. Oh, the Head of the Ninja clan is Ra's Al Ghul, who was boringly played by Liam Neeson. Liam is a good actor, but his character came across as preachy, repetitive and flat. This is also where Bruce Wayne became preachy, repetitive and flat. Ra's and Bruce were very preachy about their form of justice and of course Bruce was the most moralistic because he is the hero. From then on, it was quite clear the movie was going to be a black and white portrayal of good vs evil. The noble to the bone Batman and the judgemental and cynical Ra's. If it sounds simplistic, it is. The rest of the movie went on pretty much the same way. After the initial introduction of Bruce Wayne's training, it is like Batman's character development went to a halt. There wasn't much emotional depth to the characters either, the characters were mostly there to deliver the explanation of the movie's plot, explanation of every characters' motivation or just generally yap about Hollywood preachiness. Even a lot of one-liners kept being recycled "you never learned to mind your surroundings". It was repetitive, dull and too long for its material. So it made the movie drag. Not to mention the movie took itself quite seriously, there wasn't much humor or irony. Could they at least have made a small joke about an adult running around in a batsuit, who happens to run around and beat the crap out of criminals?How about the action scenes? Surely they are much better than Burton's wooden movies! Well, not really. Let's take the physical fight scenes for example, you could barely see what they were doing on screen. Seriously, it is like they hired a kid with ADHD who is on a sugar rush to operate the cameras. The crew and stuntmen kept talking about how awesome a martial artist Bale is, but we didn't get to see any of that. Why spend so much time choreographing, staging and preparing for a fighting style that we barely even get to see on screen? The fight scenes are among the most incoherent I have ever seen in a movie. By the way, in Nolan's universe of Batman, no one knows how to use guns. There are many instances where goons just point their guns at Batman, just to run towards him and get knocked out by one hammerfist. Have you ever watched the UFC? How often do you see fighters get knocked out by one hammerfist? This movie is supposed to be realistic, but suddenly we have Ninjas, we have goons who don't know how to use guns and those goons get knocked out by one hammerfist. Oh, Batman also takes his rule of "no killing" seriously, to the point where he throws bombs at police who chase him by car, he drives his tank on top of rooftops just to save his girlfriend, then he stops a train by having Gordon - who totally did not have training to drive the Battank - shoot grenades at the pillars, making the train crash in the most irresponsible and most explosive way as possible. So much for the "no killing" rule. Would it maybe not have sufficed just to stop the train from Wayne Tower instead? Or maybe just turn off the microwave emitter instead of blowing up the train? Surely a genius like Bruce Wayne could have thought of that.Anyway, a subpar action movie 5/10

There have been many Batman movies before, but this is the first to actually tell his origin! Previous movies have only mentioned it, or had a short flashback about it. This one takes it's time and is as much of a Bruce Wayne movie as a Batman movie! It also shows how life is in Gotham before Batman, and what motivates Bruce to do what he does. Every aspect of the story gets it's fair share of time, and it never feels rushed or dragging. The cast is very good, which is expected since most are well established actors. Christian Bale is good as both Batman and Bruce Wayne. There are many memorable moments and scenes. If there is something, that is a bit off, it might be that action sequences are filmed maybe too closely so often it's not all that clear what's happening.. but this is quite a minor complaint. When Batman hangs thugs from rooftops and screams "SWEAR TO ME!" it's epic! All in all, it is an almost perfect origin story that takes many elements from the sublime "Year One" story and expands on it further to make an entertaining movie, which also perfectly sets up future installments!

Four decades after the TV series, two after the first film, Batman wasn't exactly a beginner, so the title might sound a bit presumptuous in the context of 2005 if only because everyone thought the saga actually ended with that dreadful "Batman & Robin". But that was underestimating Christopher Nolan, he didn't just revive a cinematically dead saga but proved beyond a (dark) shadow of a doubt that it hadn't even begun. But it needed to come so late and I knew I was right to watch the previous movies before Nolan's take, because it's only in that order that you realize how underexploited the potential of the DC icon was, as far as characterization goes. Indeed, it's not just in the way Nolan takes us to the origins of Batman (Christian Bale), to Bruce Wayne's childhood, his trauma with bats, the death of his parents and his initiation by Ducard (Liam Neeson), it's how it plays later in the 'revealing' scene. Take the first Batman, a classic, no doubt about it: it starts with criminals who don't fool us about their status as baits for the heroic entrance. Keaton popping up and saying: "I'm Batman" probably had some members of the audience clapping and cheering but it doesn't hold up now, you know it's just the kind of trailer-filler scenes with no other pretension than introducing the hero. What happens is that, villains you don't care about are stopped by Batman who can take care of himself, so it's not that we don't but we can't root for him. But boy, when the "I'm Batman" moment happens halfway through that film, after all that journey where he kept looking for himself, asking whether he's seeking revenge or justice, after all the wandering and wondering, all the tasks and duels and pains and stitches, all the brainstorming with Alfred (Michael Caine) about the right identity and with engineer Fox (Morgan Freeman) for the costumes and the "gadgets", when he finally comes up fully-dressed... we know it's not just a superhero in a fancy costume, what we've got is an achievement... and I was cheering inside. And not not just because of the hero. We saw Tom Wilkinson laying his cards in front of a mildly impressed Bruce Wayne, which makes the villain's come-uppance twice more enjoyable. That scene alone is the reason why Nolan was right to make "Batman Begins". When it started, I was like "what the hell...?" I kept waiting for the Batman tropes, Gotham City, the logo, the Batmobile, Alfred... but then I realized that Superman had started the same way and when we could finally see the nerdy Kent opening his shirt with the "S" logo, we were finally rewarded for our patience. Nolan trusts our patience as well and is generous enough to make a few allusions to the Batman we know, like with the infamous parent's murder scene. And once again, even that scene is played at the right time, after many glimpses on Bruce's relationship with his father and his own fear, and see how it all comes full circle with that defining murder. I think it just comes down to one thing: give everything a meaning. Why Batman? Why the bats? Why a black uniform? Why never killing anyone? Everything has an answer, a meaning, an origin. I love how Nolan tries to give some realism to Batman's origins, not to make the film realistic but plausible in the realm of superheroes movies... so real that Batman shouldn't even be considered a superhero. This is not just a good film, but a good story. Good in the classical sense, with the coming-of-age, the hero triumphing over his initial demons, then gaining enough strength to give a meaning to that first triumphant step and good in the writing. For instance, notice how the word 'vigilante' is mentioned twice, by Ducard and later by the commissioner, Nolan was aware about the kind of labels that go with a character like Batman, and he doesn't deny them as much as he gives them a new weight, it's like "Yes, but there's more to it...". A vigilante always has style and an attitude that betrays an unconscious desire to 'show off' a little but in reality, Batman is perhaps the ultimate vigilante because he goes from a totally selfish desire to get his revenge to protecting a town that is corrupted to the core and all the style and the attitude are only meant to scare his opponents, to hide in the night, as a matter of fact, again, everything can be explained. And this is nothing compared to the way the word "fear" is repeated, serving the film's motto that we're all meant to fall, but it's all about picking ourselves up. From another director, it could sound corny but not with Nolan, and certainly not with Caine playing a great Alfred. And this comes from someone who likes the other Alfred, too. The cast is another highlight of the film, honorable mention to Gary Oldman, Cillian Murphy and even Katie Holmes who was shockingly nominated for a Razzie, granted she wasn't Oscar worthy but that was a low blow, even by Razzies' standards. Speaking of the Oscars, the film was so full of great visual effects and action sequences that I was surprised it only gathered one nomination for Cinematography, but quite a deserved one, the shots on Gotham City were breath-taking. You know I've never been fan of DC or Marvel Comics, but I always loved the Disney Duck stories with Scrooge McDuck and Donald... and what Nolan did reminded me of Keno Don Rosa's "Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck", he took an iconic character and provided a level of depth and a dimension that went beyond the format of the comic-book canon. I guess if there ever was a "Batman" hall of fame, Nolan would be in the Top 5 not far from the creators or Adam West.