Batman Begins (2005)
Starring: Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Liam Neeson
I've seen this movie before. But with the release of Dark Knight Rises right around the corner, I thought it was a great time to revisit the first Nolan-directed Batman movie. I haven't seen this movie, which I loved when it first came out, since the release of The Dark Knight. I know I'm not alone here when I say that I consider Dark Knight to be the greatest superhero movie ever, and one of the best movies of the 00s as well. So going into this movie I wondered how my feelings about the sequel would color my viewing experience of Batman Begins. As it turns out, my suspicions were confirmed: The Dark Knight is a far superior movie to Batman Begins.
I would like to begin by saying that The Dark Knight has a few inherent advantages over Batman Begins. Primarily, it is not an origin story. Traditionally, the first movie in series' based on comics books suffer from the origin story curse. This was the case with the first Spider-man movie and the first X-Men movie as well. The problem is that everyone is so familiar with the mythology of the more iconic comic books that everyone knows exactly what is coming and why in these origin stories. We know all about Spiderman's Uncle Ben and "With great power comes great responsibility". We know that Bruce Wayne's parents were killed in a mugging and that he is afraid of bats. Ideally, these movies could just skip over that part and get straight to the meat of the story.
But, unfortunately, there a couple of problems with that. One is that adapting a comic book story is a pretty serious undertaking for a lot reasons, not the least of which being that you have to deal with the fans of the source material. As we all know, there are some pretty rabid comic book fans out there: ones who will complain about the slightest liberty taken with their beloved hero, or the smallest adjustment to the story from the comic they know so well. In glossing over or simply skipping an origin story in the first movie of a comic book franchise, the filmmakers risk seriously offending those fans who they are counting on to provide a big part of the box office receipts.
The other problem in skipping an origin story is that these origin stories are, while often cliched and familiar, usually pretty vital parts of the story in terms of the motivation and character development that they provide. The reason that Spiderman and Batman became heroes, and the type of heroes that they did become, is because of the experiences portrayed in those first movies. If you don't show that in the movie, you risk having a very one-dimensional protagonist. It's pretty ridiculous that the main character in Batman Begins dresses like a bat and jumps around on rooftops at night fighting crime. But within the flow of the story, and given the way that things developed form the point Bruce Wayne's parents are killed, it kind of makes sense. If the audience, no matter how familiar they may already be with the character of Batman, was suddenly thrown into the world where this character exists, with no explanation, it would be a little jarring.
And Nolan does an incredible job of creating a world where a character like this can exist. The concept of Batman and other superheroes is inherently ridiculous, but Nolan's movies come the closest to making a world like this seem real. The suit that Batman wears, all of his gadgets and even his car, all seem so plausible. Every item is explained well, and nothing is so crazy that the audience doesn't think this type of military tech might actually exist somewhere. Especially in a place like the Gotham City that Nolan creates. In Batman Begins, the city of Gotham is practically a character itself. Obviously, the city could, and does, represent any major city anywhere, but the darkness, grittiness, and despair of the city are very apparent throughout the film, and make for a very unique Gotham.
In fact, all the characters in this movie are solid. The cast is truly impressive: Christian Bale, Gary Oldman, Cillian Murphy, Michael Caine, and Morgan Freeman among others. Caine especially is the standout, and just pitch-perfect as a cockney Alfred. Unfortunately, however, the movie does suffer here in comparison to The Dark Knight. There is simply no character as strong as the Joker, or even Harvey Dent. Cillian Murphy is fine, but never intimidating. He gets easily dispatched by Katie Holmes' character in the end. Liam Neeson is great, but his role is limited. He does a fine job in the training scenes in the beginning (which are just amazing in general: ninja training with Batman somewhere deep in the Himalayan mountains? Yes please. Nolan really knew his target audience with that one), but then disappears completely until the last act of the movie. I really enjoyed the concept of the League of Shadows as this organization that has existed throughout time tearing down corrupt civilizations, and the contrast between Ra's al-Ghul's philosophy and that of Bruce Wayne and his father was well-realized, but he just wasn't on the screen enough to make him a threatening villain. Which is a disservice to a fine actor like Neeson.
The problem is once again tied to the nature of the movie. There's just too much to get to. The movies has to show Batman's childhood. It has to show his training and eventual showdown with the League of Shadows and Ra's al-Ghul. At the time same, there are side stories galore: the Scarecrow, Carmine Falcon, Bruce's battle for control of his company, his struggle with playing the playboy role, gaining the trust of Detective Gordon, etc. All these are fine and well-done for the most part, though any one could have been given less time or cut entirely in my opinion. But the real stinker of the bunch is the love story. Katie Holmes is serviceable as Rachel Dawes but I just found the whole plot unnecessary. Yes, it does humanize Bruce Wayne somewhat. And it gives him something to lose. But my counter is this: Bruce Wayne has no real iconic love interest in the comics. He has no Lois Lane. He has no Mary Jane Watson or Gwen Stacy. Bruce is a loner. Fans don't really care who he is dating. And there is no great chemistry between Bale and Holmes. So why not eliminate the character altogether? The movie is already far too long. I couldn't help but wonder how much more I would have it if every scene involving Dawes had just been cut, thus making the movie shorter. Or if those scenes were given to Liam Neeson and the League of Shadows instead.
This may well have been a great way to include more action in the movie. More fighting sequences would have been great, because many of those scenes left me unimpressed. Some of the training sequence scenes were quite good, but when Batman got down and dirty on the streets of Gotham, for all his ninja training, the fights just weren't very interesting. I found the scenes where he was moving in darkness, dropping down suddenly and whisking thugs off into the darkness to be the most compelling by far. And Nolan clearly has a gift for direction car chases, as shown in The Dark Knight and Inception. The chase scene in Batman Begins was easily thrilling, and easily the best action sequence in the movie. It even delivered some nice laughs, something that was rather rare in this film otherwise.
In the end, Batman Begins is a very good movie. It is Batman done right. All the elements Batman fans have always wanted from a Batman movie are here. The darkness, the grittiness, the realism. Batman is a true badass in this movie, just as his fans would want. Unfortunately, The Dark Knight came along a few years later and showed us how to do a Batman movie even better than this one. The villains in that movie are compelling and menacing. Freed from the constraints of an origin story, it doesn't drag and seem over-long the way this one does. However, given the restraints of the origin story, Nolan does a fine job here. And perhaps more importantly, he laid the foundations for a potentially legendary series of movies that will hopefully conclude with another classic film in July 2012.
This may well have been a great way to include more action in the movie. More fighting sequences would have been great, because many of those scenes left me unimpressed. Some of the training sequence scenes were quite good, but when Batman got down and dirty on the streets of Gotham, for all his ninja training, the fights just weren't very interesting. I found the scenes where he was moving in darkness, dropping down suddenly and whisking thugs off into the darkness to be the most compelling by far. And Nolan clearly has a gift for direction car chases, as shown in The Dark Knight and Inception. The chase scene in Batman Begins was easily thrilling, and easily the best action sequence in the movie. It even delivered some nice laughs, something that was rather rare in this film otherwise.
In the end, Batman Begins is a very good movie. It is Batman done right. All the elements Batman fans have always wanted from a Batman movie are here. The darkness, the grittiness, the realism. Batman is a true badass in this movie, just as his fans would want. Unfortunately, The Dark Knight came along a few years later and showed us how to do a Batman movie even better than this one. The villains in that movie are compelling and menacing. Freed from the constraints of an origin story, it doesn't drag and seem over-long the way this one does. However, given the restraints of the origin story, Nolan does a fine job here. And perhaps more importantly, he laid the foundations for a potentially legendary series of movies that will hopefully conclude with another classic film in July 2012.
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