First introduced in 1939, Detective Comics Issue #27, Batman has become one of the most popular and beloved comic book characters of all time. The signature brand of detective work combined with a darker tone than most comic books (both at the time and even still today), and the character having no actual superpowers has allowed people the world over to connect on a deeper level with the caped crusader more than most of his kind.
Following the disastrous Batman & Robin in 1997, Warner Bros. shelved all further Batman related film projects until they could find a way to re-introduce the character without the memory of him being tainted by Joel Schumacher’s wacky and excessively comedic disaster. Impressed by his work on the 2000 thriller Memento, Warner Bros. brought on board Christopher Nolan to reboot the Batman film franchise. With Nolan being less of a blockbuster franchise guy and more of an artistically focused auteur, as well as WB willing to do just about anything to get the character back in the box office, Nolan was given a considerable amount of creative freedom so long as the film was dark in tone but remained family friendly enough to attract a large audience. Little did they know that Nolan would not only produce a great film, but would use the property to reshape the film industry and bring legitimacy to the superhero sub-genre.
Following the assassination of his parents’ murder, billionaire and Gotham City golden boy Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) flees the crime ridden city in search of knowledge. After years of training with the League of Shadows, a group of ninjas who live by a code of justice at all costs, Wayne returns to Gotham to become a symbol of fear. With the aid of his butler Alfred (Michael Caine), Wayne-Corp scientist Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman), GCPD officer Jim Gordon (Gary Oldman), and district attorney Rachel Dawes (Katie Holmes), Wayne becomes the Batman, a symbol of fear to criminals, and one of hope to those who believe in a better Gotham.
Following the disastrous Batman & Robin in 1997, Warner Bros. shelved all further Batman related film projects until they could find a way to re-introduce the character without the memory of him being tainted by Joel Schumacher’s wacky and excessively comedic disaster. Impressed by his work on the 2000 thriller Memento, Warner Bros. brought on board Christopher Nolan to reboot the Batman film franchise. With Nolan being less of a blockbuster franchise guy and more of an artistically focused auteur, as well as WB willing to do just about anything to get the character back in the box office, Nolan was given a considerable amount of creative freedom so long as the film was dark in tone but remained family friendly enough to attract a large audience. Little did they know that Nolan would not only produce a great film, but would use the property to reshape the film industry and bring legitimacy to the superhero sub-genre.
Following the assassination of his parents’ murder, billionaire and Gotham City golden boy Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) flees the crime ridden city in search of knowledge. After years of training with the League of Shadows, a group of ninjas who live by a code of justice at all costs, Wayne returns to Gotham to become a symbol of fear. With the aid of his butler Alfred (Michael Caine), Wayne-Corp scientist Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman), GCPD officer Jim Gordon (Gary Oldman), and district attorney Rachel Dawes (Katie Holmes), Wayne becomes the Batman, a symbol of fear to criminals, and one of hope to those who believe in a better Gotham.
Following in the footsteps of Marvel’s success at the box office with Blade, X-Men, and Spider-Man, Batman Begins initiated the transition of superhero films from nerdy blockbuster crowd pleasers into something that could be taken seriously as a piece of cinema. Whilst Begins still has its training wheels on in this regard, it did a whole lot of laying the ground work in preparation for what was to come with its sequel, and was considerably more grounded in realism than any of its contemporaries.
Batman Begins uses the framework of a crime thriller to present itself, visually reminiscent of films like Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner, and present Batman as the detective he is in the comic books, not just a guy in a cape who runs around kicking ass with quippy one liners.
Though especially with the ninjas and the Arkham Asylum aspects to Begins’ narrative the film doesn’t fully escape the early 00’s comic book movie tone. There’s still just enough silly in there to remind you that you’re watching a superhero film, Nolan manages to reign these more fantastical elements of the plot in to keep them as grounded in reality as possible though which allows the tone to remain consistent throughout.
A lot of what makes Batman Begins work so well are the people and places of Gotham. Bale delivers a truly excellent performance as Bruce Wayne, a man who grows from vengeful trust fund orphan to a man that finally understands what his father was trying to achieve and what is necessary to begin that restoration of Gotham’s former glory. He’s smart, funny, and incredibly charming, but he’s also dark, troubled, and a formidable combatant.
Caine’s Alfred is far more than just Batman’s assistant, he is his conscience. Having been gone from Gotham for over half a decade Bruce has missed a lot of change, and having served the Wayne family for generations, Alfred is a fountain of knowledge about Bruce’s history and about Gotham’s people.
Fox and Gordon still retain that ‘man in the chair’ aspect to their characters without developing much further (in this film anyway) but the performances from Freeman and Oldman respectively give the characters a great deal of depth and sensitivity. Oldman in particular shines among the best performers in Begins with his sincere and powerful performance as the little man just trying to make a difference.
Holmes’ Dawes doubles as one of Batman’s allies and also as Bruce’s love interest. We get a decent amount of time with her in the first act of the film but then she gets side-lined in favour of the other characters mentioned above, whilst she is still present in acts two and three, she actually begins to slip into the damsel in distress territory and her character takes a hit because of it. Though Holmes did a decent enough job in the role, it’s easy to see why she was recast in the sequels due to a combination of the script not allowing her to be as memorable as she perhaps could have been, as well as being surrounded by performers that simply blow her out of the water without them even trying.
The city is a character as well, and with Gotham having been realised with environments from London, New York, and Chicago, it feels alive and truer to life than any previous iteration of Gotham. An early scene with the Wayne family using the public transport system gives audiences a good view of a number of locations they’ll become familiar with over the course of the film and gives Gotham some tangible geography for audiences and the filmmakers to work with.
Batman Begins uses the framework of a crime thriller to present itself, visually reminiscent of films like Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner, and present Batman as the detective he is in the comic books, not just a guy in a cape who runs around kicking ass with quippy one liners.
Though especially with the ninjas and the Arkham Asylum aspects to Begins’ narrative the film doesn’t fully escape the early 00’s comic book movie tone. There’s still just enough silly in there to remind you that you’re watching a superhero film, Nolan manages to reign these more fantastical elements of the plot in to keep them as grounded in reality as possible though which allows the tone to remain consistent throughout.
A lot of what makes Batman Begins work so well are the people and places of Gotham. Bale delivers a truly excellent performance as Bruce Wayne, a man who grows from vengeful trust fund orphan to a man that finally understands what his father was trying to achieve and what is necessary to begin that restoration of Gotham’s former glory. He’s smart, funny, and incredibly charming, but he’s also dark, troubled, and a formidable combatant.
Caine’s Alfred is far more than just Batman’s assistant, he is his conscience. Having been gone from Gotham for over half a decade Bruce has missed a lot of change, and having served the Wayne family for generations, Alfred is a fountain of knowledge about Bruce’s history and about Gotham’s people.
Fox and Gordon still retain that ‘man in the chair’ aspect to their characters without developing much further (in this film anyway) but the performances from Freeman and Oldman respectively give the characters a great deal of depth and sensitivity. Oldman in particular shines among the best performers in Begins with his sincere and powerful performance as the little man just trying to make a difference.
Holmes’ Dawes doubles as one of Batman’s allies and also as Bruce’s love interest. We get a decent amount of time with her in the first act of the film but then she gets side-lined in favour of the other characters mentioned above, whilst she is still present in acts two and three, she actually begins to slip into the damsel in distress territory and her character takes a hit because of it. Though Holmes did a decent enough job in the role, it’s easy to see why she was recast in the sequels due to a combination of the script not allowing her to be as memorable as she perhaps could have been, as well as being surrounded by performers that simply blow her out of the water without them even trying.
The city is a character as well, and with Gotham having been realised with environments from London, New York, and Chicago, it feels alive and truer to life than any previous iteration of Gotham. An early scene with the Wayne family using the public transport system gives audiences a good view of a number of locations they’ll become familiar with over the course of the film and gives Gotham some tangible geography for audiences and the filmmakers to work with.
Obviously, any superhero film needs good action sequences and Batman Begins doesn’t short-change you there either. Whether it’s ninja training high in snowy mountains, or escaping Arkham Asylum, Begins has you covered with some great action sequences.The standout of which involves Batman confronting Gotham crime boss Carmine Falcone (Tom Wilkinson) and a bunch of his goons at Gotham docks. With the inclusion of Arkham Asylum comes the films most comic-booky villain, Jonathan Crane/The Scarecrow (Cillian Murphy). Nolan manages to bring this truly eccentric character down to Begins’ more grounded tone, but what makes him stand out amongst the stacked cast is how Nolan works horror into the film so well. Batman Begins really isn’t afraid to push that 12 rating to the limit with some very mature themes and scary imagery and it pays off immensely well.
With Nolan’s more artistic eye than the typical superhero film director, Batman Begins looks absolutely gorgeous. The film’s opening act primarily takes place in snowy Bhutan and the environments are breath-taking. It could be concerning moving to a brown and grey urban environment after this stunning natural beauty, but thankfully Nolan uses Gotham’s claustrophobic and dark presentation really well. But this is absolutely a film you’ll need to watch in the darkest room you can because of how little light there is for the majority of the film.
Hans Zimmer’s iconic score ties everything together perfectly. The Dark Knight Trilogy has some of the best scores in cinematic history and whilst I would argue 2008’s The Dark Knight had a better score, Begins really is something to behold and having that blast out with Dolby Atmos on my latest re-watch was incredible.
Batman Begins is a fantastic start to one of the greatest film series of all time, and a great superhero/crime thriller to boot. When looked at in comparison to its sequels, Begins can feel underwhelming (and I’ve always viewed it as somewhat inferior having seen it after watching The Dark Knight), but it’s still an incredible film. This film walked so The Dark Knight could run and reshape cinema, so if you’ve never seen it I cannot recommend it enough.
With Nolan’s more artistic eye than the typical superhero film director, Batman Begins looks absolutely gorgeous. The film’s opening act primarily takes place in snowy Bhutan and the environments are breath-taking. It could be concerning moving to a brown and grey urban environment after this stunning natural beauty, but thankfully Nolan uses Gotham’s claustrophobic and dark presentation really well. But this is absolutely a film you’ll need to watch in the darkest room you can because of how little light there is for the majority of the film.
Hans Zimmer’s iconic score ties everything together perfectly. The Dark Knight Trilogy has some of the best scores in cinematic history and whilst I would argue 2008’s The Dark Knight had a better score, Begins really is something to behold and having that blast out with Dolby Atmos on my latest re-watch was incredible.
Batman Begins is a fantastic start to one of the greatest film series of all time, and a great superhero/crime thriller to boot. When looked at in comparison to its sequels, Begins can feel underwhelming (and I’ve always viewed it as somewhat inferior having seen it after watching The Dark Knight), but it’s still an incredible film. This film walked so The Dark Knight could run and reshape cinema, so if you’ve never seen it I cannot recommend it enough.