robyn millarReview of Batman Begins
October 23rd 2006 07:57
The Dark Knight Learns How To Kicks Ass
The essence of any comic-based or fantasy movie is believability. It’s easy enough to imagine the X-men struggling for acceptance in a world where mutation is possible, or to picture Superman flying around saving people as long as we can buy that an alien baby would really be sent to earth by desperate but caring parents. The best films in this genre are those that make us, as my music teacher used to say, willingly suspend our disbelief and swallow what amounts to the “big lie” at the beginning of the movie. And it is in the believability stakes that Batman has always been rather lacking. As an idea I’ve always found it rather weak; an ordinary man with a questionable taste in clothes whose only gift is a propensity to pump out gadgets, should not be able to beat the bad guys with a regularity that has inspired multiple movies and a TV series. It is this apparent failure that the happily original Batman Begins seeks to address.
Instead of spending all its time on spectacle, as all the previous Batman films have sought to do, Begins instead starts with a simple premise. What, if anything, would possess a man to dress up like a giant bat and hunt criminals? It is this answer to this psychological dilemma that takes up most of the film, as we watch the young Bruce Wayne endure the death of his parents and descend slowly into the criminal element before being reborn, via training by the mysterious League of Shadows, into Batman.
Not to say that this isn’t an action film, there are certainly enough fights and explosions to satisfy even the most dedicated fan, but instead of just expecting the audience to accept that Wayne has access to super technology and leaving it at that, a new character (Lucius Fox, played by the delightful Morgan Freeman) is introduced to familiarise us with the pseudo-science behind the toys.
A half-way believable plot (it is based on a comic book after all), good acting from lead Christian Bale, bad guy Liam Neeson and Michael Caine in the role of Alfred, and good direction from Christopher Nolan take us the rest of the way to make this easily the best Batman film ever made.
8/10
The essence of any comic-based or fantasy movie is believability. It’s easy enough to imagine the X-men struggling for acceptance in a world where mutation is possible, or to picture Superman flying around saving people as long as we can buy that an alien baby would really be sent to earth by desperate but caring parents. The best films in this genre are those that make us, as my music teacher used to say, willingly suspend our disbelief and swallow what amounts to the “big lie” at the beginning of the movie. And it is in the believability stakes that Batman has always been rather lacking. As an idea I’ve always found it rather weak; an ordinary man with a questionable taste in clothes whose only gift is a propensity to pump out gadgets, should not be able to beat the bad guys with a regularity that has inspired multiple movies and a TV series. It is this apparent failure that the happily original Batman Begins seeks to address.
Instead of spending all its time on spectacle, as all the previous Batman films have sought to do, Begins instead starts with a simple premise. What, if anything, would possess a man to dress up like a giant bat and hunt criminals? It is this answer to this psychological dilemma that takes up most of the film, as we watch the young Bruce Wayne endure the death of his parents and descend slowly into the criminal element before being reborn, via training by the mysterious League of Shadows, into Batman.
Not to say that this isn’t an action film, there are certainly enough fights and explosions to satisfy even the most dedicated fan, but instead of just expecting the audience to accept that Wayne has access to super technology and leaving it at that, a new character (Lucius Fox, played by the delightful Morgan Freeman) is introduced to familiarise us with the pseudo-science behind the toys.
A half-way believable plot (it is based on a comic book after all), good acting from lead Christian Bale, bad guy Liam Neeson and Michael Caine in the role of Alfred, and good direction from Christopher Nolan take us the rest of the way to make this easily the best Batman film ever made.
8/10
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