"Batman Begins" is the ultimate origin story, illustrating how and why Bruce Wayne goes from man to crime-fighting legend. His parents are still the victims of a horrible crime but instead of Wayne seeking justice and protection for his city, he starts off by wanting vengance. He ends up in a prison in the far east and then studying martial arts and use of weapons under The League of Shadows and their two leaders, Ducard and Ra's Al Ghul. When their ideologies conflict with his sensibilities, Wayne returns to Gotham and starts creating the Batman mythology.

Though the beginning scenes are beautifully shot and truly give a sense of how far this man has traveled in an attempt to escape both his past and his destiny, once Wayne starts building the Bat Cave and using the never used super-technology of Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman in a not-so down-homey wisdom role), the film really picks up speed. What follows are terrific sequences as Batman foils crime boss Carmine Falcone (brilliantly played by Tom Wilkinson) and a villain known as Scarecrow (a creepy turn from Cillian Murphy). Scarecrow's scenes may be too intense for younger kids as his victims hallucinate severely frightening images.

Every performance in the film is top-notch, especially Bale, who is the best Bruce Wayne and Batman ever. He is entirely beleivable as a billionaire playboy and also as a billionaire playboy in a bat suit as he begins his crime fighting career. Kudos also goes to Michael Caine for being a wonderful Alfred. As Wayne's butler and surrogate parent, Caine gives Alfred a lot of warmth but also a fun sense of humor. As for Katie Holmes, she's fine, but I don't think her engagement to Cruise was hype for this film or her performance. She wasn't that integral and this film didn't need any hype (For that matter, "War of the Worlds" doesn't appear to need any outside hype either).

Aside from outstanding performances and a wonderfully dark look, "Batman Begins" succeeds because it has a good script that tells the story in a new and refreshing way. It stays away from the camp that some of the previous films dwelled too much in and instead grounds the story in reality. While some of the action sequences could be a little clearer and the big finale was a bit of a cliche', "Batman Begins" soars. ****

Home | News | Sports | Opinion | Weekend | Churches | Classifieds | Archives Copyright 2004-Fayette Publishing, Inc.