Batman Begins

I will fully admit that this has always been one of my favorite movies. The Christopher Nolan directed Batman films were, until recently, my favorite take on the Batman mythos and my favorite superhero films of all time, so I have a lot of good to say about it.

The story follows Bruce Wayne, played by Christian Bale, as he goes from a vengeful and angry man to someone who desires true justice in the crime ridden city of Gotham. Along the way, he encounters the League of Shadows, who, under the tutelage of Henri Ducard, played by Liam Neeson, teaches Bruce many of the tricks to help make a difference and become the vigilante known as Batman. When he returns to Gotham, he must team up with sergeant James Gordon, played by Gary Oldman, and district attorney Rachel Dawes, played by Katie Holmes, to stop the Scarecrow, played by Cillian Murphy, from releasing a dangerous poison in the city that unlocks your deepest fears.

This is a pretty solid story, and the acting is mostly good, with Bale giving a very multi-layered performance as both a man who is hurting and as the dark hand of justice, Oldman plays Gordon as one or the only good cops in all the corruption, and so he naturally sees Batman as a way to help clean the city up, and Neeson does great as the mysterious yet ruthless mentor to Bruce during his training. In addition, there are also great performances from Michael Caine as Bruce's wise butler Alfred, who is always there for him when nobody else is, and from Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox, who is a snarky employee of Wayne Enterprises who helps provide Bruce with the tech to become Batman. The only performance I didn't particularly like was Katie Holmes, mostly because she kept smirking through her whole performance for some reason.

Overall, I'd say this is a very solid return to form for Batman. Yes, I will say that some of the fight cinematography is a little messy, as this was Nolan's first film in this genre, but it was still heart pounding enough to be enjoyable. So, if you are a Batman fan and you want to see the Dark Knight be, well, dark again, this is a must see.

Next time, we get to look at the origins of Marvel's first family, as they are known to comic fans and watch as they...go about their daily lives and do very little superhero work? Look out for the highly anticipated, yet ultimately confusing film Fantastic Four.

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