Batman Begins

Batman Begins is the triumphant reinvention of the Batman series. The series, that seemed to be running on life support after the insipid 1997 Batman and Robin, is back with some serious vengeance in Batman Begins. More importantly, this origin film answers one of the biggest questions of the Batman serial, ‘Why would a young, handsome billionaire don a bat suit and take on crime in Gotham?’ Indie director Christopher Nolan and star Christian Bale along with writers Bob Kane and David Goyer answer this in a surprisingly deep if somewhat slowly paced first part of the film.

Gone is the neon, gone are the bat suits with nipples, gone are the pun wielding villains. In its place is an origin tale about an ordinary man, well a really rich ordinary man, who through all consuming vengeance transforms himself from a spoiled rich kid into a masked crusader for the downtrodden of Gotham.

Bale stars as Bruce Wayne, a somewhat spoiled child growing up in the Wayne mansion with his doting parents. This idyllic life is shattered one day when Bruce’s parents are killed during a mugging in the somewhat seedy Gotham metropolis. Wayne seethes and festers and plans to exact his vengeance on the man who killed his parents but will be freed for ratting on a crime boss but the chance is taken away when a hit occurs on said killer. So Wayne disappears traveling the world seeking to understand crime and criminals until he ends up in an Asian prison fighting prisoners in the mud. A strange man named Ducard, played with expected aplomb by Liam Neeson, shows up and offers him the opportunity to hone his skills, embrace his anger, and lend purpose to Bruce’s life. It must have been Neeson’s year to play warrior mentors since this is similar to his role in Kingdom of Heaven. Wayne takes Ducard up on the offer and is schooled in the martial arts of Ra’s Al Ghul’s shadow hand. Of course learning that the group has a larger purpose Wayne rebels and torches their mountain hideaway. Talk about biting the hand that feeds you.

After this segue into a martial arts master-student trip, Wayne calls up a jet out of nowhere and heads back to Gotham to rid it of crime and to restore the faith of the righteous but scared. For this is the general story of the movie, that dear is a great motivator as well as a great inhibitor. There are good people in the world, but fear keeps them from acting to help aid those in need. It takes a large action, like someone’s death or a showy takedown of crime, to motivate this populace to do what is right and what is needed. Thus Wayne’s reason to train himself physically and mentally for battle, encase himself in latex, and sneak around the city as a bat.

Wayne is aided in his goals by a group of noble people that lend depth and credibility to his otherwise empty existence. First there is assistant DA Rachel Dawes the daughter of the Wayne’s former housekeeper and an old friend of Bruce. Katie Holmes manages to hold her place on the screen against Bale but only just. Rachel is a girl scout almost too good to be true and without the moral shadings that make many of the other characters so interesting. Then there is Gary Oldman understated and common looking as an honest policeman Sergeant Gordon, possibly future Commissioner Gordon, who looks the other way when his partner is on the take because he understands the levels of evil and that self-preservation is often a victory in itself. Bruce Wayne is of course aided by his long attending butler Alfred, and I thought that Michael Caine did a good job making us forget that he was Michael Caine and almost believe that he had been the Waynes’ manservant his whole life. Rounding out the cast is the much needed Fox, Morgan Freeman, the Q of the group. Fox is a researcher relegated to the bowls of the Wayne Enterprises special projects unit for some unimaginable corporate infraction like asking too many questions. From there he offers Bruce Wayne a slew of exotic and expensive militaristic tools which Wayne employs as Batman.

Eventually after introducing all of these people and also Tom Wilkinson as the local kingpin Falcone and Cillian Murphy as a scary doctor also known as The Scarecrow, the film starts to pickup in the action department as Batman begins his crusade. Batman starts to unravel the Falcone Empire and learns of a deeper plot to destroy the city of Gotham. Now here the story gets a little hairy and feels a little forced as an old foe reappears as the top dog of the current ploy to destroy the city but just go with it and it leads to at least a satisfying conclusion and the necessary setup for a sequel.

Gotham may not shine like New York City did in Spiderman, but it serves as a serviceable backdrop for Wayne’s exercises. The city is at times gleaming with its sky scrapers stretching to the sky as well as its shiny new transportation system. Then again the city also shows its wear as the infrastructure ages and the seedy underbelly below the tracks is revealed. The problem is that Bruce Wayne does not inhabit his Gotham in the way that Peter Parker does New York City. Peter spends his time biking around the city delivering pizzas when he isn’t web swinging. Bruce Wayne, in contrast, is holed up in his mansion in the country when he isn’t wearing his bat suit. Thus Peter’s life, and his interest in keeping the city safe feel more organic and a part of his everyday life than Bruce Wayne traipsing into the city to save it instead of sitting quietly out in his home watching it implode. And then there is Batman tearing around the city on his Batmobile.

The single most satisfying thing in this film is the Batmobile. Now, it is not that the previous Batmobiles were not sleek and filled with high-tech gadgets; it is just that this re-envisioned Batmobile is mean. Fox’s Batmobile is an all-terrain military vehicle used for bridge jumping that takes a beating more like a tank than a car. Wayne tests out the Batmobile jumping from rooftop to rooftop and destroying a fair deal of the city evading the police force. If I were Rachel it wouldn’t take a powerful hallucinogen to freak me out on that car trip. Even Sergeant Gordon gets in on the Batmobile action using the Batmobile navigation system and firing off missiles at stationary objects.

Bale looks comfortable in the Bat suit, which is saying something considering how uncomfortable it has always been rumored to be. He also has a sulky grave voice that well suits the dark and brooding avenger in a way unseen by his predecessors. In addition Batman Begins revisits the idea of Bruce Wayne as a ‘playboy billionaire’ the point of which I never got from the earlier franchise films. Just as Superman bumbles along as Clark Kent, Bruce Wayne covers his nocturnal activities by throwing lavish parties, taking models out to dinner, randomly buying insanely expensive things, and generally being a rich lout. Hey, maybe Paris Hilton is really Wonder Woman?

Though the Batman role did little for Michael Keaton’s career and nearly destroyed those of Val Kilmer and George Clooney, Christian Bale will probably get nothing but career perks from his portrayal. Of course for an actor who has always deviated from pop culture roles it may be a difficult adjustment but Bale seems equipped to handle the attention. Since Bale is signed on to do three Batman films and this one is guaranteed to do well, we will probably be seeing a lot more of Bale as the caped crusader.

The film weaves a bit in its tracks but overall delivers a pitch perfect, intense Batman whose grit and determination make him more than just a two dimensional comic book character. Bale and director Christopher Nolan add the vengeance and the crusading back into the caped crusader’s repertoire. Here is a film that exactly defines the new trend in successful comic book adaptations. The explosions are nice, but an intelligent audience wants to know, what drives these people to be super heroes and act in the interest of others. This film certainly delivers with plenty of action but lots of depth, character development, and back-story to keep those brain cells in operation during the summer.