'Batman Begins': Part action flick, part character study
Austin American-Statesman
Fear not: The Batman is back.
As you might recall, in 1997 he was in trouble. It wasn't the Joker or the Riddler or even Mr. Freeze who had the Dark Knight Detective on the ropes. It was director Joel Schumacher, whose "Batman and Robin" — with George Clooney at his most mannered, Bat ice skates and nipples on the costumes — was one of the decade's very worst movies, a jaw-dropping pile-up of dumb and dumber. It was so unwatchable that it nearly sank the entire franchise.
Warner Brothers Pictures
3 out of 5 stars Director: Christopher Nolan
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All things Batman languished in development limbo for six years before director Christopher Nolan ("Memento," "Insomnia") started work on this picture, and the results will thrill Batfans. With crisp characterization and some of the strongest acting the franchise has ever seen, "Batman Begins" goes a long way to getting the character — whose 1989 incarnation starring a dour, mumbling Michael Keaton was one of the summer flick phenoms of the era — back on track.
We first see Bruce Wayne (a nuanced Christian Bale) well before he assumes the cape and cowl. He's stuck in a Chinese prison, consumed with rage and guilt. Wayne, the ultimate mugged liberal looking for revenge, runs into Henri Ducard (Liam Neeson, essentially reprising his mentor role as Qui-Gon Jinn from "Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace"), who promises him the power and skill he seeks. Ducard trains Wayne to join the League of Shadows, a group sponsored by the mysterious Ra's Al Ghul (a wasted Ken Watanabe) that promises him the physical training to become a living weapon and a chance to dispense the justice he desires.
Flash back to an 8-year-old Wayne, scared of the bats that nest beneath his mansion and the heir to a vast family fortune, orphaned when his saintly parents — whose philanthropy helped prop up a struggling Gotham City — are gunned down in a savage robbery.
Wayne grows up bitter and alone in the care of Alfred Pennyworth (a dignified Michael Caine), his kindly butler. He abandons his family's company, alienates himself from his childhood sweetheart Rachel (Katie Holmes, more entertaining in her real life role as Tom Cruise's girlfriend). When he returns from his exile, Gotham is a sewer, with criminals hoarded in an insane asylum run by the creepy Dr. Jonathan Crane (Cillian Murphy, the protagonist of "28 Days Later," here sporting more hair and a terrible American accent).
Wayne finds allies in police Lt. James Gordon (Gary Oldman) and Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman, who can do this sort of thing in his sleep), a deposed executive in Wayne Enterprises. Fox introduces Bruce to some really cool body armor, nifty gadgets and a tank-like car, all of which — as you might imagine — come in handy later.
Nolan is the most recent indie director to grab the reins of a big-ticket franchise. Bryan Singer jumped from "The Usual Suspects" to "X-Men," the nearly unknown Peter Jackson helmed "The Lord of the Rings" films and Guillermo del Toro made a hit out of "Hellboy." Like those directors, Nolan is torn between creating a character study of Bruce Wayne, vigilante millionaire, and an action-packed summer blockbuster with one of the most recognizable characters in popular media. So he tries to do both.
The first hour or so is a blast, a blend of martial arts and survivor guilt. Bale does an excellent job fleshing out Bruce Wayne, giving him depth, purpose and a tangible, credible arc. Credibility seems to be the movie's watchword. Nolan goes out of his way to hammer home the core of Batman's appeal: that with an iron will and a massive fortune, you, too, could perfect your body, dress up like a bat and fight crime. Gotham itself falls somewhere between the Gothic skyscrapers of the 1989 film and the scuzzy, street-level concrete canyons of, say, "The Crow," while 9/11 looms large in the background. What's Ra's Al Ghul, after all, if not an international terrorist hiding with a small army dedicated to destroying a corrupt society?
However, the demands of the franchise wear on "Batman Begins." It's easily a third too long, and by the time the climax arrives, it hits home just how cliched the central crime is, how grafted onto the character study the action seems to be. For all his depth and purpose, Batman is suddenly back in 1966, fighting a cartoonish villain committing a cartoonish crime.
But hey, it's better — far, far better — than nipples on the Batsuit.
