Movie Review

BATMAN BEGINS
I went to see Chris Nolan's version of the winged avenger last night and was blown away. The movie exceeded my expectations and it was just a genuinely good experience, which one does not often have nowadays in the theater. Without the heaviness and near oppresiveness of Star Wars, this movie retains a good, physchologically driven plot, kicking it into high gear with awesome effects and action sequences, but "keeps it real" in the literal sense.

Unlike the former film franchise based on the classic comics, this one takes out a lot of the glitz and glam and sticks to a more personal telling of story, motivated by true character development. The coolest thing is that it fits more into a Spy-Action genre than comic book fantasy. Mostly everything that in the other films is taken for granted is shown to be explicable by science - or science fiction. Yet the gadgets and gizmos are no less believable than any of James Bond's gear, and even the aquisition of Bruce's technological weaponry is explained in a cogent and workable way.

There's some strong imagery and frightening sequences which shocked some of the kids in the theater (some of whom even had to leave), but this should be a decent movie for anybody high school age or above. Best of all is that the story even deals with the idea of vigilante justice and makes a stand for compassion balanced retribution. Individual instances may deviate from what I would call a properly Christian view of justice, but, nonetheless, the film definately repudiates the idea of pure vengeance (c.f., for example, Batman Forever and Chris O'Donnel's obsession with Two-Face's death).

A final endorsement is the portrayal of Christian Bale, which must be compared to Michael Keaton. I think Bale does a fine job capturing the unique psychology of Bruce Wayne/Batman - perhaps not as fine as Keaton could have done, but certainly better than the fellow from E.R.

In short, go see this movie. You won't be disappointed.

UPDATE

Steve Greydanus thinks so too.