Movie Review – Batman Begins (2005)

You can feel the excitement building for this Friday’s highly anticipated release of The Dark Knight Rises, the final movie in Christopher Nolan’s outstanding Batman trilogy.

Let’s take a step back and look at the first two movies in his Batman trilogy, starting with 2005′s hit movie, Batman Begins.  After all, we need to know the origins of the Dark Knight to fully understand his character and the chaotic world around him.

Batman Begins has a strong cast starting with Christian Bale starring in the lead roles of Bruce Wayne and Batman.  Michael Caine plays the role of Bruce Wayne’s butler, Alfred Pennyworth.  Liam Neeson has the role of Henri Ducard / Ra’s al Ghul, the main villain in the movie.  The secondary villain of Dr. Jonathan Crane / The Scarecrow is played by Cillian Murphy.  Katie Holmes plays the role of Rachel Dawes, Gotham City’s assistant district attorney.  Gary Oldman has the part of Sgt. James Gordon, an honest cop and Batman’s contact in the Gotham City Police Department.  Morgan Freeman rounds out the cast as Lucius Fox, a former high-ranking employee at Wayne Enterprises who gets demoted to the company’s Applied Science Division.

Batman Begins (2005) – (c) Warner Bros. Pictures

Batman Begins starts with Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) prisoner in a jail in Bhutan.  He knows how to use his fists as the other prisoners quickly learn to keep their distance.  While in jail, Bruce meets Henri Ducard (Liam Neeson), a mysterious man who offers to teach Bruce ninjitsu, the ways of the ninja.  Bruce accepts Ducard’s offer and begins his training with the League of Shadows at their remote temple in the mountainous region of southern Asia.

Batman Begins (2005) – (c) Warner Bros. Pictures

Batman Begins jumps back in time and we see Bruce Wayne as a young boy in Gotham City.  He’s friends with Rachel Dawes, and his parents are extremely rich and successful members of society.  One night while attending an opera with his parents, Bruce becomes frightened at a scene involving actors imitating bats.  Seeing him be uncomfortable, Bruce’s father escorts him and his mother out of the theater.  While cutting through an alley, a mugger robs Bruce’s parents.  The robber gets startled and accidentally shoots Bruce’s father.  He then turns the gun and kills his mother.

Batman Begins (2005) – (c) Warner Bros. Pictures

Orphaned, the young Bruce Wayne is raised by his family’s butler, Alfred Pennyworth (Michael Caine).  Years pass and the mugger is paroled for his testimony against a crime boss.  Intending to murder the mugger, the mafia beats Bruce to it and kills the mugger outside of the courthouse.  Bruce meets his childhood friend, Rachel Dawes (Katie Holmes), now assistant attorney general, and she disapproves of Bruce’s attitude of seeking revenge.  Bruce takes it upon himself to learn the ways of the criminal underworld so that he can effectively fight it.

Batman Begins (2005) – (c) Warner Bros. Pictures

The film cuts back to Bruce Wayne training at the remote temple with the League of Shadows.  At the end of his training, the League of Shadows wants Bruce to prove his loyalty by murdering a local criminal.  Bruce refuses to execute him, claiming that it’s up to the courts to take care of punishing the criminals, regardless if they’re corrupt.  A massive fight ensues and Bruce barely escapes from the fire and League of Shadows members.  While sliding down an icy mountain, Bruce Wayne rescues Henri Ducard from falling off a cliff.

Batman Begins (2005) – (c) Warner Bros. Pictures

Back in Gotham City, Bruce Wayne returns to his family’s mansion and the corporation that his father built.  While at Wayne Enterprises, Bruce meets recently demoted Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman), and together they review some of the more interesting experimental projects developed at the company’s Applied Science Division.  Some of the prototypes, such as the bodysuit and the highly advanced armored car, prove to be very interesting to Bruce Wayne and his secret goals.

Batman Begins (2005) – (c) Warner Bros. Pictures

While disguised as Batman, Bruce Wayne intercepts a drug shipment by the local crime boss, Carmine Falcone (Tom Wilkinson).  This allows Sgt. Gordon (Gary Oldman) and the police department to arrest the crime boss.  Falcone is declared mentally unfit to stand trial and is transferred to Gotham’s Arkham Asylum.  There, the corrupt Dr. Jonathan Crane (Cillian Murphy) wears a mask as the “Scarecrow” and exposes Falcone to a powerful hallucinogenic toxin, making Falcone go insane.

Batman Begins (2005) – (c) Warner Bros. Pictures

Batman catches up with Dr. Crane and his criminals, but Crane attacks Batman with his toxin.  He ultimately sets Batman on fire, nearly killing him.  Batman escapes and is rescued by Alfred Pennyworth.  Lucius Fox is able to create an antidote and save Bruce Wayne.  Rachel goes to Arkham Asylum to investigate Dr. Crane, but he captures her.  Dr. Crane tells Rachel his plans of dumping the toxin in Gotham’s water supply and attacking the city.  After exposing her to the toxin, Batman rescues her and exposes Dr. Crane to his toxin.  Batman learns of his plans and escapes with Rachel, who is hallucinating from the toxin.  Batman gives Rachel a vial of antidote to give to Sgt. Gordon and another for mass production.

Batman Begins (2005) – (c) Warner Bros. Pictures

Back at Wayne Manor, Bruce is hosting an elaborate birthday for himself, inviting all of Gotham’s elite members.  There he’s confronted by Henri Ducard and learns his true identity of Ra’s al Ghul.  Bruce kicks out his party guests and a fight breaks out between him and the warriors of the League of Shadows.  Bruce and Alfred barely escape to their underground bunker as Wayne Manor is nearly consumed in a massive fire.

Batman Begins (2005) – (c) Warner Bros. Pictures

Batman is then off to save Gotham city from Ra’s al Ghul’s evil plans.  Gotham is in chaos as the inmates of Arkham Asylum are released and the city’s population suffers from the hallucinogenic effects of Dr. Crane’s toxin.  Batman saves Rachel from a mob of crazy people.  He then lets Sgt. Gordon use the Batmobile to help him stop Ra’s al Ghul from finishing his attack on the city.  Batman and Ra’s have an epic confrontation on one of Gotham’s advanced elevated trains.  Batman manages to escape before the train crashes.

Batman Begins (2005) – (c) Warner Bros. Pictures

Once things have settled, Bruce Wayne gains majority control of Wayne Enterprises and fires the current CEO, replacing him with Lucius Fox.  Batman then talks with Sgt. Gordon (now promoted to police lieutenant), and the two of them discuss the upcoming battles with Gotham’s criminals.  They both agree that things will soon be escalating in the war on crime.  The end of the movie has Lt. Gordon showing Batman a calling card (a joker from a deck of cards) from a particularly nasty criminal that they’re pursuing.

Of course, this ending sets the stage for the next Batman movie, The Dark Knight.

Is Batman Begins a good film?

As a whole, Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins is a terrific look into the origins of the Batman character.  This is a darker and more realistic version of the tale, significantly better than the previous Batman films.

The only downside to Batman Begins is that the movie skips around when telling Bruce’s story of how he became a crime fighter.  You’re fed pieces of information here and there, and it’s up to you to connect everything to understand all of the details surrounding his character.  In other words, eliminate the distractions and be ready to pay attention throughout the movie.

Knowing the details in Batman Begins, particularly with Ra’s al Ghul and the League of Shadows, will be very important in The Dark Knight Rises.

But that’s a minor issue to an otherwise fantastic movie experience.  The music is great, the characters are very interesting, and the action scenes are outstanding.

One of the things that makes Batman Begins so interesting is that much of the movie feels realistic.  Here you’re not watching some cartoony and unrealistic version of the comic book crime fighter.  Gotham feels like it can be any corrupt city (such as Chicago or Detroit), and the technology looks like it’s straight out of the next issue of Popular Science.  It’s that cool!

The cast of Batman Begins gives strong performances.  Christian Bale may not be as awesome as he was in American Psycho, but he does a great job as both Bruce Wayne and Batman.  Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine, Liam Neeson and Gary Oldman all give great performances in their respective characters.  My only issue with the cast was that Katie Holmes seemed a little too young to be somebody as high-ranking as an assistant district attorney.

Batman Begins (2005) – movie trailer

If you love superhero movies, then Batman Begins is a must-see.  It’s required viewing if you have any intentions of seeing The Dark Knight Rises this weekend.

Henri Ducard – “Your compassion is a weakness your enemies will not share.”
Bruce Wayne – “That’s why it’s so important. It separates us from them.”