The Dark Knight done Right!

While watching Batman Begins at the Regal Cinema in the Wilton Mall last night, the same thought kept running through my head as when I first saw Star Trek II: the Wrath of Khan. "This should have been the first one!"

Now, before I go on, there are a few things about the 1989 Tim Burton Batman film that I liked better than the Christopher Nolan directed Batman Begins. First of all no super hero movie has ever topped that Danny Elfman soundtrack. The villain's in Batman Begins weren't nearly as interesting as Jack Nicholson's Joker (although that was also one of the problems with Batman, Nicholson was so over the top he completely overshadowed Michael Keaton's Dark Knight). I also miss the sleeker batmobile and Burton's super Gothic art direction. But other than that Batman Begins is infinitely superior to Batman in every conceivable way. And Batman was far better that Batman Returns, Batman Forever and the psychedelic pile of crap known as Batman and Robin (the less said about this Joel Schumacher embarrassment, the better). Up til now the animated Batman: Mask of the Phantasm was the only Dark Knight flick which I felt really got it right.

The coolest thing about Batman Begins is the fact that they made Bruce Wayne interesting. I'm not just talking about Bruce in his bat suit or the playboy fop persona that he puts on in public. I'm talking about the private Bruce Wayne. This film traces Bruce's heroes journey from his time as the happy son of a rich man to guilt-ridden young man to angry vengeance-obsessed adult and finally to the unstoppable instrument of justice that he is destined to become. And as the Batman, he is actually scary. You can understand why the criminals of Gotham would start trembling and check their ranks as the mention of his name. To them he is a monster. An elemental force who bleeds in and out of shadows to punish the guilty. As Batman/Bruce Wayne, Christain Bale grounds the role in reality and makes the drama work as well as the action. He has an excellent intensity that is tailor made for the Batman role. And if you like his performance here, than I could also suggest that you rent American Psycho, Equilibrium and the Machinist to see some other great Christain Bale performances.

The supporting cast is also excellent. Michael Caine is a fine successor to Michael Gough as Alfred the Butler (Gough was the best part of the Burton/Schumacher Bat-Flicks). And finally we have a Jim Gordon who isn't a big pussy, thanks to the acting talents of Gary Oldman. We now understand why Batman would need someone like Gordon as an ally in his war on crime. Morgan Freeman is great as Lucius Fox, who in this film becomes the gadget supplier to Bruce Wayne (sort of like his "Q"). Katie Holmes works well as the chick du jour that they seem to feel they need in every super hero film, but here she serves an important part in the plot and isn't just hanging around to be put in danger (although, of course, that happens). My favorite supporting character is Henri Ducard played by Liam Neeson as, sort of, a darker version of a Jedi Master. Ducard is very effective as he helps focus Bruce's anger in the early scenes. The weakest supporting character was Cillian Murphy as Dr. Jonathan Crane AKA the Scarecrow. He was just a little too man-pretty to be playing the psychotic Scarecrow for my taste. He looked like he came out of central casting at the WB. I mean, he worked well enough, but I always envisioned Jonathan Crane as more of a physical misfit. But fortunately this movie isn't about the villains, it's about Bruce Wayne's journey and as envisioned by Christopher Nolan and screenwriter David Goyer, it works wonderfully.

Batman Begins is the comic book movie that I would send non-comic fans to see.

Decker out...