Plot
21st century telling of how Bruce Wayne became Batman, from his childhood and the death of his parents, to his abandoning Gotham City in his early adulthood – and training with the League of Shadows, finally his return to Gotham, and to rid the city of the criminals who run it.
Direction
Absolutely stellar direction from Christopher Nolan – who blends his beautiful cinematography along with gorgeous settings, especially during Bruce’s training.
There is some truly great choreography too, with both the fight sequences between Batman and several bad guys.
Nolan’s use of practical effects are forefront – like the train crash and mansion fire, as well as the Batmobile v police car chase sequence in the middle of the film.
Cast/Characters
A fairly stacked cast, that is led by Christian Bale as Bruce/Batman. He plays both roles well, and adds a sense of realism to the physical nature of how Batman trains to get to how he is.
Michael Caine is the perfect Alfred, who is both a father figure and mentor to Bruce. They work well together, and moments between them bring a bit of a tear to my eye, especially how Caine says “never!” to Bale’s question if he has given up on him.
Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox is the hidden assistant of Bruce – who runs the Applied Science Division of Wayne enterprises. Despite not appearing until nearly an hour into the runtime, he becomes an important part of the film, and franchise from here on in.
Gary Oldman as Jim Gordon is his usual brilliance- bringing everything to the table.
Katie Holmes does a sound job as really the only female cast member
Tom Wilkinson, Cillian Murphy, and Ken Watanabe round out the secondary cast as the villains Carmine Falcone, Dr Jonathan ‘Scarecrow’ Crane, and Ra’s Al Ghul respectively.
Liam Neeson plays a very important role throughout the film as well.
Screenplay/Setting/Themes
Both a reinvention of the superhero films, and also the mythos of Batman after the abysmal films of the mid to late 1990s.
Told in a non-linear narrative, it’s relatively easy to follow as the first half of the film jumps around to Bruce as a child, being a criminal arriving at League of Shadows, and his departure from Gotham prior to becoming a criminal.
Not being a comic book reader myself, I enjoyed the primary villains as they were somewhat foreign to me before I had watched this.
There are some sensationally written dialogues too, with memorable lines like the ‘why do we fall’ saying by Thomas Wayne and Alfred, and Bruce’s ‘It’s not who I am underneath’
I also enjoyed the reasoning of ‘why Bruce chose bats’ to become batman… as Fear is a primary theme of what characters use against each other.
Score/Soundtrack
Hanz Zimmer begins his collaboration with Nolan here, and along with James Newton Howard tend the score. There is strong similarity to Nolan’s past collaborator David Julyan – and is near flawless.
Overall
As per Nolan, a wonderful film.
From the choreography of the fight sequences, to the cinematography of moments while Bruce is training with the league of shadows.
The realism of the film is what makes this so unique, that you could believe a multi billionaire actually could become a crime fighter.
Followed by two sequels (which the film cleverly sets up in the final seconds of the film).
Also, how is this movie TWENTY years old?
4.5/5
If you’re able to, please “buy me a coffee”
Ryan's Movie Reviews 