BATMAN BEGINS (PG-13) ***1/2

 

Directed by Christopher Nolan. 134 minutes.

Starring Christian Bale, Liam Neeson, Katie Holmes, Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, Rutger Hauer, Morgan Freeman, Cillian Murphy, Ken Watanabe, Linus Roache and Tom Wilkinson. Released by Warner Brothers Pictures.

 

The problem with comic book superhero movies is that they are too simplistic. Typically, a crime, such as the death of a loved one, propels the lead to create an alter ego and fight crime. The hero may be strong in battle, but too shy to tell the pretty young woman with whom he is smitten that he loves her. The superhero doubts himself and questions whether or not he wants to take on the great responsibilities he will face as a crime fighter. A speech usually follows. Then, we meet the villains, who are madmen bent on destroying the world (or city of choice). They cackle maniacally and happen to own weapons of mass destruction. Comic book films are, for the most part, too comfortably predictable.

Not Batman Begins. Not one bit. Then again, what would you expect from a director whose previous two films are about a man seeking revenge for the rape and death of his wife and a detective searching for a serial killer in Alaska, respectively?

 

Batman Begins succeeds in a big way because director Christopher Nolan does not forget that great movies tell stories, sometimes great stories. The best films feature characters that are compelling, sympathetic and people we can either relate to or people so different from us that we are fascinated by them. Nolan blows nearly all comic book movies out of the water and makes a bold move by not even introducing the super hero in his superhero getup until two-thirds into the film. The film is similar to the recently successful last chapter of the Star Wars trilogy. Like that film, Batman is a setup movie. In other words, it fills in the story that has been neglected for so many years. We are used to Batman swinging around Gotham City, fighting criminals, but we don’t really remember how we got to that point. Nolan fills us in.

 

At the beginning of the film, we get a reminder of why Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) hates bats, when he falls into a hole in the ground and is attacked by the flying rodents. Then, we revisit the scene in which his parents are murdered in an alleyway, though it differs slightly from the sequence in Tim Burton’s first Batman film. We skip ahead a number of years and Wayne is unfocused and hell bent on revenge. He is in a prison camp in Asia. Unfortunately, the explanation of how he got there is the only point in the film where the plot gets a little bit silly.

 

Wayne meets Ducard (Liam Neeson), who is something of a combination between Confucius and Bruce Lee, and Ra’s Al Ghul (Ken Watanabe). The two of them teach Wayne to focus his anger and use it to fight evil. However, when an initiation rite leads Wayne to realize that Ducard and Ghul are not far removed from the evil he is supposed to fight, he flees back to Gotham City. There he decides to begin cleaning up the streets, which are run by gangster Carmine Falcone (Tom Wilkinson) and Dr. Jonathan Crane (Cillian Murphy), who has a really creepy mask.

 

This may all sound routine, but it is far from it. This is, perhaps, the darkest comic book film ever made and the best, in terms of fleshing out characters. Batman Begins dedicates its first two-thirds to being a character study of Bruce Wayne and Christian Bale is up to the task. Instead of him giving numerous speeches about responsibility and how he must handle the large tasks given to him, he shows us the transformation of Bruce Wayne. Future comic book superhero film directors should make a note to self: show, don’t tell.

 

The supporting cast is very good as well. Michael Caine actually brings life to Alfred, Wayne’s butler, and Morgan Freeman is on hand to bring that sense of grace he is typically reliable for in the role of Wayne friend and scientist Lucius Fox. Liam Neeson is a convincing villain as Ducard, who is determined to wipe out Gotham City, much like Rome was once burned to the ground and Gary Oldman turns in a good performance as a really likeable cop and, possibly, the only good one left in Gotham City. The sets and set pieces are terrific and I like the fact that the Batmobile and the bat spotlight are sort of second rate. It takes time to develop such things, I imagine.

 

At one point in the film, Ducard tells Bruce Wayne that, if he learns to channel his fears and anger, he can become a legend. That is the whole point of Batman Begins, I think- the deconstruction of a legend, or mythmaking. Most comic book films tell very simple stories that are accompanied by numerous fights and explosions, with an occasional one liner thrown in for good measure. Nolan’s film goes back to the beginning of the story and really fills us in. He tells us who Bruce Wayne is, why he does what he does. He gets inside Wayne’s head and picks his brain. And, you know what? Batman Begins is hands down one of the best and most engaging films of its genre, one of which I was beginning to become a bit wary.