Batman Begins (2005)

Batman Begins (2005)

August 27, 2005

Somerville Theater, Somerville, MA

** ½ / ****

By Scott Muoio

The great thing about Batman Begins is that the movie cares enough about its characters, story, and themes that it is willing to go to any and all lengths to explain just about everything the audience may want to question. The movie may not be realistic in its portrayal of a billionaire playboy who fights crime dressed like a giant bat, but it certainly takes itself serious enough to pretend it just might be. At every turn it offers reasons for each and every detail that occurs, a noble pursuit given the franchise’s storied cinematic history of being ridiculous and completely unrealistic. Unfortunately, many of these attempted clarifications materialize as wordy diatribes that do more explaining than they do clarifying. In the end, we’re left with a movie that would have, in my opinion, been better served if it had followed one of its own character’s advice: “try to pretend you’re having fun and maybe you’ll find yourself actually having fun.” Even so, Batman Begins is filled with intrigue, a steady stream of who’s who in Hollywood casting, and a juggernaut of causality for everything on the screen right up through its teaser denouement. It is also not all that much fun, and like Sam Raimi’s recent Spiderman, seems destined to have a sequel much better than its foundational predecessor.

The first hour or so of this 2 ½ hour blockbuster concerns the making of the batman. This involves the death of young Bruce Wayne’s (Christian Bale) parents, his fortunate escape from a Himalayan prison, and his initiation into a secret other worldly cult known as the League of Shadows. It is in his League training that we meet Henri Ducard (Liam Neeson) and his mentor, Ra’s Al Ghul (Ken Watanabe). Together with their masked ninja-like cronies, Ghul and Ducard turn Wayne into one of their greatest students ever. In fact, he is so great that when forced to compromise his values for the league or suffer the consequences, Wayne arrogantly chooses the latter and hence sets part two of the story in motion.

Part two involves Wayne’s return to Chicago, err, Gotham City, and his reclaiming of his throne as heir to his father’s billion-dollar corporation. Unsatisfied with the corruption that has taken place since he left Gotham, Wayne uses his League of Shadows training, the sage advice of his butler Alfred (Michael Caine), and a confidant on the inside of the city’s goings on, police officer Jim Gordon (a superb Gary Oldman) to transform himself into the city’s ultimate crime figher: Batman!

The third act is where things truly get batty with the introduction of The Scarecrow (Cillian Murphy), his insanity inducing gas, and plans for converting the city’s water supply into a toxic mist. But if you think we’ve heard the last of our friends from act one, well, suffice it to say they’re back but just not in the same form as we last saw them.

Everything we could have ever wanted to know about the motivation for a man who dresses like a bat and fights the evildoers of Gotham City is here for the feasting. No detail is left unturned, no mystery left for us to ponder. How can Batman beat up five thugs at once? Check. Why do they call it the batcave? Check. What is Batman’s motivation for dressing like a bat, never killing his foes, shunning his billionaire upbringing, and, since we’re asking, where does he get those wonderful toys? Check, check, check, and check mate. For some, this may be exactly what they are looking for. For me, on the other hand, I prefer a bit more mystery in my Dark Knight. While Batman Begins definitely offers a satisfying, if a bit implausible, reason for the making of a superhero, it also begs the question, why give us so much information?

Using many flashbacks and jumps in time, Christopher Nolan, the man behind the time twisting Memento, crafts a batworld that wants to eat its cake and have it, too. In other words, Nolan wants us to ingest his caricature dwellers of Gotham City while simultaneously welcoming their world as a mirror, although slightly skewed, of our own. While the performances for the most part are spot on and add a wonderful dimension to this batversion of the story, Nolan’s inability to either capture my fantastic imagination of Batman and his world or my acceptance of a real world crime fighter by constantly explaining everything is the movie’s biggest shortcoming.

Furthermore, the movie’s script is so precise and tight that at times it can feel quite choking. By answering so many questions throughout, I began to think about plot holes rather than enjoying the ride. Ideas such as the water mister and the reasoning behind The League of Shadows got me thinking, who now hasn’t read The Da Vinci Code and reveled in its secret society mumbo-jumbo? And by filling the movie with so many characters and in particular, villains and twists, I had trouble really caring about any of them. Throw in an awkward Spiderman-esque love story between Wayne and honest litigator Rachel Dawes (the tacky Katie Holmes) and I was honestly shaking my head by the time Batman left his nemesis’ fate to chance and of course, the possibility of being available for the sequel.

All told, Batman Begins is a noble effort and a truly different take on the Batman legend. That I wasn’t overly impressed isn’t really a big surprise since I didn’t care for Memento either. But if Batman Begins isn’t top flight in my book at the moment, that doesn’t mean I won’t be very interested if a sequel finds its way to my multiplex. And like Spiderman 2, I wouldn’t be surprised if this movie’s sequel is just as entertaining as that one.