Batman Begins

I'll admit that I was a little skeptical of this movie from the beginning. Batman is a personal favorite of mine but the movies of late haven't been all that amazing...I didn't even see Batman and Robin because I couldn't imagine George Clooney in the role at all. This time around though, I was little more hopeful because of Christian Bale, who I've always kind of been a fan of. I loved him in Little Women, even though I hated that actress who played Amy...

Anyway, as the title suggests, this movie explores the beginnings of Batman. I found the trailers a bit odd, since it showed Bruce Wayne sword fighting, of all things, in what seemed to be Siberia, of all places. And it was still odd in the movie, but I guess it did make sense thematically so I was willing to go along with it. I did like all the flashbacks to Bruce as a kid, though. The real movie starts when Bruce gets back to Gotham. What I liked most about this movie was that the villains somehow didn't really seem to be that important. I liked Tim Burton's Batman but I felt like way too much time was given to the Joker, even though Jack Nicholson was really good in the role. This time around Batman was actually front and center. I mean, yeah, he was after the Scarecrow and Liam Neeson's character, but overall the movie was more about developing Batman and Bruce's motivations and his desire to make Gotham a better place, just like his father had.

The casting was all excellent, especially Christian Bale and Michael Caine as Alfred. Katie Holmes wasn't as annoying as I expected, probably because her role wasn't really that big after all. Morgan Freeman is always perfect, and Gary Oldman was playing a good guy for once with Gordon. I really liked the style and tone of the movie also, and there was a good dose of humor sprinkled throughout the serious and dark stuff. I thought the action was pretty well done too, even though I'm really tired of long car chases (though this one did involve the Batmobile).

So overall, I was pretty impressed with this movie. It's not going to make the impact that Christopher Nolan's other film Memento did, but hopefully it will be remembered for getting the Batman movies back on track.