Plot
Bruce Wayne has watched his home, Gotham City, turn into a crime infested abyss throughout his entire life, so he decides to become the hero Gotham needs- Batman.

Release Year: 2005

Rating: 8.3/10 (377,397 voted)

Critic's Score: 70/100

Director: Christopher Nolan

Stars: Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Ken Watanabe

Storyline
When his parents were killed, millionaire playboy Bruce Wayne relocates to Asia when he is mentored by Henri Ducard and Ra's Al Ghul in how to fight evil. When learning about the plan to wipe out evil in Gotham City by Ducard, Bruce prevents this plan from getting any further and heads back to his home. Back in his original surroundings, Bruce adopts the image of a bat to strike fear into the criminals and the corrupt as the icon known as 'Batman'. But it doesn't stay quiet for long.

Writers: Bob Kane, David S. Goyer

Cast:
Christian Bale - Bruce Wayne / Batman
Michael Caine - Alfred
Liam Neeson - Henri Ducard
Katie Holmes - Rachel Dawes
Morgan Freeman - Lucius Fox
Gary Oldman - Jim Gordon
Rade Serbedzija - Homeless Man (as Rade Sherbedgia)
Cillian Murphy - Dr. Jonathan Crane / The Scarecrow
Tom Wilkinson - Carmine Falcone
Rutger Hauer - Earle
Ken Watanabe - Ra's Al Ghul
Mark Boone Junior - Flass
Linus Roache - Thomas Wayne
Larry Holden - Finch
Gerard Murphy - Judge Faden

Official Website: Warner Bros [France] | Warner Bros. [Hungary] |

Release Date: 15 June 2005

Filming Locations: Canary Wharf, Isle of Dogs, London, England, UK

Box Office Details

Budget: $150,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend: $48,745,440 (USA) (19 June 2005) (3858 Screens)

Gross: $371,853,783 (Worldwide)

Runtime: 140 min

Trivia:
Early work on the script and the production design was conducted in the back of Christopher Nolan's garage. During the writing process, Nolan and David S. Goyer sometimes took walks near the site of the original Batcave from Batman.

Goofs:
Audio/visual unsynchronized: Bruce Wayne's birthday party - the birthday song does not match the lips of the party-goers.

Quotes:
[first lines]
Bruce Wayne - age 8: Rachel, let me see! Can I see?

Everything I could have hoped for

Rating: 10/10

I had fearful reservations about this one. I loved Tim Burton's Batman - 12 years old when it came out I was the perfect age for it and I also enjoyed Batman Returns. The franchise went so wrong under Joel Schumacher that I wasn't sure I wanted it resurrected. Not least because Batman was one of the few comics I read and enjoyed as a kid and was always my favourite superhero. I grew up reading the comics, watching reruns of the Adam West TV show and then getting Burton's celluloid vision. I was spoilt for choice as a kid but as an adult now I was concerned revisiting the franchise, especially given Warner's record over the last decade of screwing up summer blockbusters with potential all over the place (dare I bring up the Matrix sequels?)

However, I am pleased to report I could not have been more wrong about how great Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins is. This is better than Burton. Sacrilege, you say?! Well Burton was still cartoony in many elements, he wasn't churning out the bilge of Schumacher but Burton's Batman was still over the top. As a kid this was ideal but Nolan's Batman is real. Everything in this world seems plausible and it is therefore a world that draws you in. Characters' vulnerability is that much more present. Every bruise, every scare, every concern, every emotion seems real.

Part of this is that Nolan has assembled an exemplary cast. Again, this concerned me prior to seeing the film. I wasn't sure a cast of big name legends like Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman and well known names like Liam Neeson and Katie Holmes wouldn't detract and distract from Batman. I was always sure Christian Bale could be the great moody Batman he's been waiting his career to be but the others I wasn't so sure about.

That said Bale is not just good, he's superb. I never thought I'd really be able to envision anyone other than Michael Keaton as the definitive Batman for me but since seeing Batman Begins a couple of days ago Bale has cemented himself in the position. Perhaps Keaton will now be able to escape the spectre of Batman he hasn't truly shaken off for 13 years.

The rest of the cast is also pitch perfect. Cillian Murphy is creepy as hell, Liam Neeson is authoritative and imposing, Katie Holmes is strong and sexy (I particularly thought she'd be insipid, she should jettison Tom Cruise and let her talent - which she does have naysayers just watch Pieces Of April - speak for itself) and Michael Caine is an Alfred you've never seen but in fact far more likely as a butler than the aristocratic pomp with which he is usually portrayed. Gary Oldman is also superb in a rare wholly decent character for him as Lieutenant Jim Gordon who gets far more to so here than Gordon has ever had to do before. Only Tom Wilkinson is a little off with a slightly comedic wise-guy American accent that never really convinces.

The emotional bond between Bruce Wayne and Alfred is actually a wonderful human heart to the film than Nolan and Goyer have written perfectly.

Don't let that make you think the action is not front and centre though. From Wayne's training through the early stages of the film to his early missions as Batman at about the half way point to a thrillingly choreographed chase sequence and an edge of your seat finale this film delivers the cool quotient in bucket loads.

Great villains (especially Murphy), great story, great cast, great action... put simply, great film. Probably the best comic-book movie ever made (that's excluding the genius Sin City which I consider a moving comic-book rather than a comic-book movie, that will never be bettered but Batman is a different beast and the best of its kind).

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