Bale is the right man for the job

“Batman Begins”
Starring: Christian Bale, Katie Holmes, Michael Caine, Liam Neeson, Cillian Murphy, Morgan Freeman, Ken Watanabe, Gary Oldman, Tom Wilkinson
4 stars out of 4


Chris Nolan’s “Batman Begins” isn’t some cinematic prequel trip down memory lane reminding us how much potential the Batman movies have, Nolan’s Batman is a dark, tormented, and surprising prequel that may very well lay the foundation for comic book movies in the future.


The story is as follows, Bruce Wayne is far off in a poor Eastern country that is un named, his whereabouts are known by Henri Ducard, (Neeson) who convinces Wayne to train under him and his leader Ra’s Al Ghul (Watanabe). Al Ghul is the leader of the League of Shadows, there plan and the plan of there leaders Ducard and Ghul is set on destroying Gotham City, the famous city that once showed promise when it was controlled by the Wayne family, the city’s chances fell short after a young Bruce witnessed his parents death. The steadily decaying Gotham is now run by high level criminal Carmine Falcone (Wilkinson) who is the “muscle of the city.” During Wayne’s training under Ducard, he learns how to control his fear, and hopefully in the future turn fear against the people that prey on it.

Wayne returns to Gotham shortly after his training settlement run by Ducard and Ghul is destroyed after they reveal there plan to not help Gotham, but destroy it completely, Wayne hates the idea and set’s off an incident that blows up the whole mountain. The first hour is devoted to Wayne’s development towards revenge, his anger outweighs his guilt, and that is the key thing that drives him to becoming a symbol that the short lists of noblemen in Gotham stand by. The short list includes Rachel Dawes, (Holmes) Bruce’s lifelong friend, who is now a district attorney that seems to be the only person willing to put Carmine Falcone’s crime ring behind bars. Another is Jim Gordon, an honest and decent cop that is pretty much the only non-corrupt official in Gotham, along with Dawes; Wayne feels that the 3 of them alone are the only people that can slowly save Gotham. Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman play Alfred and Lucius Fox respectively, Caine brings a comfortable and caring presence in his warming character as Alfred, the lifelong butler of the Wayne family, who never gives up on Bruce Wayne. Lucius Fox is the forgotten mastermind of Wayne enterprises, he supplies Wayne with his creative weapons that the Wayne company manufactures, but has stored away for a rainy day.

Cillian Murphy plays Dr. Jonathan Crane, he scares us mostly when he is the Scarecrow, the main villain that feeds on fear, and is plotting to drive the whole city mad by emptying a poison into the Gotham’s water supply. Murphy is on the verge of becoming a breakout star in Hollywood, and he brings a fresh new face to the villains that the Batman series has head, although this one has 3 or 4 villains, the Scarecrow is probably the most terrifying and feared upon.


Now about Christian Bale, some said he wouldn’t work, he obviously is working perfectly because the Batman series just took a giant step in the right direction under Chris Nolan’s helm, and he is so visionary and precise that he can’t screw this up like Joel Schumacher did with “Batman Forever”and“Batman and Robin.” Nolan’s is has made all the right choices so far, his casting was flawless, his vision is dark and bottomless, and with Christian Bale by his side, and probably sequels on the way, Chris Nolan has just struck gold.