Movie Haiku - Batman Begins

www.batmanbeginsmovie.co.uk

Dir: Christopher Nolan

Cast: Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Liam Neeson, Katie Holmes

Black cape, pointy ears
he'll scare villains of Gotham
hey look there's Tim Booth

After the last franchise came to a bitter end with the steaming turd that was Batman & Robin it now falls to Christopher Nolan (Memento, Insomnia) to take the reigns and reinvent the Batman character for a new generation. Wisely he's decided to go back to the roots of the story and as the title suggests, Batman Begins is all about billionaire Bruce Wayne (Bale) and the events which lead up to him donning the black cape and the pointy ears. We find Wayne rotting in a Chinese prison, having left Gotham behind as he struggles to deal with the murder of his parents. He's discovered by Henri Ducard (Neeson) who becomes his mentor, and he's trained in martial arts and to face up to his greatest fear - bats - so that he can be recruited to the League of Shadows led by the sinister Ra's Al Ghul (Ken Watanabe). However Wayne's ideals are for justice not revenge so he returns home to Wayne Mansions and loyal butler Albert (Caine) where - with the help of Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman) - he creates his Batman alter-ego, complete with a new military-style Batmobile. And so begins his mission to clean up the crime-ridden streets of Gotham dominated primarily by mob boss Falconi (Tom Wilkinson) and his accomplice Dr Crane (Cillian Murphy) who has his own agenda as the creepy Scarecrow, and of course save childhood sweetheart Rachel (Holmes) in the process. Director Nolan has obviously used the strengths of the recent Spider-Man films as his blueprint and whilst Batman Begins has a much darker tone, he succeeds in crafting a definitive vision of the character's origins which is based firmly in the real world. The beefed-up Bale (after his skeletal role in The Machinist) is excellent here and is able to draw on the arrogance and viciousness he displayed as Patrick Bateman in American Psycho. The supporting cast list is nothing less than impressive and only Katie Holmes lets the team down with a rather bland performance. Meanwhile Caine excels as Albert, Neeson is so much better undertaking a similar role that he played in The Phantom Menace, and it's great to see Gary Oldman back on the big screen as Lt. Gordon. I also enjoyed spotting ex-James frontman and Brighton resident Tim Booth turn up as Arkham inmate / killer Victor Zsaz. In fact the only main criticism I have is that there are perhaps too many villains vying for screen time which is a shame, especially in the case of the Scarecrow who is the most intruiging and whose poisonous methods are realised by use of some terrific visual effects and camera trickery. The action scenes and production design are all mightily impressive too and you can really see where the budget has been spent up on the screen. The film concludes in a satisfying manner planting a number of seeds for further installments. Fingers crossed Warners will hold onto Nolan and his team, for this really is the first blockbuster movie of the Summer.

soulmining rating: ****