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Batman Begins
Nils van der Linden
Posted Thu, 23 Jun 2005
"You're not sending me to the cooler," droned Mr. Freeze (aka Arnold Schwarzenegger in blue smurf paint) during 'Batman and Robin'. Jail terms for those responsible may have been avoided, but such cringe-worthy one-liners — coupled with hammy acting and tacky effects — sent the 'Batman' film franchise straight to the morgue.
It's only after eight years that someone's been brave enough to resurrect the Dark Knight's cold, lifeless body on screen, wisely avoiding the garish colouring-in-book tone of the two most recent installations. Instead, director Christopher Nolan has made a partial return to the gloomy Gotham City of the Tim Burton–Michael Keaton offerings, ditching the quirks while adding realism to the concept of a grown man running around in a black S&M suit to fight crime. Yes, realism.
The man who gave us 'Insomnia' and mind-bender 'Memento' does this by focusing on Bruce Wayne the person and, as the film's title implies, the beginning of his life as Batman.
We meet a man tormented by the death of his parents, battling his guilt and anger, while trying to reconcile his desire for revenge with the philanthropic altruistic streak passed down from his father. It's typical self-destructive downward spiral stuff but Christian Bale's performance and Nolan's screenplay help avoid the textbook psychology 101 clichés.
So when he's plucked from a Himalayan jail cell by the mysterious Ducard (Liam Neeson) and taught to master his anger by confronting his greatest fear — and a couple of nifty sword-fighting tricks — it seems less like the 'Karate Kid' and more like 'The Last Samurai'.
And on Wayne's return to Gotham, we see, believably, how he channels his self-destructive emotions to become the sinister alter-ego that's part hero, part vigilante, all the while hiding behind that playboy persona.
But the overlong 'Batman Begins' isn’t an insomnia-curing study on the state of the human psyche — it's a big-budget action movie. It delivers too thanks to Nolan balancing the drama with riotous, no-expense-spared effects. Intriguingly, many involve Batman trying to perfect his crime-fighting skills (often getting his ass kicked in the process) while struggling to control the gadgets in his arsenal.
They remind us that he's just a guy — a super-hero without super-powers — but, more importantly, it introduces the audience to toys like the Batmobile (or, in this case, Battank) for the inevitable chases through the streets and across the rooftops.
All is presented as realistically and seriously as possible (for a comic adaptation), with wisecracks and over the top absurdities kept to a minimum. Even the villains are plausible: Carmine Falcone is a typical Mafioso while Dr. Jonathan Crane is a rather twisted psychiatrist with a thing for mind-altering gas and a hessian-bag mask.
But their grand-plan — involving the release of toxins in the water supply by using something that looks and sounds like a jet engine — does take proceedings a bit far.
So too does Gary Oldman's 'Keystone Cops' slapstick routine as he struggles to drive the Batmobile — a blemish on the list of otherwise solid performances from a first-class cast. Even Katie Holmes, who may not exactly stand out as the token love interest, does her best with the film's clunkiest 'Spiderman'-inspired line: "It’s not who you are underneath, but what you do that defines you."
If that's true, then Nolan is an auteur of note because here he's assembled what must be the best superhero film yet — a suitably dark and menacing adaptation that hits your head and your gut with equal force. This, like the 'Spiderman' films and Burton's 'Batman' offerings, is a sure to become a comic book classic.
