Batman Begins came after a long stretch of attempts at a Batman franchise, with the most noticeable being the four-part franchise made between 1989 and 1997 led by Tim Burton and Joel Schumacher. After Burton was removed after his first two entries and replaced with Schumacher as a response to the  darker tone of the Burton films not being good for selling Happy Meal toys at McDonald’s (that’s really one of the reasons he was replaced), and with Schumacher eventually climaxing with what many consider the worst Batman movie ever made, Batman & Robin, Batman Begins was a chance at a fresh slate for the character, but pressure was on for the film to be different enough from the source material and other versions without going too over-the-top different to the point of being unrecognizable. With Christopher Nolan behind the director boat and with the intent of revitalizing the character of Batman while also capturing a heavier darker tone, Batman Begins was on the right track. In the usual streets of Gotham city, young billionaire Bruce Wayne (played by Christian Bale) arrives back from a long struggling journey of self-reflection after finding himself in a bad place after the mugging and death of his parents. Coming back with the intent on fixing Gotham’s corrupt system, he creates the symbol of Batman, a vigilante that will stop any  criminals of the city and show them who has authority in Gotham. While this is going on, Batman’s old mentor, Ra al Ghul (played by Liam Neeson) and a crazed scientist named Scarecrow (played by Cillian Murphy) plan to use a chemical fear gas to throw the entire city into a panic and destroy the entire area, wiping it clean for a fresh slate. Its up to Batman to prove his title as city protector and take down this villainous pair. As a starter for a new Batman trilogy, this is a pretty good film. It doesn’t reach the level of the Burton film and its nowhere near the levels of its sequel, but with enough interesting changes, good actors, and a more realistic tone, it has a lot of things worth checking out.

One of the main factors for this film that could have gone completely backwards is what it chooses to focus on rather than leave out. Instead of only showing the death of his parent, the film dedicates a severe amount of time diving into Bruce Wayne’s past after his parents were killed, taking out the mystery and opening up the chance to create their own ideas. While some thought this killed the mystery, the choice was a surprisingly good one with the moments given focus being elements that are interesting and add a new layer to the character that was a nice touch for this new franchise. While the choice to tell it out of order is a strange and pointless choice, the first half does a pretty good job setting up his character and paving way to a great hero. The issue of the film is that the film’s good will seems to go on halt the second he becomes Batman. Whether it’s a comparison to the first half or just a change in writing style, the last third of the film gets really dull and forgettable, featuring very little interesting conflict, meaningful dialogue, character moments or even memorable action. The second half does a decent enough job setting up the stationary character and laying the ground works for how Batman would function, but as soon as Bruce Wayne puts that mask on, its bizarrely not as interesting. While the more realistic tone helps in creating a more oppressive world and atmosphere, it leaves the more comic book elements either feeling limited or out of place with this set up, therefore the villains and therefore the final act is not nearly as consistent or effective. While Nolan’s style can be felt within this movie with the pointless out of order storytelling in the first act and the heavier focus on tell and not show, thankfully his style of directing proves to benefit here as it gives the world and movie its own style and distinct feel to it.

Most of these actors would later become stables for Nolan in his film line-up later on, so first impressions are very important. Obviously the most important role and therefore actor in this film is Christian Bale as Batman. The tragic thing about Bale is that this role had to have been incredibly hard to do; having to change motivations, attitudes, demeanours and reactions within the same movie and performance even before he has to become Batman. With all that under his belt, he does manage to produce a good performance, but one that never quite feels that correct to the character. Whether it’s the directing, writing or his own choice, but anytime he becomes Batman, it doesn’t feel like it IS actually the character, rather someone playing the character so the role is not as gripping as it should be. The side characters have similar issues; where they feel more like archetypal positions for this story rather than fleshed out individuals; Katy Holmes as the love interest is passable but clearly only there to be support and not a character, Michael Cain as Alfred is clearly putting in effort, but lacks a certain warmth and sincerity that the character requires, and Gary Oldman as Commissioner Gordon is a good choice but heavily underutilized.  While these issues still have their upsides to them, the villains are one of the worst parts of this movie; they are forgettable, poorly written, dull in personality, weak and confused in motivation, have no strong connection with the hero and only become threats during the end of the film. While Liam Neeson and Cillian Murphy are fine choices, they add nothing to the overall picture and only add to the underwhelming climax.

For the film to really have a style without feeling to unrealistic, it would have to take an almost sci-fi type angle where the distinction would come more from the changes to current technology as opposed to feeling completely alien. Most Batman properties do this very well, taking on a different time period vibe, and this one does this in a pretty smart way by setting it in a more modern era. This allows for cleaner backgrounds and more technology added to the inventory while still capturing the harsher look that comes with the territory. While stuff like the Bat suit can look a little silly, the design of it would lead well into action scenes as it looks more comfortable to move in than other versions. With that said, the action in this movie is pretty abysmal, with shaking cinematography, rapid editing and dull staging not allowing for any memorable clashes with everyone’s favorite caped crusader. Even if the film doesn’t have that much action and a majority of it was done with real stunt-work, the choice moments are really forgettable and leave no impression on the viewers. While there is CG used in the film, its really only used in backdrops or little additions so they don’t stand out as being anything that noticeable. While the cinematography has its nice establishing shots of locations like in the snowy mountains, it does suffer a bit from the time period with some of the weird design choices they make like with the awful shaky slow-down effect whenever the Scarecrow gets involved.

Batman does begin itself with a pretty solid entry into the Nolan-verse. Even as Batman movies go, this film did a pretty good job distancing itself from the other versions and becoming very clearly its own thing, while still having enough noticeable inclusions that it doesn’t feel too disconnected from the original story. The changes made may not be favored by some, but for the narrative its creating,  most of them have purpose and pay-off which is how changes should be handled. The backstory is interesting and allows the first half to be the better half of the movie, the actors are good choices of these roles and do a fine job at portraying them, the style is evident and not too overly distracting, and it delivers a more realistic Batman without going too moody and lacking humanity that later DC superhero movies would love doing . Its true the film falls out under its feet with its less than engaging characters, poor action, horrible villains and mishandled third act, but as a whole, the film is still worth checking out. Even if everybody is tired of seeing the Wayne’s getting killed in an alley, that doesn’t mean we’re going to forget about this iconic symbol anytime soon.