Ranking the Batman Movies: #6 - "Batman Begins" (2005)

Ahh, here we go. We've hit the first of the three Nolan Batfilms on the list.

#6 - Batman Begins (2005)

What can I say about the Nolan Batman movies? They're the most popular rendition of the Batman character of the past generation The trilogy of Batman Begins, The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises stand as their own staple as to how comic book movies should be made. They're unique in that director Christopher Nolan wanted to present the films in a realistic light, like what would happen if a billionaire actually wanted to dress up like a bat and fight crime. The steps he'd take to do so, how those close to him would react, and the types of fights this person would probably come across.

Bat-Bale

The first Nolan entry, Batman Begins, was produced and released in 2005. Christian Bale does the first of three portrayals as Batman. He does pretty well. He's menacing to look at in the suit, but a common criticism of Bale's Batman is that his voice is near-indecipherable. It's like if before every take Bale swallowed a grown cactus and then Christopher Nolan yelled "action!" He snarls and growls even the softest and most meaningful of his lines. I can however safely say that this film is the one where his voice is the least choked up and ridiculous. Perhaps that they just hadn't fleshed it out yet.

Supporting Bale is a slew of phenomenal talent. Liam Neeson plays Ra's Al Ghul, one of our two main villains for the film. He doesn't have very many defining characteristics other than that he's Liam Neeson, and that's pretty much it. His immortality is barely hinted at, perhaps even blown over entirely, so he's pretty stock considering we've gotten the same thing in 50's and 60's Japanese Samurai films. Neeson, however, is backed up by Cillian Murphy as Jonathan Crane AKA The Scarecrow. Having gone through the original Batman film series from 1989-1997 without a single hint of the Scarecrow appearing, (though he was rumored to appear as the villain in Batman & Robin's would-be sequel Batman Triumphant in 1999-2000) I can say he's done well in this movie. Cillian Murphy's portrayal is not only creepy and sinister, but also very gentlemanly. The problem is that the real Scarecrow, that is Crane going by the moniker of the Scarecrow is only in the film for sixty seconds before Rachel Dawes, played by babyface extraordinaire Katie Holmes, zaps him with a taser. You'd better enjoy Scarecrow quick, because sixty seconds later he's gone.

Liam Neeson as Ra's Al Ghul

Michael Caine and Gary Oldman are both brilliantly cast as Alfred Pennyworth and Sgt./Lt. James Gordon. They both bring masterful performances to both characters and really deliver. Both characters are so hard to ignore whenever they're in a scene. Each one is too good to watch. As the love interest, like I said, is Katie Holmes. I don't have much to say about her other than she's playing the part like she's still in an episode of Dawson's Creek. Still goofy, lighthearted charm. Because she's got the babyface going on, whenever she tries to become serious and have a straight face, she looks almost laughable. I'm actually of the small band of fans who thinks Maggie Gyllenhaal did the role more justice in The Dark Knight.

As the movie goes itself, it's a pretty good adventure flick. It shows a young Bruce Wayne suffering his parents' murder, going to Asia and Europe to develop a life of crime, join the League of Shadows and get trained by Ra's Al Ghul, and then return to Gotham and debut the Batman, a vigilante persona to strike fear in the hearts of criminals everywhere. As with the other two Nolan films, Batman Begins draws its narrative heavily from existing Batman stories from the comic books. The main source for inspiration is Frank Miller's Batman origin story Batman: Year One. Everything in some shape or form stems from Year One, right down to the orange-ish hue the movie is filmed in and the Joker cliffhanger ending. Some of the characters even come from the graphic novel itself, such as Detective Flass.

The fight scenes are the worst part about the movie. In a movie that's two hours and twenty-one minutes long, some action scenes are necessary to keep the audience invested. Two and a half hours of exposition would be nuts. However, the action scenes we're given, the fight scenes especially are pretty lackluster. The suspense scenes where Batman's hunting the criminals from the shadows and drawing fear out of them are pretty cool, but the fight scenes are super-cut to shit. Each fight scene has about a thousand cuts in it and you can barely tell what's going on. Even a two minute fight scene could have five hundred cuts in it and each cut only lasts about a quarter or even an eighth of a second. Full-fledged punches are rarely scene, unlike the two sequels The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises, where fights are shown with minimal cuts. It all stems from uneven pacing; the dialogue slows the movie down but the fight scenes speed it up far too quickly, and then when the fast-as-hell fight scenes are over the pace stops dead in its tracks.

While the runtime is a drag for a movie with not that huge of a story to tell (especially when something like Year One exists) and the fight scenes are nothing to write home about or even really show off to your friends, Batman Begins did its job in setting up what was to come. While the main characters do their job, the background characters are not fleshed out very well or swept under the rug entirely. The two villains are okay, but nothing too exciting. Ra's Al Ghul is pretty stock, and Scarecrow is cool for the forty-five to sixty seconds of screentime he gets. The rest is just Jonathan Crane being super creepy. I recommend it for the sole purpose of background filler of The Dark Knight. We haven't gotten there yet, so I'll explain why in due time. Until then, watch this one if you want to.