Batman Begins is the latest chapter in the chain of unattached Batman films. Batman Begins starts the franchise all over and takes you through the journey Bruce Wayne travels to wear the mantle of the guardian of Gotham, Batman.
Bruce Wayne (Bale) struggles with the loss of his parents and sets out to train himself to avenge his past. With mentoring from Herni Ducard (Neeson), we watch Bruce Wayne both harnesses his anger and his guilt and find that they are both laced to his fear. Once he has learned to overcome his fear, he can begin to spread fear to people who seeded his anger and guilt, the crime of Gotham. It’s a vicious circle, but that’s good drama.
Once he returns to Gotham, he quickly begins to look closely at the corruption that has plagued his fare city. After looking over the entire city, he finds that only a few people are good: Gordon (Oldman), Rachel (Holmes), and anyone his father worked with directly. Everyone else is evil except for a few small children and impoverished citizens. Gotham is very black and white, this makes Batman’s job very easy.
Once Batman has made his mark on Gotham and begins to bring down the thugs, the city questions the work of the vigilante. Bruce Wayne must keep up appearances to save both his identity and the good citizens of Gotham. However his struggle between finding his true self and avenging his past quickly shifts to avenging his past and rekindling his lost love with the reentry of Katie Holmes into his life (Rachel).
During this transition, the film changes gears into the familiar gear of summer blockbuster. With the corruption plaguing the city, Scarecrow (Murphy) uses mind altering drugs to drive the city to its knees. And the only way to stop this is with the cooperation of Batman, the above mentioned people who are good in the city, and a futuristic arsenal of stupendous proportions.
Though I find this movie to be good and enjoyable, I also find it to be cut from the same cloth as many other summer blockbuster action films. Though it has small intricacies that break away from the clichés of the summer blockbuster, the film in itself becomes almost predictable and obtuse. With the strength of the beginning and a proposed premise, it is slowly beaten down with flashy chase scenes, chaotic fight scenes and a two dimensional love story.
This film is one of the better action movies to come out this year so far, but to convince someone that this is anything more then a summer blockbuster would be hard to do. Good intentions, but poor execution.
Stay tuned for my rant on this film from the perspective of a Batman Fan!
