Batman Begins

I truly enjoyed director Christopher Nolan’s approach to the Batman franchise. The film is intelligent, well-crafted, and surprisingly well-acted.  Why surprisingly? I didn’t expect Christian Bale to do such a credible job as Bruce Wayne but he pulled it off and convinced me that his way to reform Gotham, that of good and not of Henri Ducard, played by Liam Neeson, was the only way.

The philosophical discourse between Bruce, Ducard, Alfred, played by Michael Caine and Jim Gordon, played by  chameleon Gary Oldman, about the nature of good and evil, and hints at the grey areas in between, are worth paying attention to. Students of mythology, linguistics and semiotics will enjoy Bruce Wayne’s purposeful creation of his persona as a myth and what people “do” with myths and mythical figures.

The only thing that I thought a little flawed were the two Katie Holmes endings. Just when we thought Bruce and Rachel, played by Holmes, had said good-bye, there they were again for another good-bye. Also, first Rachel told Bruce he wasn’t the person she wanted him to be, and then when he tried to be, she seemed to not be happy with that either. I thought she did a credible job as the ADA trying to stop the criminal takeover of Gotham through the legal system.

Batman Begins is a dark more mature version of Spider-Man 2 that articulates what it means to have character and be a true hero. Can’t wait for the sequel.

(This commentary is brief because I have a lot of catching up to do!)