The darkness continues, though less surreal. Review on Batman Begins Movie

If you are a complete Batnovice, want the plot, the basics, the history, read coolharshal's review, then come back here.

Batman Begins is less likely to appeal to Batfans as it abandons the surreality of earlier movies in favour of a (ugh!) grown-up lets-get-back-to-earth reality. And by the same token, it becomes more accessible to non-comicbook people. Spidey earlier this century abandoned his one-dimensional comic persona and became an Oprah-worthy soul-searching agony aunt and raked in millions. I hope Batman isn't following.

There's a few things that have come to be expected of a Batmovie :- gothic surroundings, black humor, slickness, impressive gadgetry (since the Bat has no superpowers), a sense of overarching doom and a world out of control, and surreal plot. A couple of stylishly notable bad girls- Uma Thurman as Poison Ivy, and Michael Pfeiffer as Catwoman. .And no matter what happens, the action must never, ever, stray from Gotham City (a thinly disguised New York). It may go far under the city, plumbing the city sewers and underground tunnels, or leave the earth to look down from above the buildings, but wandering off to other countries, planets and distant hilltop training centers, no, no, no. This movie is breaking quite a few of these rules.

If you've seen the previous films Batman, Batman Forever, etc, you know how the villains are always something out of a Salvadore Dali imagination- deformed penguins, sadistic riddlers, half-man half-scar something, and all of them have been turned this way from normality by some shattering event in their past, which is usually half of the story. Here, Batman is fighting nothing so outrageous - just a little corruption and amorality(zzz!!).

The high point is Christian Bale's intense turnout. For this, and this ALONE, I would recommend this movie. This actor, like Johnny Depp, is one capable of singlehanded rescues from bad to watchable, and good to great. You should see him as a young boy in Empire of the Sun, review will follow).