I think my original review pretty much still covers my thoughts on this movie, though I enjoyed it much more on a second viewing. There is a lot of exposition to cover here, and while it sometimes gets too much, considering just how much there is, most of the time it’s pretty fantastically handled. You can’t hope for a better actor than Morgan Freeman to deliver a line like, “Unless someone happens to have a microwave emitter … just like the one that was stolen from Wayne Enterprises a few weeks ago …” (misquote, I’m sure, but you get the gist)

My favourite aspect of the movie remains the music, which I also mentioned in the original review. It holds the movie together so well, it almost brings the movie into my highly exclusive category of movies, the “visual poem” – which mostly consists of movies scored by Michael Nyman or Philip Glass, to cut a long explanation short The cue that ends the movie leaves you feeling like the music never let up from the cue that opened it, the whole thing has an extraordinary pace.

25th June 2005:

I’m a little of two minds about this movie. In case anyone didn’t know, this ‘installment’ is a complete break from the series, in fact it’s a new rendition entirely. I actually like the 2 Burton movies, Schumacher’s Forever, and I even have a place in my heart for his other try, but given how badly that series was going, perhaps this fresh shot was a better thing to do than another sequel trying too hard to keep continuity going from & Robin. ‘Cos this isn’t just a prequel, again in case anyone didn’t know, it actually ends with the beginning of a Joker plot which they’ll no doubt pick up on with the next installment. This is all made a little more confusing because Warner Bros., who distributed the last 4 movies, are still in charge here, however there is a DC Comics logo following their’s which (I think, correct me if I’m wrong) sets it apart from those. It does still suck a little, I think, that it feels like the Burton movies especially are being ‘pushed aside’ as being somehow inferior. I don’t blame the film makers … and it’s nothing to do with the film … it’s the fans I worry about.

Anyway, that rambling thought out of the way, I have to say that this movie has some killer moments. They mostly involve the crescendos where the intensity of Bale and Neeson’s performance combine with the same-but-still-kickass cues of Hans Zimmer / James Newton Howard’s score to overwhelming effect. The movie throws you into Batman’s training almost directly it begins, it’s almost disorienting for a second. If you ever wondered, like Burton’s Joker, “Where does he get those wonderful toys?” then you’ve come to the right place here. They’ve very cleverly come up with reasons behind many of the gizmos and symbols etc we’re already familiar with (a lot of this probably comes from the comic books so probably isn’t new to some people – I don’t know, don’t care: it’s pretty cool)

It slips too quickly into standard action-movie territory at times, and I hate to say it since I love her so much but Katie Holmes is kind of out of her depth here – not a patch on Basinger, Pfeiffer, Kidman, or even the Silverstone / Thurman combo – but when it takes off, as it does several times, Batman Begins is pretty effing mesmerizing.

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