After rewatching the run of Batman movies from the late 1980s and 90s last year I thought it high time I give Christopher Nolan’s trilogy of films about the Caped Crusader another watch as it’s been quite sometime so, with something of a sense of anticipation I slid my newly acquired 4K version of Batman Begins into my Blu-Ray player.
My memory of the film from last viewings was that it was solid enough but got somewhat lost in trying to do a little too much with establishing Nolan’s take on this world and Christian Bale’s version of ‘The Bat’ while also including a plot featuring three major villains from the comics (Carmine Folcone, Scarecrow and R’as Al Ghul) trying to destroy the city in a suitably overblown way.
This time around though, even knowing the twist (which even on first viewing in the cinema had been somewhat spoilt by pre-publicity) the film was, if anything, even more engaging and enjoyable than on previous watches.
The choice of telling Batman’s origin might at first feel somewhat standard but Nolan takes a different look at it, focussing more on the young adult Bruce Wayne training and learning the skills necessary to become his alter-ego rather than the certainly at least well trodden shooting in Crime Alley (though that does also appear).
Bale meanwhile takes elements of his Patrick Bateman from American Psycho and creates possibly the most believable version of the character brought to screen yet embodying both sides of him possibly better in combination than any previous actor to assail the role.
Meanwhile, in the hands of Liam Neeson, R’as Al Ghul shows the perfect balance of physicality and mysterious intelligence the character should have and Cillian Murphy is all but unrecognisable as Scarecrow when one compares it to his more recent role as Tommy Shelby in Peaky Blinders, but finds a terrific streak balancing the absurdity of the character with something that could be genuinely threateningly scary.
Around this Nolan and his team create a version of Gotham that equally treads a line between reality and fantasy making a villainous scheme ripped directly from classic Batman (I’m pretty sure I remember The Joker attempting a lower tech equivalent in the 1960s TV series) seem entirely plausible, while the director’s penchant for actual, in camera, special effects makes it all so much more engaging than many of the computer generated action scenes that have littered comic book movies since.
With a final tease to set up the sequel and generate a huge amount of excitement even now, Batman Begins is, if anything, even better than I recalled and balances a lot of material all but perfectly and, I think, has become somewhat overshadowed by the real world events that surrounded its sequel and the ongoing discussion around the quality of the third in the trilogy and the particular vocalisation of its villain.
In fact I wouldn’t be surprised if, on this viewing, this one becomes my favourite of Nolan’s visions of Gotham… we shall see…
Tommy Girard 