Welcome Return

If any movie this year was going to let me down it was going to be “Batman Begins.” The Dark Knight has always been my favorite superhero. The Adam West/Burt Ward television show (viewed in syndication) was a childhood darling. The 1990’s Fox cartoon series was something I adored. The comic book virtually the only one (save a brief infatuation with “The Secret Wars” series) I even considered buying. (I also admit to a phase running around trying to do Spider-Man’s web finger thing, but that – thankfully – quickly passed.)

The love affair with Bob Kane’s creation culminated with the double-whammy of Tim Burton’s back-to-back masterpieces “Batman” and “Batman Returns.” Dark, dank, gothic and full of aggressively creative vim and vinegar, these were pretty much all I could have ever hoped for, Burton doing more to increase my love for the character than almost anyone else could ever have dreamed of doing. Then Joel Schumacher came around and shot it all to hell, running things into the ground with his toxically noxious one-two punch of “Batman Forever” and “Batman and Robin.” For all intents and purposes, my hero was cinematically dead and buried, and I saw no reason to see how he would be successfully resurrected within my lifetime.

Nothing coming out of Warner Bros. led me to believe this wasn’t true. Would Darren Aronofsky adapt Frank Miller’s “Batman: Year One?” No. How about a live-action “Batman Beyond?” Not a chance. Maybe Wolfgang Petersen would team the Dark Knight and the Man of Steel together in “Batman vs. Superman?” That one, too, alas, fell through with a resounding thud. Then the unthinkable happened. Warner rolled the dice with “Memento” director Christopher Nolan and put his vision for “Batman Begins” on the fast track. Was this too good to be true? Could this innovative wunderkind work marvels within the studio’s corporate hierarchy and give Batman the proper respect he deserved?

Signs looked positive with the debut of the film’s first trailers almost a year a go. They started looking even better the more footage Nolan and Warner Bros. allowed to come out. My heart raced with anticipation, and the more I tried to hold myself in check the more my expectations spiraled out of control. This is a terrible situation for film critics to find themselves in. For all intents and purposes I was lost, and if anything this year was going to send me into unbridled disrepair it was going to be the failure of “Batman Begins.”

I guess, seeing as Nolan’s superhero epic is probably the best ever put to film (and that includes “Superman II,” “Spider-Man 2,” “Batman” and “X2”), I shouldn’t have been worried. Nolan’s work is the finest thing to come out of a major studio this year. It is an adult, mythically adventurous saga of a man driven to transform himself into a singularly lethal force of nature, a dynamic re-imagining of a legendary character suddenly anchored in a reality both familiar and concrete. It is a superior achievement and one that should finally cement Nolan as an exceptionally talented creative force able to work in any genre sent his way.

Let me be clear, “Batman Begins” is a most somber and adult affair. There is nothing silly or childish about the antics going on behind the mask of this DC Comics superhero. Nolan and co-writer David S. Goyer (the “Blade” trilogy) have taken every facet of the mythology behind this avenger and grounded him in the modern day. For the first time, we see how Batman’s tools of the trade came to be. From their rough beginnings as non-lethal military weaponry fashioned by Wayne Corporation scientist Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman, slumming, but doing it with such style and whip-smart panache who cares?) to the crudely stylized tools the Dark Knight will use on his nightly wanderings, all of it comes to life here. Why bats? “Because they scare me,” says Wayne (Christian Bale) matter-of-factly to a concerned yet helpful Alfred (Michael Caine).

What is more interesting, however, is what it has taken Bruce Wayne to turn himself into this force for justice. After his parents are brutally murdered, the billionaire industrialist becomes consumed with finding away to bring about vengeance upon those that do evil. Through his travels, some of which take him deep into the Far East, he comes to his own realizations as to the difference between revenge and justice. Bruce is helped in this training by the mysterious Henri Ducard (Liam Neeson, absolutely flawless) and his leader Ra's Al Ghul (Ken Watanabe, adding gravitas to what is really nothing more than cameo). Together they help run The League of Shadows, and it is they that teach Wayne how to transform himself into a figurehead of justice. But Ra’s Al Ghul and his pupil do not see eye to eye on what it takes to met out this justice, Bruce forced to leave the sect but not before making sure The League of Shadows cannot do any harm to the innocent bystanders of Gotham.

Once returning to the corrupt city, with Alfred’s assistance Wayne goes about reintegrating himself into Gotham society after a seven year absence. To those on the outside, an aura of a rather juvenile society playboy swirls around him; while to those on the inner circle – namely Alfred – Bruce is a focused dynamo gearing up to tackle evil. That evil sprouts up in the form of Dr. Jonathan Crane (Cillian Murphy), the psychological head of Arkham Asylum and the man most responsible for making sure all of local crime boss Carmine Falcone’s (Tom Wilkinson) associates get off scot-free. Crane, however, is also helping a nameless compatriot feed fear into the citizenry of Gotham, his alter ego Scarecrow enough to make even the most fearless live out the very things that terrify them most.

No more plot is really needed; it’s best if viewers figure the rest out for themselves. Rest assured, this is still a comic book movie and justice will find away to be served. Nolan even goes so far as to lay the groundwork for a sequel, a young Lt. James Gordon (Gary Oldman, simply delightful, underplaying the doggerel and honest police officer beautifully) handing our hero a playing card that can’t help but feel like déjà vu. I can’t say I really bought Katie Holmes as Wayne’s childhood friend and Gotham Assistant District Attorney Rachel Dawes, either. It isn’t that Tom Cruise’s latest snuggle bunny isn’t any good – she’s perfectly fine – it’s that she looks like a rather coquettish sorority girl instead of a hardnosed D.A.

But these are minor foibles when compared to the big picture. “Batman Begins” is superlative entertainment. Goyer and Nolan’s screenplay is twisty, tragic and full of Grecian mythos making the whole thing sing like a rather superlative aria. On the directing side, with only three full-length features under his belt Nolan is definitely hitting his stride as a filmmaker. Even at 140 minutes, this movie never slows, never tires, bound together with the unwavering intensity of a director that believes fully in what he’s presenting. Every piece fits, every part seamless, the world Nolan and company have constructed one that’s as lived in and alive as the one the rest of us walk through everyday.

None of this would matter if the actor underneath those bat ears didn’t register, however, and Nolan’s ace in the hole was casting of Bale in the title role. The English actor’s body of work is so diverse, so all over the map it is hard to believe the director was able to convince the former “American Psycho” to take on the character. But he did and Bale does not disappoint. A dashing Bruce Wayne, he’s an even better Batman, taking on the cowl with brooding intensity. This Batman is a real human being; a soldier for justice who bruises when hit and says, “Ouch!” after crashing into a wall. But, more than that, Bale brings a sense of righteous indignation to the part, a feeling that the destructive hand his family’s been dealt is one that can only be changed through his solitary actions as the Caped Crusader.

In the end, I won’t begin to hide my enthusiasm with “Batman Begins.” A franchise long-since thought dead and buried is resurrected with aplomb by Nolan and his team. Echoing Michael Keaton’s immortal first lines towards the middle of the picture Bale coldly states to a criminal, “I’m Batman.” It’s a stirring moment that sent a chill straight up my spine. Quietly, almost without a breath, I found myself responding, “Welcome back.”

Welcome back indeed.

Film Rating: êêêê  (out of 4)