Batman Begins

I still really love this movie. Here are my pros and cons. Pros: 1. Christian Bale Is Still the Best Bruce Wayne Bruce Wayne remains a consistent positive of these films. Christian Bale does a terrific job portraying both the billionaire playboy as well as the broken Bruce Wayne, billionaire orphan. 2. Alfred, Lucius Fox, and Gordon What an insane supporting cast 3. The Battle of Different Ideologies The ideological conflicts between Bruce and Ra's are some of the best parts of the movie. Their duelity works very well for a Batman story and makes for a great hero/villain dynamic as well. 4. The Stealthy Batman When it comes to Batman and his stealth capabilities, the movie nails it. He's supposed to be quick and terrifying. He's a creature of the night. Nolan understood this well. 5. A Grounded Gotham Where The Dark Knight and TDKR made Gotham City feel more like a standard American city, Batman Begins did a great job of creating a grounded take on the dark city of Gotham. It still very much feels like a modern city, yet there's still a division of what is old and run down, versus the areas filled with wealth and prosperity. The later films lose this dark aspect of Gotham. 6. Musical Score Once again, Hans Zimmer creates an amazing score, implementing cool sounds which resemble the flight of a bat(awesome). Mixed: 1. The Relationship Between Bruce & Rachel Their relationship feels a bit tame and basic. That makes it stick out from the movie because everything else is at such a high level of quality. It works well enough. No big problem there. 2. Scarecrow I just wish we got more. 3. The Batsuit Isn't the Best The batsuit for Begins, like previous Batman films, restricts head and neck movement(a problem fixed in later films). Additionally, the all black look is very slick. I think most prefer the black and grey look. I do too. But for me, I still like the all black look a lot. The cape is also amazing. And the gliding scenes, my goodness. 4. The Tumbler... is very cool, and is literally a military-esque tank painted in black. I personally have no real issue with the Tumbler. However, it strays too far from what the Batmobile usually is, so it lands in this category. I really don't mind it, but others might. Cons: 1. The Batman Voice Although it's not as bad here(it's gets worse with TDK/TDKR), the voice is inconsistent. I have to mention that in some scenes, the voice/delivery from Bale actually works really well. 2. The Action When you have a character who is an expert in many martial arts, the action scenes should be amazing(the stealth and Tumbler scenes are still great). Outside of the training sequences in the first 40 minutes, the fights are poorly shot, with boring choreography. There are too many cuts, close ups, and just unfavorable blocking/staging. 3. Misrepresentation of Batmans Values Nolan was so close to capturing the morals and philosophy of the Batman(The closest actually, except for MAYBE Matt Reeves The Batman). In fact, I think some of the best parts of the movie are the moments of friction between Ra's al Ghul & Bruce Wayne's ideologies. However, there's two instances where Batmans morals are potentially misrepresented. We of course have the ending fight with Ra's al Ghul, where Bats leaves him to die. He says to Ra's, "I won't kill you...but I don't have to save you". In another scenario, much earlier in the film, Bruce claims to be no "executioner". And yet, right after this line, He literally ignites a fire causing the monastery to engulf in flames. This is not only reckless, but literally puts the assassins in a scenario where there are potentially lethal consequences. I understand that Bruce was in a tough situation, and needed an escape method. But they could have easily written in a better action scene that doesn't involve seriously harming others. I can't defend that scene. Why are both these moments a betrayal of the character. It's simple, Batman does not kill. Nolan did at least make it a point that Bruce won't be a executioner, and that he wouldn't kill anyone in cold blood. So, in that respect, the film is consistent with that belief. The issue is that Batman is someone who DOES go out of his way to save people, no matter how evil or vile they are. Leaving someone to die, especially when you're the one to have put them in that situation, would be unacceptable to Batman and as such, goes against Batmans morals. In his philosophy, he believes that it's his moral obligation to save as many people as he can, meaning that, in any reasonable scenario, inaction is not an option. He also believes in justice. And that means working to fix the system so that criminals face actual justice. Thus meaning he doesn't want to, or think that he should, be the one to choose who should or shouldn't die. With Ra's death, I think what Nolan was trying to go for was the "sometimes sacrifices have to be made for the greater good" kind of moment. After all, Ra's destroyed the controls to the train during their fight. There's no way he'd escape and survive after that. He was willing to die for his mission. At the end of the day, the situation didn't present many options for Bruce at that point. He wasn't in control. Ra's had already destroyed the controls. That meant Gordon had to be the one to stop the train. Beforehand, Batman had told Gordon that he'd try to stop Ra's on the train but he may still need his help. He then gave him the Tumbler, and explained to him what would happen if the train had made it to Wayne station. The train was carrying an advanced microwave emitter, which would've caused a chain reaction once in the station. The cities water supply would have been vaporized into a gas compound full of fear toxin. Once the train couldn't be stopped normally, there was no other choice but to destroy the monorail. So, could he have saved Ra's? I'd argue it'd be very hard to given the extreme speed of the train. Add in the change in aerodynamics from carrying him, plus the limited time window, and it seems near impossible for them to have escaped safely. Remember, this world is meant to be somewhat grounded/realistic. Also, Gordon, a cop, was the one to have killed Ra's. Batman knows this. It's not neccessarily his fault that Ra's destroyed the train terminal. He pretty much sealed his fate when he made that decision. Does this moment ruin the film then? To be honest, I don't think so. I would have probably done it a bit differently, sure. I thought it was reckless of Bruce to have entered the train, having not anticipated that outcome. Regardless, Batman choosing not to save Ra's, in a situation where it'd be extremely hard to, makes the moment not that bad in context. He really didn't have the power to do so, making his choices uneven. It wasn't a simple "save or don't save" situation. It would've been a larger issue if it had been something similar to the ending of Arkham City. At the end of that game, where both Joker & Batman are poisoned by the Titan formula(an advanced version of the drugs Bane uses), Batman finally has the cure, and he decides to drink half. Immediately after, the Joker stabs him in the shoulder, making him drop the cure. With the cure now destroyed, Batman proclaims that he would've still saved Joker. He says this even after acknowledging that Joker would just break out and kill people all over again. Had the scenario been that simple, I think Bruce would have very much saved Ra's no questions asked. I know some would argue that Bruce still wouldn't have. They'd say the, "I won't kill you, but I don't have to save you.", was a direct call back, and parallel to when Bruce saved Ra's in the beginning of the movie. The point being that saving him led to many more deaths. So Bruce would have let him die because he "learned from his mistakes". I personally think the parallel was intentional. But I don't think that that was Bruce's rational for letting him die. Like I said, it was a dire situation. With Ra's, It also didn't seem obvious to me that he would just allow Bruce to save him again anyways. He very much seems the type to want to die an "honorable" death. In conclusion, Batman Begins is still great, even years later. And despite its flaws, of which there are few, it's one of the best comic book films of all time. Arguably the best Batman film too.