Movie Title: Batman Begins
Director: Christopher Nolan
Writer: Christopher Nolan, David S. Goyer
Starring: Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Liam Neeson, Katie Holmes, Gary Oldman, Cillian Murphy, Tom Wilkinson, Rutger Hauer, Ken Watanabe, Morgan Freeman
Review: A young Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) travels to the Far East, where he's trained in the martial arts by Henri Ducard (Liam Neeson), a member of the mysterious League of Shadows. When Ducard reveals the League's true purpose -- the complete destruction of Gotham City -- Wayne returns to Gotham intent on cleaning up the city without resorting to murder. With the help of Alfred (Michael Caine), his loyal butler, and Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman), a tech expert at Wayne Enterprises, Batman is born. Batman Begins, as its title suggests, marks the beginning of one of the finest trilogies in cinematic history. In my opinion, this film is the worst of the three, but that's more of a testament to how great the other films are. This film is fantastic, and a great way to kick off a new wave of Batman stories.
Christian Bale does a great job playing Batman, filling some massive shoes in playing such an iconic character. Gotham City is fleshed out wonderfully throughout the city of Chicago, and Christopher Nolan does a great job of giving it an even murkier feel than usual. The whole trilogy has an ominous tone to it, but this movie does a great job of establishing that from the get go. Batman Begins truly excels as an origin story, introducing us to a hero that we can all connect with, while also evoking real human emotion. Pair all of this with fun entertaining action sequences, and a great supporting cast, and you have yourself a wonderfully adapted superhero flick. This truly is a great movie, but the trilogy as a whole is quite spectacular. If you're going to watch this movie, make sure to also check out The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises!
Fun Fact: While shooting on the streets of Chicago, a person accidentally crashed into the Batmobile. The driver was apparently drunk, and said he hit the car in a state of panic, believing the Dark Knight's vehicle to be an invading alien spacecraft.