Better Living Thru Blogging!

Beginning Batman

I was very skeptical about the movie “Batman Begins” from the moment I heard about it a couple of years ago. A prequel? With Christian Bale? I’ll pass, thanks. But the reviews were almost overwhelmingly positive, which gave me pause. So when it came on one of the movie channels last night, I sat down with and braced myself. Surprise: it was very good. I’m still not convinced that Bale was the best choice, but he acquitted himself adequately. The villains in this one, while not rising to the level of a Joker or Penguin, were sufficiently evil and bizarre.
The story was just plausible enough to be believable, at least in terms of origins of superheroes, while retaining enough mystique to be fantastic. The list of supporting actors was impressive, too, although the character of “Rachel” was just silly and had no place in the movie, especially since the actress who portrayed her looked almost deformed. Morgan Freeman, Gary Oldman, Michael Caine - this movie has some great talent, and they were all on their mark for this one.
Overall, “Batman Begins” earns 3 stars from me. I’m a believer.