Batman Begins

Batman Begins- PG-13

By Jonathan Goodsell
What an epic beginning to a great series. Batman Begins is, well, the beginning of Batman. It shows the troubled Bruce Wayne, played excellently by Christian Bale, as he tries to figure his life out and eventually becomes the Batman to fix his troubled hometown. With the help of Ra's Al Ghul (Liam Neeson), he overcomes his fear and trains to be the hero he can be. Yet he eventually has to protect his city from the man that taught him everything and another new enemy, the psychotic Scarecrow (Cillian Murphy).
This movie is an excellent origins story; and for those that have seen the sequel, you know it only gets better. In fact, the highly anticipated final film in the trilogy comes out in a couple of days. Christopher Nolan couldn't have done a better job on this film. In fact, I don't believe anyone could have done better. Nolan is just so talented, it amazes me every time. He's been cheated out of it before, but if The Dark Knight Rises lives up to expectations, he better get an Oscar this year; he more than deserves it. Christian Bale did an  amazing job pulling off the Batman character. You can tell he gave it almost all he had. Seeing Michael Caine play Alfred the butler was also entertaining. The plot was surprisingly simple yet really well thought ought, exactly what you expect from Nolan. It was the perfect story and enemy for Batman's maiden voyage. The whole movie was just great. I enjoyed it from start to finish.
The whole movie wasn't actually that bad. Bruce gets a well earned kiss from Rachel Dawes (Katie Holmes) near the end. The language was very mild and spaced throughout. The violence wasn't terrible either. You see Bruce's parents get shot in the beginning. But other than that it's just fist fights between Batman and the bad guys, most of it off screen except for the final fight between Batman and Ra's Al Ghul. The whole idea of the film is that Scarecrow is releasing hallucinogenic drugs into the city. In the final scenes when the drugs are released, it get's really intense as you see through the eyes of the drugs and see the hallucinogens people are seeing. It would be a very frightening scene for little kids. In fact, I'd hesitate in letting little kids see the movie at all. Even though most of the violence is off screen, it does get pretty intense.
This movie was just great. Christopher Nolan put together another masterpiece. I've loved the whole series so far and am extremely excited to see the final chapter when it comes out. So in my reviewer opinion, Batman Begins gets a heroic 8.5/10