Batman Begins

⭐ 7.5/10

(Originally written by Tim)

Jess said when talking about our favourite Christopher Nolan movies that she would be interested in watching the Batman movies again, so I did not hesitate in making that happen. I kind of just wanted to watch the second one, but she wanted to watch all three, so in the words of the Joker, "Aaannd.. Here... We........ Go".

The first hour of this first movie is awesome. Getting the Batman origins, flashbacks of what drove him into exile cut between with training montages, is pretty sweet. Liam Neeson is great at using corny lines about justice to fire up Bruce and myself. This first bit is just really exciting, and it's a shame that once he settles back in Gotham the movie kind of loses steam.

The villain is an odd choice for the first movie, and a bit on the nose (Bruce needs to face his fears and become the bat, bad guy has a spray that makes you see your fears). It comes full circle with his training, so it makes sense, I just don't love Scarecrow.

For some reason I find the last half of this movie just kind of boring. When Bruce tries to use lines about facing fears and being a hero and all those grand phrases it just comes across as kind of cheesy. Still, this is a pretty minor complaint given how great the first half is. Morgan Freeman has a ton of memorable lines, and so does Batman. Was surprised to see them all in this film, thought they were more spread across all 3.

So I'm not sure if this was necessary before watching The Dark Knight, but I am sure I will appreciate it more once I watch that one. This still holds up pretty well in a Marvel-saturated movie world, but it doesn't stand apart like it did when it first came out. Shout-out to the "I'm Batman" scene - really makes me feel like I'm being hunted by a ninja-bat.