Batman Begins

I saw the Batman Begins film today and I quite enjoyed the movie. The movie goes really indepth into the motivations and psyche of why Batman who he is. The bad guys are genuinely interesting, with stellar performances by Liam Neeson and Cillian Murphy in their roles.

Neeson had a real dangerous but yet almost heroic persona. You could see why Bruce would be drawn to him for a teacher, and come to admire him for his abilities and beliefs.

While Murphy just makes a perfect Scarecrow from the moment you first see him on screen. I guess they needed to have the mask for the type of movie it is, but he was even scarier without it. With those maniacal eyes and scary obsession for his own hobby.

Christian Bale is the star of the show, and it was great to see an actor come to the role as one would with any other non-comic role. He really seems to get the various roles he has to play, by bringing very different approaches his time as Bruce and as Batman.

If I had one complaint, and perhaps this just comes from having such strong female role models in my life so it really stood out. It is that the female characters come off as very unimportant in the movie.

Bruce's focus in the glimpses of his past are centered on his father, with hardly even a passing thought for his mother. I can accept that his dad was a stronger influence, but the movie hammered that point so hard that it made her seem too unimportant.

Katie Holmes as the love interest/assistant D.A. basically comes off as window dressing to me. I never felt any kind of spark between her character and Bruce, and was just happy to see her get off the screen as soon as possible.

Still it is a very fun movie, and I look forward to owning it on DVD and seeing what they do for the sequel.