Resources: IMDB * Wikipedia
The premise: Revenge fantasy of a billionaire child.
Directed by: Christopher Nolan
Stars: Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Tom Wilkinson, Liam Neeson, Rutger Hauer, Morgan Freeman, Katie Holmes, Cillian Murphy, Gary Oldman
Review: Admirable. Much better than the last two, and to be honest, I feel it is on par if not better than the 1989 version and its immediate sequel. The origin story, the training, the confrontation between Scarecrow and Batman, all are good. Then in the last portion of the movie, it breaks down. In order to have Batman come full circle, it is revealed that Ra's al-Ghul is still alive, and threatens to destroy Gotham; that the League of Assassins (Shadows in the movie) serves to destroy old, decrepit cities and was thwarted in an earlier attempt to destroy Gotham.
Even this would be an acceptable showdown if it wasn't framed in the concept of multi-layered trains heading into a central hub. This megalomaniacal, James Bond-esque (of the 70s/early 80s films) plot device is foreshadowed in the film, so it's not made out of whole cloth, seemingly from nowhere. But instead of the character-driven, intense film of earlier, it escapes that and leaps into straight-out-of-comic-book fantasy. Whereas the film could've been great, and still doesn't leave one feeling unsatisfied like some comic book adaptations, it remains merely good.
Score: Good
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