All Critics (260)
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Top Critics (44)
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Fresh (236)
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Rotten (40)
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DVD (58)
It's not just the birth of Batman we're seeing in this triumphant interpretation, it's also the dawning of Gotham City's age of greed.
Here's how any great franchise should start: with care, precision and delicately wrought atmosphere.
For all the hype about exploring Batman's damaged psyche, Nolan and Goyer haven't added much beyond a corny opening in which he falls down a well and is attacked by bats.
If you love Batman, then Batman Begins will the best Batman movie ever made. On the other hand, if you love Batman movies, Batman Begins may leave you wondering where the Joker went.
Batman Begins is for morons.
It may be too scary intense for younger children, but for everyone else Batman Begins is just about the perfect summer movie.
A moody and visually stimulating superhero film, Batman Begins sees the Dark Knight finally giving the treatment and respect he deserves, in what can only be described as one of the greatest re-vamps given to an enduring character.
Drained of its color, the franchise rediscovered its valor, landing the caped crusader his finest motion picture effort to date. And the ending? Oh, that ending.
So much is rich with ingenuity and daring that its constant missteps are exceptionally glaring.
They finally got it right. Finally.
A blast of energy that reinvents the Dark Knight for a new generation of film-goers.
An impressive cinematic renaissance for DC Comics' Dark Knight, and a blockbuster with more intelligence than most.
Sweeping all questions aside, Batman Begins does rekindle the franchise: it will be commercially possible to remake Batman stories with this persona and this set of psychological principles underpinning a new series of films.
There has never yet been a Batman story with quite this kind of psychological trauma. If Ingmar Bergman had ever directed a superhero movie, it would have looked quite a bit like this.
Smart and entertaining, but also very violent.
...creative, energetic, imaginative, involving, and even a little inspiring. (Blu-ray Edition)
Its edgy tone and dark atmosphere coupled with its comic-book theatrics make it a winning combination for older children and adults alike.
Not only do we see Gotham in the daylight, but Christian Bale may also be the first Bruce Wayne who's more at home crouching in a monastery with his hair in his eyes than attending a dinner party for which he'd have to trim his nails.
The movie takes such time and care to set up Bruce/Batman that it's a bit of a bummer when it launches into summer-movie overdrive.
Mr. Nolan's assured direction and pacing keep the movie feeling brisk even at its two-plus hour running time.
Works splendidly because it dispenses with the idea that Batman's archenemies have to be quirky, colorful, superficial savants, àla the campy television series from the sixties.
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