Batman Begins

There has always been something intriguing and appealing about Batman - something dark, brooding, and human about him. These attributes cannot be seen in his other superhero counterparts. Now, combine this sad comic-book character with an immensely imaginative director such as Christopher Nolan (who produced Memento and Insomnia), and you get a tremendously dark and contemplative film. What can be said with certainty is that Batman Begins is a film for men rather than children.

Batman Begins sparked a trend of "realistic" and "grounded" reimagining of generally cheerful characters, including Man of Steel, a movie about Superman. However, most of these interpretations seem to have overlooked the core of Nolan's superhero film. Despite its emphasis on realism, Batman Begins retains a formalist style, an explosion of contrasts from a multitude of sources across time and geography.

However, the film's greatest artistic achievement is its editing. The film begins in flashbacks (in this instance, a dream scene) and regularly cuts to Bruce Wayne's (Christian Bale) infancy and adolescent years. Similar to Insomnia and Memento, Bruce's memories appear on the screen as some abrupt, jolting blasts of image stimuli, which instantly draws the audience's attention to the mental realm inside Bruce Wayne.

Release year: 2005

IMDB Score: 8.3/10

Metascore: 70/100