It’s not the best Batman movie ever, but it does rank highly with me. Liam Neeson is by far the best actor in the film, and his character is rather brilliantly portrayed. Even when his defeat is inevitable, his lines stay true. That’s probably saying more about the writing than the actor, but he delivers the lines in a very meaningful way. I can’t say too much without giving away plot lines and stuff.

This is the first time I’ve seen Gotham City depicted as gothic without having it look like a 1930s New York. That scored a major plus with me.

Katie Holmes plays a nearly useless character. The one time her role is made important (beyond the generic "someone has to have a soul around here" good guy type) it actually causes an out-of-character extravaganza for the bat. I’ll give two words as clues: "car" and "chase".

There were no twists in the film that a third grader couldn’t figure out. The few things that should have been left to subtlety were stated by characters. Captain Obvious should have been the bad guy in this film. I know I wanted to shoot him.

I think Gary Oldman was a very poor fit for Office Gordon. I have seen him play so many roles as the bad guy that it’s hard for me to see him as the only good guy. That’s not so much a complaint toward him as it is to the casting director – who put the perfect person in for Alfred, by the way.

And while I’m on the subject… Bale? What were they thinking? In the suit, he’s okay (though his Batman voice is atrocious), but when he’s Wayne it’s just not believable.

There were a few attempts at humor with some succeeding to various degrees. And even those have a nice mix of visual and spoken elements. Most were mere giggles, but at least one had me laughing out loud (lol?).

The best part of the film (excluding the little vacation Batman takes in the scene mentioned earlier) is the way our hero uses fear. This takes me back to how I always remembered him from the comics. Batman uses fear against those who cause fear in others. It’s his primary weapon.

I honestly don’t remember any cussing in there, but I wasn’t paying attention for it. I just know that no one dropped any f-bombs. There is no love scene (which is very refreshing – I’m tired of movie-makers thinking every film has to have one). The best we get is a kiss that’s not entirely "meant" (you’ll see).

Use of the same few one-liners over and over got tiring after a few minutes, but I lived – you will, too.

Overall, I give this movie a B. It’s definitely worth seeing in a theater, and you’ll come out of it knowing you had fun. Just don’t go looking for anything more than a good action flick.

—
Dustin D. Cook, A+
dcook32p@htcomp.net