Asledgehammer-subtle reworking of Batman's "origin" story, Batman Begins is industrial strength, from the props to the sound. It'll clear the wax out of your ears, but it won't deliver anything piquant to your brain. At a solemn 140 minutes, it tests your tailbone more often than it tickles your funny bone.
Director Christopher Nolan, the accomplished yet sober-sided young director who caused an (undeserved) sensation with his jigsaw-puzzle cult thriller Memento (2001), adopts a new motto for his pre-sold blockbuster: "We will leave no viewer behind."
From the moment Bruce Wayne as a child falls into a dry well filled with bats, Nolan betrays a heavy foot as he lays down each step in the creation of this self-made superhero. Tim Burton's Batman (1989) was all pop-poetic suggestion, including Danny Elfman's sexy-ominous score. Although it juggles with chronology, Batman Begins is obvious from the get-go - and almost no fun.
Once again, young Wayne sees his parents murdered in a Gotham City alleyway. But this time, the moviemakers load the event with social and philosophic weight - dead weight. Wayne's father is a do-gooder who leaves his mammoth business interests to the officers of Wayne Enterprises and concentrates on saving a depressed Gotham City through philanthropic projects, like a clean, efficient public train system. His death traumatizes Bruce and catalyzes a crisis of conscience both in his son and in his city. When Bruce grows into a strapping young man (Christian Bale), the key question of his life becomes whether vengeance ever equals justice.
What ensues is one of those hero's journeys so beloved of post-Star Wars Hollywood. It lands Wayne in the Asian underworld, a Bhutanese prison and then in the Himalayan headquarters of Ra's Al Ghul (Ken Watanabe) and his right-hand man, Henri Ducard (Liam Neeson), leaders of a vigilante group called the League of Shadows. There Wayne perfects his martial-artistry and embraces his primal fears in order to overcome them. He also absorbs the lesson that a myth is more powerful than a man. Then, like every Joseph Campbell hero, he returns home to share the fruits of his wisdom. He prepares to rid Gotham of evil and corruption and to do it justly, not viciously - single-handedly, if need be.
