Batman Begins

Ah, man. Talk about a surprise. Does anyone remember this kicking off in the cinema? I know I do. Beforehand we were presented with cheesy comic book-style Batman's that were good, but really not all that good. Whilst grim, they had a disney-esque feel to them. You know? The airbrush polished feel of Gotham City. It was supposed to be dank and horrible but wasn't really.

That was until we got ourselves Batman Begins. And wow does this capture the feel and toxicity of the scum that is the underbelly of Gotham City -- and such a real vibe to it too. Gotham could be any number of our cities in the real world today. Crazy huh?

Batman's parents were killed. If you don't know that's how it all started. His parents were the typical aristocratic do-gooders who were killed for doing the good thing. Well, we initially thought it was a random tramp in the street that tried to rob them but it turns out there's way more than that. But that's later in the story.

You see, Batman wanted vengeance on the guy that killed his parents, and he was all ready to do the deed, gun in hand, not knowing if he wanted to do it or not, but it turns out someone gets there before him because the so-called tramp was going to give evidence on some big-time crook, and well, we all know how that goes down. Not very well.

This spirals Batman into a fit of rage, unsure whether he's coming or going he runs off and stows away on a trailer headed for the deep-dark underworld, not knowing what he's going to face next. He wants anger, he wants vengeance, he wants to punish all the bad people in the world for the sins of others.

A while passes and we meet up with Batman years later in a distant what seems like Chinese prison. He was arrested for stealing contraband. The contraband was his own company's product, so he sees it more like borrowing, and a way to weed out criminals and to, well, fight them until death.

That's when he's weeded out by Ra's al Ghul, a mysterious entity who seems to know who Bruce Wayne is, and has an interest in fighting crime like he does on a much larger scale. He wants to train Bruce if he's interested, or, he can go back to fighting penny criminals and not really affecting much damage in the grand scheme of things.

So, Bruce accepts, and thus begins and interesting friendship, and one of cloak and dagger, and which makes for an interesting watch.

My favourite batman film of ALL time. A must watch