Comprehensive information and links about Batman Begins

Batman Begins (2005Batman Begins is an American film based on the comic book character created by Bob Kane. The movie was first released on June 15, 2005, directed by Christopher Nolan, and written by Nolan and David S. Goyer. Although it is the fifth live-action Joel Schumacher movies, but rather a complete revision or reboot of the series. It more closely follows the darker psychological theme of the comics and graphic novels. It was a critical and financial success from most viewpoints.

table

A young Bruce Wayne (Gus Lewis), while playing with young Rachel Dawes (Emma Lockhart), falls down a well and is attacked by a flurry of bats. After his father, Thomas Wayne (Linus Roache), pulls him from the well, Bruce begins having nightmares about bats. One night, the Waynes go to the opera where Bruce becomes scared at some of the dancers' portrayals of bat-like demons (from ). Bruce experiences a panic attack and begs his father to leave the theatre early. The family exits into an alley where they are confronted by a mugger, who, despite the calm submission of Thomas, shoots both him and his wife. Fatally wounded with a bullet in his chest, Thomas Wayne's last words to his son are, Bruce is left physically unharmed, but in a state of total shock.

After being comforted at the police station by police sergeant Jim Gordon (Gary Oldman) and being told "good news" about the shooter, Joe Chill, being arrested, Bruce is taken home by family butler Alfred Pennyworth (Michael Caine), who raises him in the absence of his parents.

We cut to roughly 14 years later; now a young adult, Bruce (Christian Bale) has returned from Princeton University for the parole hearing of his parents' murderer which was arranged as part of a deal to testify against the crime boss Carmine Falcone (Tom Wilkinson). Rachel Dawes (Katie HolmesBatman Begins is now a Gotham City Assistant District Attorney. The killer is granted parole, but is murdered immediately after the hearing by a mob operative. Bruce Wayne was planning to kill him as well, but was robbed of the opportunity. When Rachel learns this, she explains the difference between vengeance and justice to Bruce, and then tells him that his father would be ashamed. Bruce becomes ashamed of himself and promptly goes to confront Falcone. After the fateful meeting, a disillusioned Wayne steals away on a cargo ship, and travels the world for a year, seeking the means to fight injustice and "turn fear against those who prey on the fearful."

He is later arrested and jailed by Chinese police for the theft of goods that, ironically, belong to Wayne Enterprises. In jail he is approached by Henri Ducard (Liam Neeson) representing Ra's al Ghul (Ken Watanabe) of the League of Shadows, a group of fanatical assassins. Traveling to the home of the League of Shadows in the Himalayas, Wayne learns to use theatrics and deception as his greatest weapons. However, after his training, Ra's and Ducard tell Wayne that he must lead the League to destroy Gotham, a source of evil according to the group. Wayne refuses to destroy the city he loves while vowing to fight evil his own way, and battles Ra's before making his escape. Ra's is killed in the battle, but Wayne manages to save Ducard. Later, after leaving Ducard in a village to be cared for, Bruce contacts Alfred, who flies in to bring him home to Gotham.

Thus prepared, Wayne unveils his alter-ego: Batman, a masked superhero who uses his strength, intellect, and an array of high-tech gadgets to combat the sinister forces that threaten the city. To that end, Wayne returns to Gotham and befriends an unjustly demoted senior company researcher, Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman), recruiting him as his armorer. Fox uses his job as lowly caretaker to grant Wayne secret access to various unused company prototypes for his own use which includes armor that makes up the Batman costume and a prototype car that becomes the first Batmobile. Two of his first foes come in the forms of Falcone and Dr. Jonathan Crane (Cillian Murphy), who later becomes better known as the Scarecrow. Batman eventually discovers that Ducard is actually the real Ra's al Ghul, and has conspired with Crane to poison Gotham's water supply with a toxin that would cause the inhabitants of the city to riot, destroying each other and Gotham itself. They battle and Batman eventually defeats Ra's, this time leaving him to his apparent death. As the movie ends, Wayne takes total control of his company with Lucius as his CEO and a promoted Gordon expresses gratitude for what Batman has done. Gordon explains that a criminal in the lost "Narrows" area of Gotham has left calling cards at all his crime scenes in the form of a Joker playing card. Batman promises to look into it. At the end, Batman stands as the defender of Gotham.

Reaction

Early reviews from professional film critics were enthusiastic, with Roger Ebert of the (who panned all the previous live action adaptations of the character) calling it one of the best films of the year. Manohla Dargis of also gave it high praise, dubbing the film "the most successful comic-book adaptation alongside Terry Zwigoff's ."

The movie was also received quite favorably by audiences and many fans, earning the highest rating of any film released in 2005 by users of the website . The film is currently on the IMDb's list of the Top 250 films of all-time [1]. All told, this movie is considered to be the favorite movie for critics and audiences alike.

The film takes many liberties, despite being hailed for its more accurate portrayal of Batman as he is depicted in Bob Kane's comic universe. For instance, Batman's first comic book run-in with Ra's Al Ghul involved Robin being kidnapped, whereas in included the delayed first appearance of Bale in Batman regalia. It is worked on from roughly the 45 minute mark, but only appears fully an hour into the movie (1:01:26 to be exact). Some found the costume to look too much like Val Kilmer's "sonar suit" from the climax of followed suit. Another is the complete reworking of Batman's origin to have Joe Chill captured the very night of the murder and serve nearly fourteen years in prison, thus some feel, removing Bruce's motivation to become Batman, and having Bruce trained by Ra's al Ghul and his minons. Also, some felt that the dark and erratic cinematography on the fight scenes make it difficult to discern what's happening; others feel that that is precisely the point (the ambiguity and confusion is an organic interpretation of what the criminals experience). The redesign of the Batmobile also evoked mixed reviews. Another complaint is that the , the $135-million movie has earned $205.3 million during its North American theatrical run and approximately $166 million elsewhere in the world, making it the second most successful , which had an adjusted U.S. gross of $150 million. (The inflation-adjusted U.S. gross of the other movies would be as follows: at second.

The movie also solidified Christopher Nolan's capability of directing a major blockbuster. Before then, he was known for directing low-budget movies that focused mostly on dark themes, but had substance and depth, i.e. Memento. Hiring him for this kind of movie, particularly one of Warner Brothers' biggest franchises, was a risky endeavour on the studio's part. But the movie marked a successful return of the Batman saga, erasing the legacy of its predecessor with most of the film's main cast, including Christian Bale, returning. This would make Bale the first actor since Michael Keaton (who appeared in the first and second movies) to play Batman more than once. Gary Oldman (James Gordon) and Michael Caine (Alfred Pennyworth) are also under contract to reprise their roles [2]. At this time, director Christopher Nolan and screenwriter David S. Goyer will be returning for the sequels. Goyer revealed in an interview that he and Nolan have devised a rough scenario for a trilogy, using The Joker as the antagonist in the second film and Two-Face in the third, loosely following the story from . As well as the major villains, supporting characters are rumored to include The Penguin, Talia Head (daughter of Ra's Al Ghul), and Black Mask.

On August 22, 2005, producer Charles Roven denied that any villain had been decided upon, and insisted that the reference to The Joker in the film was only intended as a tip of the hat to the 1989 Batman film [3].

However, rumours have placed: Adrien Brody, Johnny Depp, Paul Bettany, Lachy Hulme, David Bowie, Daniel Day-Lewis, Crispin Glover, and a slew of other people in the role of the Joker for the sequel [4].

In a turn from comic continuity, Robin is not slated to appear in the new franchise. In an article listed on [5], Christopher Nolan stated: "Warner Bros. isn't interested in Robin. Neither are we."

In order for the sequel to achieve the targeted release date of June (the month that all Batman films are released) 2008, pre-production will likely begin sometime in 2006, with major filming happening in 2007 [6].

Nominated - Outstanding Created Environment in a Live Action Motion Picture (Alex Wuttke, Pete Bebb, Dayne Cowan, Imery Watson) - For the Gotham City monorail chase was set only for a limited release, and thus only had a one time stock pile. This puzzling rumor has left many potential customers baffled, and concerned with how to obtain this commodity from the very few vendors that still have some in stock.

Also released on the same date was , which contains each of the four Burton-Schumacher films in new 2-disc special edition format. The set includes many new Joel Schumacher, deleted scenes, music-videos, trailers, and new digital transfers for all four films: Of the main cast of Batman, which takes place mostly in America, only Katie Holmes, Morgan Freeman, and Mark Boone Junior are Americans., with George Clooney and Chris O'Donnell reprising their roles as the Dynamic Duo, with both Steve Buscemi and Jeff Goldblum considered to play The Scarecrow. However, the poor critical and public reception of led Warner Bros. to quickly squash development of this sequel. Warner Bros. still intended to revisit the franchise, but with a smaller film, emphasizing characters and especially Batman himself, as well as returning to the darker roots of the Burton films. But less than a year after the failure of Schumaker returned with a pitch to restart the franchise by writing and directing an adaptation of Frank Miller's . Though having no interest in bringing Schumaker back to the project, the "Year One" pitch piqued enough interest to remain in development, culminating with the hiring of Darren Aronofsky in 2000 to direct the feature, with him and Frank Miller co-writing. Around the same time Warner Bros. began developing a film, to be directed by Wolfgang Petersen and written by Andrew Kevin Walker. A third project, a live action version of ing duties, was also in development, though this project was terminated very early in the development process. Peterson, unable to make any progress with . Soon after Warner Bros. ended production on Aronofsky and Miller's project, being dissatisfied with their take, which was focused as a revenge tale set in the 70s, reminiscent of films like . Before settling on Nolan to begin developing the project from scratch, Joss Whedon had pitched a smaller, character-oriented origin story, though ultimately Warner Bros. passed.The film is the first part of DC Comics and Warner Bros.' intentions to compete with a mass of films based on Marvel Comics licences. Their plan is to release one critically and commercially successful film a year, as opposed to a slew of hit-and-miss pictures, with Bryan Singer's in 2008. This is made possible by Warner's ability to make its own films based on DC properties, and more tightly control the exposure of their "brands."In the movie, Dr. Crane declares Falcone hitman Zsasz insane as a favor for the mob boss. Rachel calls him on it and says Zsasz really isn't crazy. Ironically, the comics' version of Zsasz really Director Christopher Nolan originally didn't want Jonathan Crane to wear a mask or be referred to as the Scarecrow.The Ra's al Ghul decoy Bruce Wayne encounters at the party wears a green collar with a high cape, a reference to the comic version of Ra's.In the movie, Bruce Wayne is shown arriving at a fancy hotel in a Lamborghini Murciélago. The word The track listings on the soundtrack are all named after different bat species. The first letters of tracks 4 through 9 spell out "BATMAN."Chinese actor Vincent Wong plays a bit part, as an old prisoner in this film. He also played a crimelord in the 1989 Batman film.The Batmobile is a working vehicle. For the street scenes there were four Batmobiles, two of which being special in that one was the "flap version," with hydraulics and flaps for the close-ups when the car is flying, and the "jet version," with an actual jet engine mounted onto the back for the scenes where the jet was necessary. Each of these cars cost around $250,000 to build. For the scenes that required the inside of the car to be filmed, there was another vehicle equipped with the hydraulics and decorations necessary to give the feeling of reality. There was also a small electric motor that allowed the car to drive, which was necessary for the slow driving scenes. Finally, there was a miniature version, which was around 6 feet long and able to fly for the scenes that required it except for the scenes where the car jumps and the scenes where the Batmobile enters the Batcave. [7]Whilst they end up becoming enemies, Batman and Ra's al Ghul both represent different (and admittedly contradicting) aspects of vigilantism: in Batman's case, a person or force that fights crime using methods outside of the law in order to uphold it rather than to undermine it, (bearing in mind that he would not need to exist were it not for the corruption and ineptitude of Gotham's police department); in the case of Ra's al Ghul, a form of unflinching, Machiavellian devotion to 'justice' based on the idea that all crime must be eradicated, rather than punished in the traditional sense, even using terrorist tactics to achieve said goals.A large number of actors auditioned for the lead role, including Henry Cavill, Jake Gyllenhaal, Joshua Jackson, Cillian Murphy, Hugh Dancy, Christian Bale, Guy Pearce, and Billy Crudup. Although Bale got the part, Gyllenhaal was co-writer Goyer's first choice, while Nolan enjoyed Cillian's audition so much that he cast him as The Scarecrow.On the set, costumed Christian Bale constantly had two people trailing him to keep the Batsuit smudge-free.While shooting on the streets of Chicago, a man crashed his car into the Batmobile. The driver was apparently drunk, and said he hit the car in a state of panic, thinking the vehicle to be an invading alien spacecraft.. The evidence label on the bag reveals the name of the officer who discovered it: J. Kerr. This is a common alias the Joker uses in the comic books.The line "Dr. Crane isn't here right now, but if you'd like to make an appointment..." is taken directly from the story "Fears" in the three-part series, The scene where Batman escaped from Arkham Asylum using a flock of bats that he called from his cave using a sonic device was taken from Batman: Year One.

Video game

On June 15, 2005, a video game adaptation was released onto the PS2, Xbox, GameCube, and Game Boy Advance consoles.