Part of Trilogies, Part 2 and The Dark Knight Trilogy
A young Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) travels to the Far East, where he’s trained in the martial arts by Henri Ducard (Liam Neeson), a member of the mysterious League of Shadows. When Ducard reveals the League’s true purpose — the complete destruction of Gotham City — Wayne returns to Gotham intent on cleaning up the city without resorting to murder. With the help of Alfred (Michael Caine), his loyal butler, and Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman), a tech expert at Wayne Enterprises, Batman is born.
“Conceived in the shadow of American pop rather than in its bright light, this tense, effective iteration of Bob Kane's original comic book owes its power and pleasures to a director who takes his material seriously and to a star who shoulders that seriousness with ease.” —Manohla Dargis, New York Times (Jun 15, 2005) “One benefit of not being a comic-book fanboy or -girl is the immunity such dispassion grants: No blood-pressure crises are likely to arise over arguments pertaining to whether BATMAN BEGINS lives up to the franchise… BATMAN BEGINS directed by indie-oriented storyteller Christopher Nolan (MEMENTO), is a triumph — a confidently original, engrossing interpretation, with a seriously thought-through (but never self-serious) aesthetic point of view that announces, from the get-go, someone who knows what he’s doing is running the show, and he’s modestly unafraid to do something new.” —Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly (Jun 15, 2005) “I said this is the Batman movie I've been waiting for; more correctly, this is the movie I did not realize I was waiting for, because I didn't realize that more emphasis on story and character and less emphasis on high-tech action was just what was needed.” —Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times (Jun 13, 2005)
