Belated 'Batman Begins' Bulletin

• Best Batman movie so far!
• Best adaptation of a superhero comic so far!
• Batmobile: Love it or hate it! I loved it!
• Brilliant back story. Loved the way it explained how Batman got all his funky Bat-toys (Ans: They are prototype designs meant for military applications), how all the weirdos in Gotham City came to be (Ans: They escaped from Arkham Asylum), how the Batsignal came about (Ans: It was set up by Jim Gordon) and what essentially drives Bruce Wayne to be Batman (Ans: No simple answer!).
• Bale was great as Batman! Took his role seriously and was virtually unidentifiable when in Bat-costume.

Overall, the movie had a nice feel to it with a solid supporting cast. Gary Oldman was once again unidentifiable in his role, this time as Sgt. Jim Gordon, while Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman managed to bring about the right balance of humour and warmth into their roles.

One bad thing about the movie was the pretty terrible fight choreography! In numerous close-quarters fights, it was hard to tell who was doing what to whom! Which is a pity because Batman is supposed to be an incredible fighter and his fights against multiple opponents could have made for some great visuals!

This movie also didn't have too many spectacular set-pieces, standard in these comic book adaptations, which has led some to term it 'slow moving'. But I think director Christopher Nolan has done that deliberately so as not to divert attention from the main point of the movie: how Bruce Wayne became Batman and what established him as the guardian of Gotham. In that respect, this movie tries to, and pretty much succeeds in being, story-driven, which is very commendable for a superhero movie! Thumb up!!

NOTE: Looks like The Joker is going to be the main villain in the sequel. Having just recently seen the old Star Wars movies, my vote goes to Mark Hamill for landing the role!