Batman Begins (DVD)

‘Batman Begins’ means that you will have to go through the whole apprenticeship of the young and inexperienced Bruce - and that does just half of the movie - before the real stuff begins. All that philosophical/moral initiation and martial art training was an interesting approach of the circumstances that turned Bruce Wayne into Batman, but it falls through (we’re far from the Matrix and Morpheus’s teaching).

In addition, the Batman will craft and manufacture all his funky toys and trappings; that can be interesting, but it takes off the magic. What we like with Batman is the dream, the supernatural, the fantastic: trying to bring everything down to rational proportions is a bit dull and dispiriting. Hopefully the magic will take off with the action - the trouble is you need to see the first part of the film to understand what’s going on in the second. But then, maybe you won’t have wasted your time.

It’s a Batman movie, so expect just that (and there’s no Schwarzenegger or George Clooney in this one - yet, I salute Michael Caine who brings a little tinge of quality to the film). There’s action and blasts and stunts to everyone’s content, on that you can rely. Christopher Nolan has become a Hollywood film maker, so don’t expect any personal directing touch. The script was audacious in its twists (mostly in the fight between good and evil) but the end treatment is no better than a good comic.