Batman Begins (2005)

Teaser Artwork for the Theatrical Release

Batman lore aside, Batman Begins is a really well structured film, with all its singular pieces fitting properly along the others, while at the same time heightening them and emphasizing them where necessary and proper.

The editing is almost spot on, nothing jarring, nothing out of place.  The only exception coming late in the film when Christian Bale's Bruce Wayne is kneeling in the ashes of a smoldering Wayne Manor and he picks up the charred remains of his father's stethoscope.  The editor (or director, can't decide) decided to flash back to two very quick shots of a young Bruce and his father.

Um, duh!  We get it, we're not stupid!

Aside from that, I was mesmerized at the cleanliness of the editing.  There were no awkward cut aways to hide shooting problems, no unnecessary shaky cameras due to lack of b-roll.  Always staying just long enough on the impetus action and jumping away to a reaction, just as the audience starts to wonder and wander.

The camera work is exceptional and well thought out, and that helps the editing tremendously and manages to heighten all the iconic actors' performances.  Capturing every one of Michael Caine's smirks and teary eyes, all of Gary Oldman's insecurities and inner struggles, and Christian Bale's inability to handle the weight of having naively created, even if ideologically, a symbol so polarizing and destructive.

Artwork for Theatrical Release

The pacing itself is fantastic, aided in great part by the advancing narrative, the smooth editing, and the cyclical music which has, in a sometimes subtle and sometimes brash fashion, managed to become as emblematic of the Batman canon as the Tim Burton soundtrack, while avoiding the screeching Prince interludes.

On a technicality, I would rank this film lower than it deserves, and that is simply in due part, because,  at a budget of $150,000,000 it could not afford a great CGI house to create a seamless integration of the Gotham El and the Narrows.  Both seem pathetically bad, compared to the quality of the cinematography that encompass them.  Sometimes lacking contrast, sometimes seeming iridescent at night.

Buy this film twice on Blu-ray, one for posterity and one so you can watch it until the layers of the disk peel away.  It is a more than well deserve opening salvo to the Christopher Nolan Batman oeuvre.