Ok, so I finally got around to seeing it. I wasn't really that excited about it being as the last two movies were sooo bad ("Batman and Robin" being the first movie I ever saw with my wife- what a way to start!) so it took me a while.

But really, this was a great flick. I even enjoyed it more than the Burton movies, though those were really good too. This Batman, however, just seemed more natural and relatable.

Christopher Nolan is certainly going up on my list of people to watch. I'm going to have to see if I can find a copy of "The Following" now. And I'd never seen Christian Bale in a movie before- he is the best Batman I've ever seen.

Not that I'm particularly qualified to judge, not bing a comic book reader, but I just really enjoyed the movie- way more than I thought I would.

I really enjoyed it as well for some of the same reasons you mentioned. It all just seemed so...possible. They spent a ton of time developing the story and I think that is what made it work so well. Plus Chiristian Bale was a pretty damn good Batman.

You need to watch these two movies Equilibrium and American Psycho since you haven't seen a Christian Bale movie.

Yeah, it was a pretty good movie. It didn't stray too far from the comic books -- where it did it wasn't anything cringe-worthy, like making John Constantine an idiot from the US -- and did include a few elements that a normal moviegoer wouldn't have noticed. And not stupid in-jokes, but setup for further movies, probably.

Christian Bale has been on my list of excellent actors for quite some time. Even when he's in bad movies, he's excellent. I think his role in American Psycho could almost be looked at as an audition for Batman Begins. You should find pictures of him from the movie The Machinist which is the movie he made immediately before Batman. He lost 63 pounds for that role and then regained about 100 to be Batman. Commitment. In more ways than one, most likely.

Other Christian Bale movies worth checking out are Empire of the Sun, possibly Spielberg's best movie -- certainly his most underrated -- in which Christian Bale is the ten-year-old lead, Velvet Goldmine, a (very?) fictionalized account of the David Bowie/Iggy Pop years ... ah, hell. I don't see a bad one on IMDB, except Reign of Fire, which would be fine if you could edit out Matthew McConaughey's no-acting ass.

My boss saw it last week and said he thought it was great.

Also all the Batmobile chase scenes were genuine, no CGI was used. I think they were also the only ones that were shot outside of the UK. The opening scenes were filmed at Senate House and a nearby street which is pretty much 100% UCL buildings and hence could be closed easily. Here are some pics I just found of the filming.

Gareth

I thought this movie was great. I generally despise superhero movies (I loved The Incredibles, but that was more of a spoof), but I thought this was excellent. It was as good as a superhero movie can get, in my opinion.

I thought there were a couple of bad plot holes, especially a specifc absurd technical flaw which I won't spoil for anyone in this thread. The last love-interest scene made no sense either.

What was fantastic was the development of the Batman/Wayne character. This was so believable and well done. You relate to Wayne as a human being, not as a as an inhuman, supernatural or radiologically mutated creature.

I think this is what makes the technical absurdities so hard to deal with. The emotions and humaity are so real that the lack of technical realism doesn't sit right. I don't go to a movie like this expecting scientific realism (of course!) but there was something jarring about it in this movie for me.

I'm not commenting at all about the super powers. That was all fantastic and "real", or at least believable.

Anyhow, I thought the movie was great. I went to see it because it was a Nolan film. I think Memento is an absolutely perfect movie. I can't wait for his next!

Jim

I'm amazed you went into it with your expectations set by those two horrible films! Just look at the cast and there's no possibility it could be as bad as casting Ahhnold as Mr Freeze. That still pisses me off.

I absolutely loved the movie. I've been waiting for this Batman film for a long time, and while the '89 film was pretty dark, it was nothing compared to this. I was also pretty young when I first saw it, and thought for a long time that the Joker killed the Waynes in the comics. Of course, that movie also killed him off, which is far from what happens.

Sorry, I'm getting off topic. I really need to see the movie again and take it all in again. I went into the theater expecting greatness, and it was exactly what I expected it to be. I knew Christian Bale was going to be my favorite movie Batman (for me, Kevin Conroy is Batman). I knew that the Scarecrow would be a great choice, though when the movie was going along, I was skeptical at how they could pull it off, but then he did his thing on Falcone and it certainly gave me a jump. I even expected Katie Holmes to do a sufficient job as the typical damsel in distress, and she performed her duty. The whole cast was excellent.

Anyway, like I said, a job well done.

To me, I will always love the first batman.. Jack Nicholson was perfect in my mind for the joker.. and I prefer Michael Keton as Batman, he just seems to have the almost pyscho flair to him that made batman interesting.. How ever I do not like a single movie after the first one until Batman Begins.. That is my next favorite one and Christan Bale is the next best Batman to me..