With The Dark Knight Rises upon is in six short days, I take this opportunity to look back on the first two movies. The first two Christopher Nolan Batman movies, that is. Before Nolan took the reigns, there were four Batman flicks. Those were quite different- the first ever, Batman (released in 1989), was a hit, and the follow up (Batman Returns, 1992), wasn't far behind. They were both decent. However, in my opinion, anyone involved in the subsequent two (Batman Forever, 1995; Batman and Robin, 1997) should have been banned from the motion picture industry for life. They were atrocious, and tarnished the Batman image in cinemas; Hollywood stayed away for almost 10 years.
Enter Nolan. In 2005, he released Batman Begins, a 'reboot' of the Batman story. Featuring an all new cast, it began back at the origin of the Dark Knight. It did well in theaters, in spite of the bad taste lingering from the aforementioned predecessors, and deserved to do so. It is excellent.
About half of superhero movies (since 2000) are origin stories; i.e. "how did _______ come to be?" Most of the stories follow the same generic story line; the hero is an 'average' citizen to start (regardless of their station in life, there's nothing particularly extraordinary about them), something happens to alter their lives (death of family, bitten by spider, scientific experiment/mutation, etc), and they take up a mantle of fighting crime and injustice. In that regard, Batman Begins follows the pattern. But, it's not the story alone that makes this so good- it's in the execution.
The three most notable things about the movie, in my opinion, are as follows:
1) Bruce Wayne, once his parents are murdered, suffers for years. He's attracted by the prospect of crime, and descends into that realm to better understand it. His crime is frequent theft of varying degrees, and he ends up, rightfully, in jail for his crimes. He would have fallen even farther- and stooped to murder- had a mob boss not coincidentally stepped in and did the job he intended to do himself- killing his parents' murderer. I liked this aspect of the film, because it shows a man truly lost- truly weak. He's confused, doesn't know which way to turn, and turns criminal, perhaps in the vain hope of understanding evil by indulging in it himself. This affliction is something not seen much in this genre, at least to the level explored in the film.
2) Batman's main enemy in the film wants the exact same thing Batman does- a Gotham rid of corruption. They differ only on the means; Batman believes the city contains some good people, and wants to rid the city only of criminals, in a merciful way (by turning them over to the cops rather than killing them); the enemy is convinced that Gotham is beyond saving, and must be destroyed, to start fresh. I really like this aspect of the film- think of the Biblical parallel in Sodom & Gomorrah. It's a shadow of God's exchanges with Abraham, when God wants to destroy the cities, and Abraham asks Him to be merciful if there are even just a handful of righteous remaining. In that case, God removed the righteous, and then destroyed the city; Batman's foe shows no such compassion. He wants them all gone. In the end, it breaks the mold of a typical villain, who is characterized by a desire for more money or power. He wants good to prevail, too, he just thinks there's a better way of bringing that about. It's like a political discussion, in a sense- everyone wants the same thing (a better life for all), but people disagree on how to accomplish that. It encourages reflection on the topic, which is always good.
3) The central theme of the film: it's not just about your beliefs, it's about your actions. The following quote (or slight variations thereof) is repeated twice in the film: "it's not who you are inside, it's what you do that defines you." It has echoes of James 2:19 - "you believe there is one God; you do well. Even the demons believe- and tremble!" The point of the passage, and the movie, is that belief is one thing, but action is the true revelation of one's character. How many people (myself included) think themselves good because they believe good things, they say they want justice, etc? Yet, do we buy clothing made in overseas sweat-shops? Is that supporting justice? Does it matter what we believe, if our actions don't support the same message? Demons believe in God, yet they actively rebel, so who cares what they believe? Similarly, how many people call themselves Christians because they believe in God, yet their lives show no evidence of His working? Christians are not saved by what we do (we're saved by grace, not works), but what we do does show whether or not we're saved. After all, how can we who died to sin live any longer in it (Romans 6:2)? I digress- the point is, actions matter, and the film makes that point well. I don't believe Nolan is a Christian, but I feel some very Christian themes come through in his film-making.
For these reasons and more (expert film-making, great acting, etc), this movie is well worth it, even if you don't normally go for the superhero type of movie.
Rating: A+
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