Batman Begins

The most striking feature of this film to me was that we saw a lot of Bruce Wayne, and this made Batman more human as compared to the previous Batman films. This was great, but unfortunately, and this may be in the directing, it made Batman less of a superhero and just an interesting character. I think the dry and uninspired action sequences contributed greatly to this. SPOILER ALERTS: The mandatory batmobile sequence was unbelievably boring. The Scarecrow character also bombed, although his alter ego Dr. Crane was on the money. Gary Oldman as a bungling almost idiotic Sgt. Gordon was also a big no for me. Gordon is made of stronger stuff than that even if he was just a rookie. Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman's performances were a breathe of fresh air however, and Christian Bale... well, if he growled less as Batman in the inevitable sequel, he'll be ok. This movie captured a lot of the elements from the comic book surpsingly well (the production design of Gotham City I thought was very good and the two tableau shots of Batman looking down on the city were perfect), but it just didn't excite me, even if I was the only one in the theater who got some of the inside only-a-comic-book-reader-will-understand jokes that were sprinkled in the script. I think the one big flaw in the movie is that when we finally see Bruce Wayne as Batman, there is no sense of an omg-it's Batman. Or at the end for that matter, a sense that Batman saved the day -- the hero. Character development is great, but the sequences with Batman in it, the actual icon, not Bruce Wayne, were surprisingly disappointing. I hope that they fix this in the sequel if there is one.