Now THAT'S a FRELLIN' Batman movie!!!!!

Just got back from the theater, kids, and boy oh boy, is Warner Bros. back in Bat-Action!!! After viewing the newest Batman movie in the franchine, "Batman: Begins", I must say, it's good to get back to some serious story telling in the Batman mythose!

After you see this, you'll forget that Joel Schumacher ever got his silly little hands on the franchise and you'll bask in the dark, bat-glory!!! Seriously, this movie turns the Batman story back in the right direction by starting with his origins. Gone are the over the top, goof-ball villains, the way to quick story lines, the cheesy fight scenes, and a celebritized cast of thousands.

Speaking of which, this cast is filled with great actors, NOT just celebrities of the moment as in some of the last few Batman films (Well, that's not exactally true. There was one celeb of the moment who is now the official property of The Church of Scientology, but more on that a bit later). Pretty much everyone held their own and most were excellent. Gary Oldman was excellent as Detective Sargent Jim Gordon who ends up being Batman's confidante within the Gotham Police Department. Morgan Freeman as Lucious Fox, Bruce Wayne's business partner, is an enjoyable asset to the cast. Rutgar Hauer plays a real good typical greedy corporate leader. Liam Neeson is the mysterious Ducard who teaches Bruce Wayne the finer points of combat through darkness. Then there's Katie Holmes who's more than pleasing on the eyes, yet she still looks to be too young to fill the shoes of an assistant DA and didn't veer off the path of the stereotypical damsel in distress at all. Perhaps she's putting all of her acting talent into her out of this world romance with Tom Cruise. Honestly, this film was so good, it didn't need any of the publicity brought on by their in-you-face engagement on the Iffle Tower.

Christain Bale carries the weight of being Batman quite well! He does a darn fine job of exploring Bruce Wayne's new role as the Gotham City's Dark Knight. He adds just the right amount of brooding, humor and brutality to the role.

Having at one time been a avid reader of the Batman comics, I have to say that the writers of the movie did an excellent job of putting little hints of the Batman world into the movie! I mean they even put Zaz in this friggin' thing! Zaz!!! One of the much smaller villains in the Batman comics. There's even a scene where we get a brief glimps into the family life of Det. Gordon where he and his wife are at the dinner table with their new born crying as she's being fed. We bat-fans all know who that baby will be one day!

Gripes? I guess I'd have to say that Gotham City wasn't gothic enough for my taste. One thing I loved about "Batman" and "Batman: Returns" was all the gargoyls and odd statues that looked over the victorian city. This new Gotham is realitivly modern in looks outside of the funky train system. It could have easily been Metropolis.

Another great thing about this movie is David S. Goyer's involvement. I love this guy! I loved it when he directed "The Crow" and when he did "Dark City", two of my favorite movies! I'm glad WB handed him the Batman project. It more than made up for that whole Schumacher debacle (Hey! That's the second time I used the word "DEBACLE" within a week on the blogs! Coincedence? Nope. Just lack of vocabulary). Goyer puts an actual plot and story into this movie. Something the Bat-films have been missing for a long, long time. GOYER ROCKS!!!

Oh yea! There's also a pretty cool little plot twist within the movie that caught me off guard! AND the Batmobile was frellin' kick a$$!!! In the previews I thought it was going to be a big tank-like thing, but it came off as one nasty machine. Very cool!

Yes, Carlo! Craig will ove this movie, if he hasn't seen it a dozen times already!!!!!

I'm going to sit back and have a bat-beer on my bat-couch.
See ya, fellow crime fighters!

Zangz.