A movie that tries to take comic book films to a new level. It tells the story of the birth of Batman and the beginning of all that which, with time, becomes essential for the batman legend; the bat cave, Archam, Commisionar Gordon, so on. The problem, in my mind, (although, to so many people this is the strength) is that the movie completely lacks the comic book flair. In my mind comic book movies should not be made as realistic as possible. There is no need for the Batman that we love to do marital arts training in some far off land to add "respectability" to the movie. Someone commented that with this film "Comic-book films grow up at last" but why the hell should they be growing up? The batman comic book is nothing like the Lord of the Rings trilogy and there is no reason to apply the same movie making formula to it. (you know, the formula; make it take itself seriously + add in "good" character development + good acting + make sure there isn't too much action + take everything from the fantastical to the "down to earth") And why does this formula work oh so well? Let me tell you why, because the Snobs of America feel this is what our "shallow" cinema "needs" to make itself more respectable, because they can come out of the movie feeling good about themselves for enjoying it. Sin City, the only comic book movie I can think of that literally was the comic book but in movie form, it worked. Daredevil which so many people found distasteful, was a perfectly fine movie based on a comic book. The characters were unrealistic, over the top, and it had an unrealistic artistic style that Batman Begins sacrificed for realism. Comic books are not just stories they are works of art! They are COMICS Some comics are serious, yes, like say, Watchmen, but this does not apply to superhero comics. Want to see a good Batman movie? Go see the first two that were ever made. Sure the characters were different, the story a bit off, but that doesn't matter, it was "batman". This? This was an action flick masquerading behind the bat mask. The only redeeming feature of this movie I could think of was the Scarecrow, but even he was confined to realism and hardly developed.