The Batman franchise in tatters after Batman & Robin, then fresh director Christopher Nolan stepped up to direct the beginning of a reboot series of films starting with Batman Begins. A hit back in 2005, the film starred Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne.

An origin story, Batman Begins aims to flesh out the comic book character a lot more, giving him a somewhat more realistic Gotham City to defend, trying to stick a bit closer to the comics this time. Gone is the gothic noir style of the Tim Burton films, along with the neon-lit cartoon energy of the Joel Schumacher films making way for Nolan's slick and modern touch. Here was a superhero movie that didn't feel too theatrical for once, embracing more of a Michael Mann thriller kind of vibe. We follow Bruce Wayne as he joins the League Of Shadows under the watchful eye of new mystery ally Ra's Al Ghul, who guides him to become a vigilante. Traumatized by his parents' death, Bruce decides not to seek vengeance, instead hoping to scare off the criminals poisoning Gotham, quite literally.

The first hour of the film is a surprisingly sober approach to the Batman character. Bruce Wayne is our main focus, the whole thing feels like a samurai film: there are no eccentric creeps jumping in with catchphrases, no gadgets and gizmos whatsoever. The painstakingly slow build-up to showing the hero in action is bold considering the audience waited nearly 10 years to see the beloved character on the big screen again but Nolan throws enough foreshadowing and not very subtle winks in there to make it a bearable wait. The second half of the film is very different in tone as it attempts to deliver the goods to the fans. New villain Scarecrow (Cillian Murphy) is brought in with a ludicrous masterplan to terrorize Gotham City with his fear toxin as Batman finally gets a chance to try out his wonderful new toys.

The potential here is obvious. Batman Begins is a pretty-looking film with top-notch cinematography, gorgeous lighting, enhanced by a powerful Hans Zimmer score which still, somehow, falls quite short of Danny Elfman's originals, or even Elliot Goldenthal's efforts. The Batman suit looks good, as do his usual accessories, but something is slightly off nonetheless. Christian Bale's performance is genuinely very good but he does not look right in the suit, I'm sorry to say, and his Batman voice is wildly inconsistent to the point where it's clear to everyone watching that less would've been more in this case. We aren't treated to a traditional Batmobile. What we get a big tank-looking thing nicknamed "The Tumbler", which is an interesting change but only feels like a placeholder until Batman's real car is revealed in later movies (don't hold your breath for that one).

Ra's Al Ghul is a solid villain to use for this story but a lot more should've been done with Scarecrow who is given little to no screen time and a disappointingly unceremonious and abrupt send off. Cillian Murphy's over-the-top approach to the character worked as an enjoyable contrast to the serious tone of the other baddies. The final act of the film should've been a wild Inception-style trip into Gotham's nightmares but it falls flat. It's hard to warm up to Bruce Wayne or his love interest Rachel (Katie Holmes) in this film: there's just no chemistry between them and they feel alien to us because the writing is very surface level. Here's a script that had the right idea but needed some meat on its bones, especially in the dialog department. Other new addition Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman) is a useful character to tie everything together while Michael Caine is an inspired casting choice for Alfred.

With Batman Begins, Christopher Nolan took a comic book character we all knew very well and fleshed him out, reintroducing his story brilliantly from a different angle entirely, showing off his own directing skills in the process, finally getting us excited for this franchise once again. There's a lot of room for improvement here, this is a rookie effort in many ways, but it's nothing a good script and iconic villain like The Joker can't fix, as we all know.