The first time I watched "Batman Begins" I can't really claim to have been overly impressed with this origins story, and I remember finding the characters sort of plain and the story equally so.

Now, several years later, watching the movie on TV, I am a bit surprised to say that the movie is actually a lot better this time. And the storyline actually had more depth and flavor than I remembered.

Christian Bale is unquestionably the best chance for portraying Batman and Bruce Wayne, and manages to take the character and his performance one step further with each successive movie.

The characters in the movie were adequate, although the Scarecrow character wasn't really fully utilized, nor given as much time on the screen as I would have liked. And Cillian Murphy was an interesting choice of actor for this role; not a bad choice, mind you. Gary Oldman and Michael Caine are also excellently cast for their roles.

Chris Nolan also turned out to be the director with the most interesting approach to directing Batman movies.