If you thought the first spider-man was as good as comic book movies gets, you are in for a pleasant suprise. Christopher Nolan has definately put the "dark" back into dark knight. The movie starts with a twenty-something Bruce Wayne - played with equal parts rage and upper-crust smugness by Christian Bale - locked in a prison somewhere in Asia. The first hour jumps between modern time and flashbacks of Wayne's childhhod - playing with a young Katie Holmes, his first encounter with bats and of course, the deaths of his parents. This first hour does a good job of explaining his origins, but its the second hour - when he finally dons the batsuit - where the movie truly shines. As I said, Bale is far and away the best Batman, but even more impressive than him is the supporting cast that worked on this film. Ken Watanabe and Liam Neisen as mysterous ninja who train Bruce Wayne in their ways, Gary Oldman as Jim Gordon, he would later become commisioner - here he is a lone detective fighting corrutption in Gotham. Morgan Freeman plays the engineer who designs all of Batman's gizmos, and he and Michael Caine as Alfred manage the tightrope walk of having fun with the material and taking it seriously at the same time. Even Katie Holmes - who I am no fan of - is good as the young idealistic D.A. trying to fight Gotham City's mob. The villians are Scarecrow (played by Cillian Murphy) and Ra's Al Ghul - I wont spoil the suprise but if you read the comic book you might have seen it coming. They are both very good and true to comic book form; however the best bit happens at the end of the movie, it sets up possible sequels and I for one can't wait. A good Batman movie, who would have thought.
