Batman Begins... and is rad

Kerry and I saw Batman Begins last night. (I'm still not sure how we managed to just roll up and get tickets for 9:15 on opening Friday.) It was wonderful. I remember how, when the Tim Burton/Michael Keaton Batman came out in 1989, much was made of its darkness, inspired by Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns. And so it was dark, certainly compared to Adam West, et al. Batman Begins goes even further in that gritty, realist view of Batman. It is a hard, and not a happy story, of how Bruce Wayne goes from seeing his parents killed to fighting crime. The movie also gives depth and character to how Bruce Wayne fights crime. He's not just beating guys up while wearing a costume; he's taking them on as an elemental of the night. There's a difference (which, for all the kicking and punching, leaves no room for "POW!" and "BLAT!"). But the script still shows that, for Batman's obsession with justice and order, he's not a sociopath.

Christian Bale is a brilliant Batman/Bruce Wayne. The rest of the loaded cast (Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine, Liam Neeson, Gary Oldman, some dude you've never heard of as Dr Jonathan Crane) delivers, as well. Even Katie Holmes, whom many reviewers have been poor-mouthing for gold-digging on Tom Cruise - I mean, being too young and fresh-faced to be a hard charger in the DA's office - does a fine job.

Batman Begins is wholly entertaining and smart. (There are as few calls for suspension of disbelief as you'll find in a superhero/action-adventure flick.) Top notch.