[WARNING SPOILERS AHEAD]

As you can guess Batman Begins tells the story of how Bruce Wayne becomes Batman. The movie starts off with a flash back of Bruce Wayne and Rachel Dawes as kids. Running through a garden. Bruce steals the arrowhead Rachel found in the garden. He runs away and falls into a well. Bruce is attacked by bats in the well. Thus providing the Bruce's fear for bats. This movie centers around fear. Fear, Anger and Guilt.

You then find Bruce (Christian Bale) older in life in a prison somewhere in Asia. I am assuming it is Asia but am not certain. Bruce takes on 6 prisoners and is sent to solitary where he meets Henri Ducard (Liam Neison). Ducard tells Bruce Wayne about the League of Shadows as he knows Bruce is to be released the following day. Ducard tells Bruce to pick a blue flower and climb to the top of the mountain to find what he is looking for. The League of Shadows is a vigilante band of Ninjas with the sole purpose to seek justice. Bruce trains The League of Shadows and eventually comes to the part where he needs to execute a murderer to become part of the League. Bruce refuses to be an executioner and fights his way out of the burning temple and saves Ducard's life in the process. The League wanted Bruce to help them destroy Gotham City to rid the city of Crime and Evil. To seek justice and set the wrongs right.

Bruce returns to Gotham where he finally becomes Batman. Wayne Enterprises is involved in military armament and weapons developing. This is where Bruce gets the bat suit (without nipples as seen in Batman and Robin) and his other gadgets. Developed by Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman).

Bruce Wayne chooses to become Batman because bats are his one true fear, thus instilling his fear of bats into the minds of his enemies. Once again fear comes into play.

Christopher Nolan (Director of Batman Begins) comes up with a new batmobile. It's literally a tank on wheels. It was developed to jump rivers with cables attached to it to make bridges in military combat. This is one badass piece of machinery. You'll just have to see the movie to understand fully. Great idea from the director on the batmobile concept.

Carmine Falcone is the crime boss in Gotham. He's paying off Dr. Jonathan Crane (also Scarecrow, Cillian Murphy of 28 Days Later fame) to get his thugs out of jail and into Crane insane asylum known as Arcum. (Where Mr. Freeze is sent to in Batman and Robin, as well as The riddler in Batman Forever) You come to find out Arcum is the breeding ground for a new hallucinogenic psychotropic drug that makes your worst fears come to reality. The blue flowers from the beginning are the derivative of the drug. Crane is able to weaponize the drug. Crane uses the drug on Falcone's character and drives him to the point of sanity. This is the first instance you get we get to see the Scarecrow character.

We then find out Crane is dumping his weaponized drug into Gotham's water system. Batman comes to the rescue after he crane has already drugged Rachel Dawes. The only problem is the drug must be inhaled for your fears to be realized. This may present a problem but Wayne Enterprises conviently lost a prototype military weapon called a microwave emitter that is supposed to vaporize your enemies water supply. Put 2 and 2 together and in this situation you get about 6. Batman comes to the rescue and saves Rachel (Katie Holmes) from losing her mind by giving her an antidote Fox worked up from the first time Bruce was poisoned by Crane.

All the while is going on it is Bruce Wayne's birthday. He gets back to Wayne Manor where he is having his birthday party.. We come to find out that he has a very important guest, Ra's Al Ghul. It turns out Ducard is Ra's Al Ghul. Ra's Al Ghul is in Gotham to destroy the city with the Microwave Emitter. Bruce immediately dismisses his guest in a drunken manner. Ra's Al Ghul and The League of Shadows beat up Bruce and set Wayne Manor on fire. Trapped under a wooden beam on fire Bruce is knocked out. Alfred (Michael Caine) comes to Bruce's aid and they escape to the batcave before the house blows.

They have already started to turn the Gotham's water supply into vapor in the Narrows. (The Ghetto of Gotham) All the murderers and thugs that were locked up in the insane asylum by Crane are let free to rome the streets and create chaos.

Batman has to stop Ra's Al Ghul before he drives the train (built by Bruce's father) into Wayne Towers, the center of the city. If Ra's Al Ghul is able to get to Wayne Towers the Gotham City will be in a state of complete and utter state of panic.

Batman of course saves the day and rids Gotham of Ra's Al Ghul with the help of Lieutenant Gordon who shoots out the beams holding up the train with the batmobile.

They leave the movie open for a sequel (which I hope Christopher Nolan directs) introducing a new villain that leaves a Joker calling card.

In the original Batman movies (directed by Tim Burton) The Joker is the person who kills Wayne's parents. That was set up by Tim Burton. More along the lines of the graphic novel, Joe Chill is the man who killed Bruce Wayne's parents after they left an opera because Bruce was getting scared by the bats in the opera.

Once again fear plays an important role in this movie. Batman is actually afraid of Bats and wants his enemies to share that fear. To become Batman he must overcome that fear. The drugs crane weaponizes brings to reality your deepest fears. Fear is very prominent in this movie.

The fighting scenes are a little hard to follow. Some people might have a problem with this. Their is a lot of camera action during the fighting scenes and is kinda hard to follow. For me this didn't take away from the film. It's supposed to be that way. I think Nolan is trying to depict the fighting as fast and realistic. The second time viewing the movie I was farther from the screen which helped me follow the fight scenes a little better. Something to keep in mind...

Batman Begins finally brings the Batman series back to where it was before Batman and Robin and even Batman Forever, which is the better of the two. Christopher Nolan's (of Memento fame) vision is simply amazing. He achieves a visual quality like no other and really explains the origin of Batman. Never reading the comics or the graphic novel I know understand why Batman is Batman. Christian Bale is the best Batman to date. He brings a fierceness to Batman. As well as anger and guilt. Bale just takes the role and runs with it. As you could expect if you have seen and of his other movies. (American Psycho, Equilibrium, The Machinist) David Goyer (writer of the Blade trilogies) writes a solid solid screen play with the help of the Director Christopher Nolan. All in all this is a fantastic movie. If you are a fan of the Batman series and were disappointed by the last 2 movies Batman Begins brings respectability and a breath of fresh air back to the franchise. All without overbearing CGI. Christopher Nolan proves you don't need a bunch of extra crap to make a quality movie.

Amazing vision from an amazing director. David Goyer comes through again with an amazing screenplay. Bales devotion to the role warrants me to give this movie a 5/5. Definitley the best movie I have seen in 2005. Trust me I've seen a lot.

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