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With the release of The Dark Knight Rises fast approaching I thought I might pass some of the remaining waiting time taking a look back at, and sharing my thoughts on, Christopher Nolan’s fantastic Batman films. Now this is by no means an original idea and is most likely going to read like a befuddled stream of consciousness but I will do my best to be entertaining and maybe even a little insightful! Don’t hold your breath though…

As with most great comic book, film and literary characters, the key to the Batman’s success (in my opinion…) has always been down to one key characteristic, his humanity. Now humanity is a word that covers an awful lot of things, the possession of emotions for instance, like the ability to feel pain and loss, physical and emotional vulnerability as well as strength and the ability to adapt and learn among countless other things. A characters humanity is often what enables the audience to relate to them, to empathize with them and even get mad at them when they do something wrong.

I think that what made Batman Begins such an outstanding film in my eyes was how well Christopher Nolan, and Christian Bale managed to communicate Bruce Wayne’s humanity, giving the character a genuine depth that was completely absent from both Tim Burton and Joel Schumacher’s previous efforts which, when you look back at them now, seemed to do everything they could to avoid dealing with Bruce Wayne as a character, instead focusing on stunt cast villains.

Batman Begins was the film that for the first time really focused on Bruce Wayne and gave Batman a reason to be, his past was explored, his character developed and his reasoning behind the physical manifestation of his alter ego explained. By the end of the film we have even more development spelled out for us as Rachel explains to Bruce how he and Batman are really one and the same and the public face of Bruce Wayne the billionaire playboy is his real mask.

For a movie based on a comic book, that is some pretty deep stuff and it’s explored in a way that feels natural, and more importantly, feeds into the flow of what is at the end of the day a compelling and entertaining movie. The direction of the film is pretty much flawless, there are no wasted shots, the camera never lingers too long and the action is handled in an impactful and involving way.  The cast surrounding Bale is also outstanding with the likes of Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, Gary Oldman as Jim Gordon and Liam Neeson practically oozing gravitas in every scene they appear  in.

This brings me on to the villains, and there are many of them, an area that had previously been mishandled to egregious levels. Neeson’s turn as the infamous Raas Al Gul was particularly good, providing the perfect villain for Bales Batman to have his first run out against. This balance could have easily been thrown off by Cillian Murphy’s Scarecrow, Tom Wilkinson’s Carmine Falcone with Victor Zsasz making a couple of appearances too. However Nolan managed the cast and story in such a way that this little rogues gallery really added to the texture of the film as well as helping move the story along, with Scarecrow in particular fulfilling the role of a catalyst for Al Gul’s larger plan.

Continuing on the subject of the story and pacing, Nolan gets it pretty much pitch perfect. The first act involving Bruce Wayne’s path to becoming the Dark Knight is one of the best origin stories ever committed to film. Once we get to Gotham the action comes thick and fast as the story slowly builds to a crescendo and the return of Raas Al Gul and the league of shadows bringing the film full circle.

I’ve probably gone on long enough, also I’m writing this pretty late at night and I really should go get some sleep but before I do I have another little treat for you coming from the awesome guys over at movieclipsTrailers on YouTube. They have put together a great trilogy trailer which pretty much made my night so thought I would share!

Ok that’s seriously all for now! If I have somehow managed to not bore you to death then come on back later today when I will take a look at and write (at length, fair warning) about one of my favourite films of all time The Dark Knight.