(Probably) The Best Movie of the Summer

"War of the Worlds" may be able to overtake "Batman Begins" as the best of this summer's meager offerings, but "Batman" writer/director Christopher Nolan has set the bar so high that even a Steven Spielberg on a hot streak ("A.I.", "Catch Me If You Can", "Minority Report") may be unable to clear it. I loved "Batman Begins." It is the smartest big-budget picture since "Minority Report". It is DVD purchase-worthy. I plan to see it many, many times. The movie is fresh, smart, sly, willing to take chances, and unwilling to stoop. See it, live it, love it, be it, and watch it. In fact, when Michael Bay's born-to-be-crummy "The Island" comes out, go buy a ticket to "Batman Begins" just to let them know which movie deserves dollars and which doesn't.

"Batman Begins" is an origin story, and wow what an origin. Bruce Wayne, haunted by the deaths of his parents and his inability to avenge himself upon their killers, is recruited by a shadowy organization called the League of Shadows. He accepts their training but is unwilling to execute a criminal in order to complete his initiation in the order. When they reveal their plan to destroy Gotham City to teach the world a lesson about the wages of corruption, Wayne returns home in hopes of using his vast fortune to save Gotham. With the help of his butler and his company's head of applied sciences, he fashions the tools that will make him Batman. He then sets out against the head of organized crime, as well as the dark force of the League of Shadows, which is using the mob's services to do something truly fiendish to the citizens of Gotham.

Christian Bale's work in "Batman Begins" is lovely. He's serious without falling into a mannered gloom, and he makes his funny lines seem like wit instead of rehearsed one-liners. This is in part a testment to Chris Nolan's writing but it also tells us about Bale's ability to handle multiple aspects of Batman/Bruce Wayne's images while still suggesting that there's a real person underneath all the personas. Gary Oldman made for a great Jim Gordon. A less imaginative director would have placed Oldman in the villain role, having seen his showy performance in "The Fifth Element". Here, Oldman is pared down, quiet, almost mousy. I liked it. And you can't miss Michael Caine as Alfred or Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox, Batman's armorer. Katie Holmes doesn't have a tremendous lot to do in the movie, but I appreciate it that Nolan never let her part become more than it was, and that he never insisted on a romance that the story hadn't earned. She represented Wayne's conscience and his reason for believing that Gotham was still worth fighting for. That was all she needed to be. And Liam Neeson's role allows him to make a nifty pivot from the good-guy-mentor character he played in "Star Wars Episode I".

On Bitterspice's and my way out of theater, a couple of employees were arguing over whether "Batman Begins" was superior to "Star Wars Episode III". How could there even be an argument here? "Batman Begins" is better than "Revenge of the Sith". It's better than the original "Star Wars". It deserves to sit in the pantheon with "Jaws", "Raiders of the Lost Ark", "Superman", "Superman II", "Star Trek II", "Batman", "The Matrix", and "Minority Report". It's a movie that reminds you why movies are wonderful things. (And after a dismal season with another Bay movie in the pipleline, I was starting to forget.) Vote with your feet, America! The Dark Knight and smart moviemaking in general need your support! You'll have a blast, I promise.