Batman Begins

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

For the first time since "X-Men," I was on the edge of my seat anticipating a sequel, wondering who'd play the Joker and how quickly Nolan - it must be Nolan! - can bring the next chapter of this story to the screen.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

This is the Batman movie I've been waiting for; more correctly, this is the movie I did not realize I was waiting for, because I didn't realize that more emphasis on story and character and less emphasis on high-tech action was just what was needed. The movie works dramatically in addition to being an entertainment. There's something to it.

New York Post Kyle Smith

A great movie, period. It's great because it's so real.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Keith Phipps

A rousing, reverent, often brilliant re-creation of a seminal comics character, Batman Begins proves Batman is at home in the 21st century as he was in the 20th.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

A confidently original, engrossing interpretation.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

It's witty, gripping good fun.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

Technically, the film is consistently impressive. It creates a grimly gothic vision of a crime-ridden and depression-ravaged Gotham City, a dandy pair of chase sequences involving the new generation Batmobile and a range of innovative visual effects.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

A carefully thought out and consummately well-made piece of work, a serious comic-book adaptation that is driven by story, psychology and reality, not special effects.

The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt

For Christopher Nolan to turn Batman Begins into such a smart, gritty, brooding, visceral experience is astonishing. Truly, Batman does begin again.

The New York Times Manohla Dargis

Conceived in the shadow of American pop rather than in its bright light, this tense, effective iteration of Bob Kane's original comic book owes its power and pleasures to a director who takes his material seriously and to a star who shoulders that seriousness with ease.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

Batman Begins emerges from the darkness and leaves a powerful, lasting impression.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

The action scenes are, for the most part, kinetic and exciting - things that have rarely been true of fights and chases in the superhero's previous incarnations.

Film Threat Pete Vonder Haar

Not just one of the best "comic book" movies ever made, but also one of the best films of the year.

Empire Kim Newman

Significantly grittier than previous Bat-beginnings, this finds new things to do with, and say about, a character who's been around since 1938.

LA Weekly Scott Foundas

Of course, a Batman movie is nothing without a Bruce Wayne, and, by a mile, Bale is the best of a lot that has ranged from the square-jawed slapstick of Adam West to the more dedbonair stylings of Michael Keaton, Val Kilmer and George Clooney.

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

At times it feels almost too busy with plotting. There's so much going on, and so much to take in, that it leaves you winded. But that's origin stories for you. No one ever said setting up a savior would be simple.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

The buildup is steadily engrossing. That's because Nolan keeps the emphasis on character, not gadgets. Gotham looks lived in, not art-directed.

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

What you get out of Batman Begins depends on what you bring to it. It is the most faithful to the origins of the comic strip and it sets up a series very different from the four made by Tim Burton and Joel Schumacher between 1989 and 1997.

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

Nolan is a fascinating, offbeat choice for a huge movie franchise such as this. Just as Bale turns Batman into a near-tragic obsessive -- a Scarlet Pimpernel with the soul of a Hamlet and Monte Cristo -- Nolan turns Batman Begins into something much closer to Miller's "Dark Knight" interpretation.

Boston Globe Ty Burr

In Batman Begins, Christian Bale gives us the best Bruce Wayne that has ever graced the screen.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

Batman Begins is a mature take on material often relegated to the kiddie file, and it's simply the latest proof that, when treated properly, comic books are a viable art form for all ages. Bring on the sequel.

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

Best of all, there's just the pleasure of seeing something that's both fantastic to the eye and emotionally dimensional. This is how to make action movies.

Newsweek David Ansen

A mostly successful attempt to resuscitate a series soiled by silliness, sloppiness and Joel Schumacher.

Slate David Edelstein

The movie is satisfying, though -- at least by the standards of that depressing phenomenon, the superhero "franchise."

Variety Todd McCarthy

Ambitious, well made but not exactly rousing.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

Batman Begins summons up moments of great eloquence and power. If only its cast of characters was as fully inhabited as its turbulent city.

Premiere Aaron Hillis

Not bad for summer jollies, au contraire, but -- "Holy Raised Bar, Batman!" -- let's pray that the next installment measures up to the sequel summits of "Spider-Man 2" and "X2."

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey

All of the story is so absurdly humourless that it is dramatically inert, as if Nolan had decided the only way to make the Batman character more substantial was to put weights on his wings.

USA Today Mike Clark

The early going -- say, an hour -- is spent in a fatigued daze. A few powerful jabs eventually punch things up.

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

Burton gives us SuperDude; Nolan gives us Sir Subdued.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

The result is handsome and logical, but missing the spark that would make it thrilling.

Village Voice Michael Atkinson

Nolan and his co-screenwriter David Goyer can only press the big buttons so hard—it's still an old-school superhero summer movie, the plotting tortuous, the characters relegated to one-scene-one-emotion simplicity, the digitized action a never ending club mix of chases and mano a manos.

New York Magazine Ken Tucker

Begins, at two-hours-plus, is a nonstarter.

The New Yorker David Denby

The young Welsh-born actor Christian Bale is a serious fellow, but the most interesting thing about him--a glinting sense of superiority--gets erased by the dull earnestness of the screenplay, and the filmmakers haven't developed an adequate villain for him to go up against.

Time Richard Schickel

Nolan's effort is not dishonorable, but what it needs, and doesn't have, is a Joker in the deck--some antic human antimatter to give it the giddy lift of perversity that a bunch of impersonal explosions, no matter how well managed, can't supply.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

Batman Begins is obvious from the get-go - and almost no fun.

Washington Post Ann Hornaday

A good as the performances are, and as dutiful as Nolan has been in preserving the Kane legacy in Batman Begins, there's something joyless about the enterprise.

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

There are strong turns by Michael Caine as Alfred the butler and Tom Wilkinson as a ruthless crime boss.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

Delivers enough action to please Saturday-night crowds, if not the surreal wit that made the first two "Batman" movies, directed by Tim Burton, so entertaining.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

Needs much more energy and kinetic flow -- less dolor and more dolomite.

Dallas Observer Robert Wilonsky

Even if there were a great movie here, it would have been undermined by two lead actors who are barely even there, asked to deliver lines they can't handle: Bale, playing the Batman with clipped wings, and Katie Holmes as an assistant district attorney who doesn't have the gravitas to pass as an intern. Come back, Alicia Silverstone; all is forgiven.