Bats is finally dealt movie justice

I wholeheartedly agree with grrrscary about the new Batman movie: they finally got it right (I went to see it last night with sarahcarotte. I wasn't too sure about Christian Bale at first (another shortish Batman made me nervous), but he definitely got the whole Bruce Wayne/Batman intensity right. And I would've kept the actor who played Alfred in the other films (<a href="http://www.space-debris.com/bat_gough.jpg">Michael Gough</a>). Casting Michael Caine in the butler's spit-shine shoes was a bit of overkill.

I also agree with grrrscary about the action scenes being too quick, although having Bats be nothing but a hard-hitting shadow in his first few fight scenes had the right effect. But I would've added an extra 10-15 minutes to the training scenes at the beginning.

In fact, I would've made the whole movie about his training, ending with his first Batty appearance in Gotham. He studied with dozens of masters in various disciplines, so you could have a great film just about that. But if Books are not Movies, then Comic Books really ain't Movies. There's no simple formula to follow when trying transform the printed word to image and sound.

All in all, I'm perfectly willing to forget the first four Batman movies (except for the garish Batman Forever: there are some fine cinematic tributes executed in that film) and embrace Batman Begins. Finally, somebody understands the whole Batman concept (Adam West is NOT to be consulted!).