Batman Begins (2005)

Shake off those cobwebs. There's a new Batman in town, and he's younger, fiercer and klutzier than before. What do you want from a rookie? The Caped Crusader that Christian Bale plays so potently in Batman Begins is still working out the kinks. He nearly gives himself a wedgie scaling a building in a self-designed Batsuit that weighs a stylish ton. Director Christopher Nolan, who wrote the script with David Goyer, shows us a Batman caught in the act of inventing himself. Nolan is caught, too, in…

For the first time, the tale is centered firmly on the Batman himself, or in this case Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale), and not on one of his over-the-top enemies. Now, the non-comics audiences can witness--and understand--the sequence of events that led an orphaned billionaire to dress up like a bat and scare the bejeezus out of bad guys. Expanding The Batman's world beyond the claustrophobic confines of Gotham, the film opens on a tormented and rudderless Wayne abroad in Asia, recruited by…