70
Metascore
41 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 90The Hollywood ReporterKirk HoneycuttThe Hollywood ReporterKirk HoneycuttFor Christopher Nolan to turn Batman Begins into such a smart, gritty, brooding, visceral experience is astonishing. Truly, Batman does begin again.
- 80EmpireKim NewmanEmpireKim NewmanSignificantly grittier than previous Bat-beginnings, this finds new things to do with, and say about, a character who's been around since 1938.
- 80L.A. WeeklyScott FoundasL.A. WeeklyScott FoundasOf 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.
- 75Rolling StonePeter TraversRolling StonePeter TraversThe buildup is steadily engrossing. That's because Nolan keeps the emphasis on character, not gadgets. Gotham looks lived in, not art-directed.
- 75Boston GlobeTy BurrBoston GlobeTy BurrIn Batman Begins, Christian Bale gives us the best Bruce Wayne that has ever graced the screen.
- 70VarietyTodd McCarthyVarietyTodd McCarthyAmbitious, well made but not exactly rousing.
- 60Village VoiceMichael AtkinsonVillage VoiceMichael AtkinsonNolan 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.
- 50New York Magazine (Vulture)Ken TuckerNew York Magazine (Vulture)Ken TuckerBegins, at two-hours-plus, is a nonstarter.
- 50The New YorkerDavid DenbyThe New YorkerDavid DenbyThe 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.
- 50TimeRichard SchickelTimeRichard SchickelNolan'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.