By Stephen Pytak 

     This edgy, nightmarish interpretation of the
Dark Knight's origin has spoiled me. 
     I never thought the franchise would redeem
itself after those Joel Schumacher disasters.
     Now I feel that any sequel that doesn't inject
the grit, horror and adrenaline of "Batman Begins" 
simply won't live up.
     I don't read the DC title on a regular basis. But
I'm a big fan of some of the stories. The mini series
"The Long Halloween" was one of my favorites. And
even though I'm not the biggest Bat-fan in the world,
I have my opinions on how this material should be
translated to the screen.
     Christopher Nolan's film is the best interpretation
yet.
     For starters, it portrays Bruce Wayne as someone
very human. And considering what happened to his
parents when he was a boy, he's filled with a lust
for vengeance. And justice.
     His path to that end is chronicled here, and it's
very interesting. To understand the underworld, he
joins its ranks to some degree, even learns to fight
from some of its masters, Ra's Al Ghul in particular.
     The way he acquires his equipment is also laid
out. In previous films, it seemed like Batman just
said the word and there it was. Here, it comes 
courtesy of a division of Wayne Industries, and 
a character named "Lucius Fox" played by Morgan
Freeman.
     Christian Bale works well and gives us a Wayne
that's not only multi faceted but believable. He's playing 
tormented, grief-stricken son one minute, struggling 
warrior in training the next, then millionaire playboy,
then Batman. And he does it all without being
unconvincing. Someone once said Bale's role in
"American Psycho (2000)" was going to be his finest.
Maybe not.
     Another thing this film had was a lot of great 
fight sequences. And these weren't just throwaway
action scenes, but integral to the story. The sword
fights during Wayne's training at Al Ghul's were among
my favorites. And I like the fact that this Batman is forced
to rely more on his fight techniques than his bag of 
tricks to defend himself.
     Let's see. What else? Oh yeah. Let's talk about the
new Batmobile. 
     It's not called that here, but the tumbler, I think.
And it's actually pretty neat. It's not some hot rod 
designed with Bat-fins. It's an all-terrain vehicle designed 
as a prototype for the military. But it has these wicked 
fins all over it which make it look like something 
Batman would have in his garage.
     I talked with a Bat-fan recently who didn't like how
this thing looked in the trailers.
     "That's not the Batmobile," he said.
     Of course not. And this isn't your ordinary Batman 
film either.
     Jeez. How could I forget some of the film's nightmarish
images. I waxed on about them in the lead. O.K. The
Scarecrow is great! I was surprised with how far
the filmmakers went with this concept. And the impact
his so-called "fear gas" had on the people of Gotham
in the third act was really whacked. I love how the
people on the ground hallucinating from this stuff saw
our hero as he went flying overhead. I was actually 
a little afraid for children under 10 in the audience.
     The cast was wonderful. I can't wait to see this
thing in the IMAX. Heck, if an R-rated version comes
out on DVD -- the way Bale said he'd like to see future
Batman films be done -- I'll be making a trip to Best
Buy. 
     In closing, to quote Prince: "I've seen the future, 
and it works."