Batman Begins

Awesome. Incredible. Stupendous. Extraordinary. Phenomenal. Astonishing. And about freaking time!

You want to know why I love comic books, why I've been in love with them my whole life? Watch this movie.

This is one of the best comic book movies I have ever seen, and in my world, that makes it one of the best movies I have ever seen at all. This is up there with Spider-man 2, The Incredibles, The Crow, and maybe the first two Superman movies from back in the day.

Did they ever nail this movie! Joel Schumacher (director of "Batman Forever" and "Batman and Robin") must feel like a complete moron after seeing this movie, since it basically threw out everything he ever did with Batman and actually took the character and his mythos seriously. Gone are the campy villains and gone are the neon lights and gone is the wink wink, nudge nudge, and gone are the bat-nipples and gone is the "Holy rusted metal, Batman!" and gone is all of that crap. It may have been funny on the 60's TV show, but that wasn't Batman, either. "Batman Begins" is what Batman is all about, where Batman is alone and brilliant and ruthless and resourceful and determined and intelligent and in the shadows and with a business-only mindset. They finally got it right. I can't believe it.

In the comic book world, Batman is the smartest, nastiest, meanest superhero out there. He's totally human, and yet he may be the most feared superhero in the entire DC universe because of his genius intellect and resolve. He's the only guy who has figured out how to take out Superman, the Flash, Wonder Woman, or any of the other superheroes, because he wants to be ready in case any of them goes rogue. Nobody wants to cross Batman, good guy or bad guy, because he will absolutely take you down. You can't beat Batman, you can only temporarily gain advantage.

I love Spider-man to death and he'll always be my favorite, but Batman has always been a close #2 and Superman is a distant third behind those two. Those last two Batman movies sucked so bad, they totally ruined any anticipation I had to see this movie. But then the reviews started coming in for this movie, and they were glowing with praise. I started getting my hopes up just a little. Then I saw it tonight on an IMAX screen, and I was so happily surprised I'm beside myself. Yay Christopher Nolan (director) and David Goyer (writer)!!!!!!! Thank you for doing Batman right! May you be richly rewarded! And may you get to do the sequel!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Seriously, run to the movie theater. See this movie. You'll thank me.

P.S. It's important you remember the source material: comic books. Comic books are cool, and you need to deal with that. So go out and read a Batman comic book. Want a suggestion? Frank Miller's 1986 ground-breaker, "The Dark Knight Returns." You'll thank me for that too!