Batman Begins
Warner Bros. Pictures | Release Date: June 15, 2005 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
70
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 41 Critic Reviews
Positive:
30
Mixed:
11
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Charlotte ObserverLawrence Toppman
For the first time since "X-Men," I was on the edge of my seat anticipating a sequel, wondering who'd play the Joker and how quickly Nolan - it must be Nolan! - can bring the next chapter of this story to the screen. Read full review
100
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
This is the Batman movie I've been waiting for; more correctly, this is the movie I did not realize I was waiting for, because I didn't realize that more emphasis on story and character and less emphasis on high-tech action was just what was needed. The movie works dramatically in addition to being an entertainment. There's something to it. Read full review
100
New York PostKyle Smith
A great movie, period. It's great because it's so real. Read full review
100
The A.V. ClubKeith Phipps
A rousing, reverent, often brilliant re-creation of a seminal comics character, Batman Begins proves Batman is at home in the 21st century as he was in the 20th. Read full review
100
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
A confidently original, engrossing interpretation. Read full review
91
Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam Arnold
Technically, the film is consistently impressive. It creates a grimly gothic vision of a crime-ridden and depression-ravaged Gotham City, a dandy pair of chase sequences involving the new generation Batmobile and a range of innovative visual effects. Read full review
91
Portland OregonianShawn Levy
It's witty, gripping good fun. Read full review
90
The Hollywood ReporterKirk Honeycutt
For Christopher Nolan to turn Batman Begins into such a smart, gritty, brooding, visceral experience is astonishing. Truly, Batman does begin again. Read full review
90
Los Angeles TimesKenneth Turan
A carefully thought out and consummately well-made piece of work, a serious comic-book adaptation that is driven by story, psychology and reality, not special effects. Read full review
90
The New York TimesManohla Dargis
Conceived in the shadow of American pop rather than in its bright light, this tense, effective iteration of Bob Kane's original comic book owes its power and pleasures to a director who takes his material seriously and to a star who shoulders that seriousness with ease. Read full review
90
Washington PostDesson Thomson
Batman Begins emerges from the darkness and leaves a powerful, lasting impression. Read full review
88
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
The action scenes are, for the most part, kinetic and exciting - things that have rarely been true of fights and chases in the superhero's previous incarnations. Read full review
80
EmpireKim Newman
Significantly grittier than previous Bat-beginnings, this finds new things to do with, and say about, a character who's been around since 1938. Read full review
80
L.A. WeeklyScott Foundas
Of 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. Read full review
80
Film ThreatPete Vonder Haar
Not just one of the best "comic book" movies ever made, but also one of the best films of the year. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleMarc Savlov
At times it feels almost too busy with plotting. There's so much going on, and so much to take in, that it leaves you winded. But that's origin stories for you. No one ever said setting up a savior would be simple. Read full review
75
Rolling StonePeter Travers
The buildup is steadily engrossing. That's because Nolan keeps the emphasis on character, not gadgets. Gotham looks lived in, not art-directed. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeTy Burr
In Batman Begins, Christian Bale gives us the best Bruce Wayne that has ever graced the screen. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael Wilmington
Nolan is a fascinating, offbeat choice for a huge movie franchise such as this. Just as Bale turns Batman into a near-tragic obsessive -- a Scarlet Pimpernel with the soul of a Hamlet and Monte Cristo -- Nolan turns Batman Begins into something much closer to Miller's "Dark Knight" interpretation. Read full review
75
New York Daily NewsJack Mathews
What you get out of Batman Begins depends on what you bring to it. It is the most faithful to the origins of the comic strip and it sets up a series very different from the four made by Tim Burton and Joel Schumacher between 1989 and 1997. Read full review
75
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
Batman Begins is a mature take on material often relegated to the kiddie file, and it's simply the latest proof that, when treated properly, comic books are a viable art form for all ages. Bring on the sequel. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
Best of all, there's just the pleasure of seeing something that's both fantastic to the eye and emotionally dimensional. This is how to make action movies. Read full review
70
VarietyTodd McCarthy
Ambitious, well made but not exactly rousing. Read full review
70
SlateDavid Edelstein
The movie is satisfying, though -- at least by the standards of that depressing phenomenon, the superhero "franchise." Read full review
70
NewsweekDavid Ansen
A mostly successful attempt to resuscitate a series soiled by silliness, sloppiness and Joel Schumacher. Read full review
70
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
Batman Begins summons up moments of great eloquence and power. If only its cast of characters was as fully inhabited as its turbulent city.
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam Lacey
All of the story is so absurdly humourless that it is dramatically inert, as if Nolan had decided the only way to make the Batman character more substantial was to put weights on his wings. Read full review
63
USA TodayMike Clark
The early going -- say, an hour -- is spent in a fatigued daze. A few powerful jabs eventually punch things up. Read full review
63
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie Rickey
Burton gives us SuperDude; Nolan gives us Sir Subdued. Read full review
63
PremiereAaron Hillis
Not bad for summer jollies, au contraire, but -- "Holy Raised Bar, Batman!" -- let's pray that the next installment measures up to the sequel summits of "Spider-Man 2" and "X2." Read full review
60
Village VoiceMichael Atkinson
Nolan 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. Read full review
60
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
The result is handsome and logical, but missing the spark that would make it thrilling. Read full review
50
New York Magazine (Vulture)Ken Tucker
Begins, at two-hours-plus, is a nonstarter. Read full review
50
The New YorkerDavid Denby
The 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. Read full review
50
TimeRichard Schickel
Nolan'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. Read full review
50
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
Batman Begins is obvious from the get-go - and almost no fun. Read full review
50
Washington PostAnn Hornaday
A good as the performances are, and as dutiful as Nolan has been in preserving the Kane legacy in Batman Begins, there's something joyless about the enterprise. Read full review
50
Chicago ReaderJ.R. Jones
There are strong turns by Michael Caine as Alfred the butler and Tom Wilkinson as a ruthless crime boss. Read full review
50
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
Delivers enough action to please Saturday-night crowds, if not the surreal wit that made the first two "Batman" movies, directed by Tim Burton, so entertaining. Read full review
40
SalonStephanie Zacharek
Needs much more energy and kinetic flow -- less dolor and more dolomite. Read full review
40
Dallas ObserverRobert Wilonsky
Even if there were a great movie here, it would have been undermined by two lead actors who are barely even there, asked to deliver lines they can't handle: Bale, playing the Batman with clipped wings, and Katie Holmes as an assistant district attorney who doesn't have the gravitas to pass as an intern. Come back, Alicia Silverstone; all is forgiven. Read full review
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