Batman Begins - "You're Practice""I don't need protection."
"Protection for them." The first image of a sky full of bats that ultimately forms the iconic symbol is so surreal and epic you'd think Christopher Nolan had already filmed the entire trilogy, like Lord of the Rings. The color and sound strike a mood different from any previous version of Batman and it sets the right tone for this trilogy, though I wonder if it was done just for the cool transition of young Bruce and Rachel running through the gardens of Wayne Manor.
There may be a lot of discussion about the score, credited here to James Newton Howard and Hans Zimmer. I don't have the proper knowledge on the subject, but in my memory this is where movie scores start getting away from themes and standard orchestrations and began to use the music as part of the audio landscape. You hear it sound like a car moving forward, giving momentum to the story as it sets up Bruce Wayne during the defining moment of his life before we move forward to the place where our story begins.
Batman is closely associated with Gotham City, but Nolan likes to have his Batman around the world. It's something that never sat right with me, but then again my Gotham City was always built on a stage. Because Gotham doesn't exist, putting Bruce anywhere else is like using a chess piece for a game of Monopoly, you can still play but it clearly doesn't belong.
This Chapter ends with a fight scene. I'll try not to say it too much, but Nolan is generally terrible with the choreography of the action with the camera. Here, we have a bunch of guys all dressed alike, all covered with mud. Sure, it's obvious that Bruce is outnumbered and wins easily, but there's no excitement.
Rating: * * * - Good