Apologies to Every Man I’ve Met at a Party, But ‘Batman Begins’ is My Favorite ‘Dark Knight’ Film

Is this is a safe space? Is this a judgment-free zone? Can I be honest with you guys?  Can I bare my soul and be met with a supporting, loving environment? OK, good, because I have something to confess: Batman Begins is my favorite film in The Dark Knight Trilogy.

Usually, when I voice that incendiary opinion—particularly when I do so in the presence of any man with a Reddit account—I am met with some form of disbelieving stares and/or indignant outcries. Now that all Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy is streaming on Netflix—2005’s Batman Begins, 2008’s The Dark Knight, and 2012’s The Dark Knight Rises—I expect the frequency of this argument to increase dramatically. Thankfully, unlike the men at those parties, I’ve decided that the imaginary reader of this essay agreed this is a safe space, and so I will speak my truth without interruption or counterarguments, as God intended.

Let me start (Or “begin!” Haha, get it?) by saying that I do not care about Batman. There is not one thing about that tragically rich toy collector that interests me, other than, perhaps—yeah, no, I couldn’t even come up with anything to help make this sentence flow nicely. I don’t hate Batman, but, personality-wise, Bruce Wayne has nothing of interest to offer me. I understand that he grieves his parents, fears bats, hates criminals, and loves his city. But, as I quickly learned from all Batman films that are not Batman Begins, none of those things constitute a personality.

Having no interest in the superhero himself, I find it appealing as a casual moviegoer that Batman Begins is all about Bruce’s whole “becoming Batman” journey, mostly because that transformation glosses over the gaping hole where his actual characterization should be. (Christian Bale as Batman, by the way, is an inspired casting choice, given that Bale, too, has no distinctive personality, other than anger.) People like to hate on origin stories, but personally, I love them: It’s a great excuse to spend at least 40 minutes building character, without any gratuitous explosions getting in the way. Let’s breeze past the part where that character-building includes a training montage featuring a vaguely ethnic Liam Neeson—this is my essay, so I am allowed to breeze past the obvious holes in my argument—to the beautiful shot of Bruce embracing his winged rodent friends, after which they crown him King Bat. (I promise I actually have seen this film.)

Bruce facing his fear of bats is enough character growth to satiate me—for now, at least. There’s still hope he may someday be interesting!

Don’t get me started on Cillian Murphy, my favorite of the Nolan-Verse pretty boys, who plays Dr. Jonathan Crane / Scarecrow, a corrupt scientist who’s creating a fear-inducing drug that he plans to use on the city. Is that not a creative and fascinating evil plan, much better than the usual destroy-the-world, kill-everyone villainy? And talk about tying in the central themes of the movie, am I right? As an added bonus, Murphy deploys a number of frankly delightful facial expressions. Did Bane have delightful facial expressions? I think not. (Seriously, why won’t Nolan let Tom Hardy act with his mouth? This has always bothered me.)

Of course, I do realize the main appeal of The Dark Knight is Heath Ledger’s Joker. I would never dream of arguing that Heath Ledger is not a superb Joker. But for me, that just isn’t enough to distract from the fact that Batman, pardon my millennial, lowkey sucks. And as much as I wish I could, as it would likely result in me enjoying a number of pop culture phenomenons like Breaking Bad and Mad Men, I just can’t bring myself to root for villains. I either need a main character I can at least sort of rally behind, or I need the entire point of the story to be about how the main character sucks. Neither The Dark Knight nor The Dark Rises gave me that, but Batman Begins kind of gives me that. Ergo, Batman Begins is my favorite film of The Dark Knight Trilogy.

Long live Batman Begins, now streaming on Netflix.

Stream Batman Begins on Netflix