After the dreadful Batman & Robin, the prospect of the Caped Crusader making a triumphant return to cinema seemed unlikely. Still, if few beyond the rank and file at Warner Brothers were cheered by news of Batman’s resurrection, the involvement of director Christopher Nolan (Memento, Following, Insomnia) seemed to guarantee that, at the absolute worst, we were in for a fascinatingly messy ride.
As it happens, Batman Begins – a prequel detailing the 'birth’ of the Gotham superhero – is a whole lot better than that. If Sin City presents a stylistic Great Leap Forward, Nolan’s film is a brilliantly tactical charge in the opposite direction (both are adapted from graphic novels by the comic 'auteur' Frank Miller).
Granted, the plot, though leaner and more engaging than anything offered by previous Batman movies, is hardly a radical departure. Having witnessed the murder of his billionaire parents as a child, Bruce Wayne (Bale, excellent) hones his vigilante skills under ninja master Liam Neeson. Returning to gloomy Gotham, he goes solo to save the city from an hallucinogenic chemical weapon.
Theatricality is eschewed in favour of psycho-drama and (a hopelessly outclassed Katie Holmes, aside) credibly heavyweight performances. As Bale mediates on the corrosive effects of grief with the intensity of a Danish Prince, Neeson’s off in Macbeth terrain and Michael Caine – all twinkling charm as Albert the faithful butler – is delightfully Falstaffian. Like whoa, forget day-glo action figures, this here popcorn movie is way deep.
The movie's aesthetic values are equally well conceived. The expressionist lines of Tim Burton's Batman movies have given way to a classic, post-Victorian gothicism. As the camera swoops over the city squalor, the tangle of electrical wires and tenement washing lines appears as a sinister spidery web.
This is entirely in keeping with Batman Begins’ keen social awareness; as the film probes the grinding poverty of Gotham City, there’s a thrill to had from realising that this is what a $150 million dollar blockbuster might sound like if written by Ken Loach. It could happen.

Running Time 140mins. Cert 12a. Opens June 16th.