Batman Begins is far-removed from the parody of Batman and Robin or even Tim Burtons’ morbid fairytales. Christopher Nolan’s vision is of a deeper philosophy. He’s stripped the Caped Crusader psychologically bare and gone back to basics.

Christian Bale has transformed himself from an emaciated wretch in The Machinist to a beefcake of staggering proportions. His biceps are bigger than my thighs and that’s saying something. An accomplished actor, he’s an under-rated star devoid of glitz and consequently comes to the Batman franchise with little baggage.

Bale pulls off The Dark Knight’s cold detachment with aplomb, but Nolan goes one step further in exploring his inner demons. When Bruce is a young child he falls into a cave full of bats; shortly afterwards his parents are brutally murdered in front of him. Bruce blames himself, and is haunted by nightmares well into his adulthood.

When he grows up he places himself in a Bhutan prison to study criminal behaviour because he “seeks the means to fight injustice.” He’s mentored by Ducard (Liam Neeson getting more handsome and enigmatic as the years accumulate), who teaches him how to fight ninja-style and control his guilt.

Back in Gotham, Bruce applies his rage to cleaning up the city once and for all and adopts the persona of a bat because it’s a symbol of his own fear. (Curiously though, he takes the time to get St. Tropezed before he starts and also acquires the gravelly voice of the man who does the trailers for action movies.)

There are plenty of hooligans to hoover up and his main problem initially is Carmine Falcone (Tom Wilkinson) – a megalomaniac with a Lower East Side accent and a mafia disposition – who heads Gotham City’s corrupt justice system. But Batman soon realises there’s a much more sinister force trying to destroy Gotham that takes the shape of Dr Jonathan Crane, aka The Scarecrow (the very cute Cillian Murphy).

In his fight for justice Batman is aided by an impressive cast including Gary Oldman as the city’s solitary good cop, and Michael Caine as the ever-dependable butler Alfred, who brings some much needed mirth to the proceedings. Unlike Katie – pure as the driven snow – Holmes, as Bruce’s childhood friend Rachel Dawes, who’s become a ball-breaking District Attorney and a moral bore.

Morgan Freeman plays Batman’s ‘Q’ figure and equips him with all the gadgets he needs as well as his suit, which is solely functional rather than sexy.

The action sequences are fine, but Nolan is no Jerry Bruckheimer and because of the films overall murky look and fast editing it’s sometimes difficult to actually see who’s thwacking who over the head.

Batman Begins is well made and ambitious, but dark and rather serious. It’s devoid of camp or kitsch and personally I missed the tongue in cheekiness of the previous outings, although there’s no denying that the pantomime escapades of the previous films ultimately suffocated the franchise.

But too much time is spent on our superhero’s subconscious turmoil making Batman Begins over long – his time philosophising in Asia being particularly drawn out. Much effort has been made to make the story ‘real’, which seems incongruous with Batman’s comic book origins and Batman Begins would have benefited from a little more theatricality.

Read our Totty Watch on Cillian Murphy.

Batman Begins open in the UK on 17 June 2005

Get into the Batman spirit – or at very lest ogle the tight fitting sexy Bat suits – buy buying the DVDs of the past films: Batman, Batman Returns, Batman Forever and Batman And Robin. Alternatively, get Batman: The Movie, the original camp movie spin-off from the 1960s television series.