I feel my love for this film growing since seeing The Batman.
So strange. I know we've had the Snyder Batman stuff but now that we have a new solo Batman movie it kind of officially cements the Nolan movies as the "older ones" for me, which still feels crazy to say. But I recall going back and rediscovering my love of Burton's films after seeing Begins too. Cause you now have a newer context.
Begins is FUN man. It's so wild to think at the time it was considered uber grimdark and serious. It was absolutely a 180 from Schumacher, but it still has so much fun, warmth, adventure and excitement that is mixed so well with darker themes and danger.
If Reeves made a 70s noir detective version of a Batman movie with his first film, I really feel that Nolan made the 70s/80s blockbuster version of it that never had been done. Not only is it Batman by the way of Richard Donner's Superman, I think it is also Batman by the way of Star Wars. The mythological hero's journey version. And man that just holds such a special place. I'm so grateful someone stepped in and decided to do that. We could've very easily skipped right into the grittiest of gritty if someone like Aranofsky got a hold of it and missed this sweet spot that Nolan perfectly hit.