Batman's had a rough ride in the movie business. He started out all right-you might argue that Batman launched the current craze of translating comic books to movies. But before the Hulk, Spiderman, Daredevil, and the X-Men came to the big screen, Batman had to fight to be taken seriously. Unfortunately, after making strides with the Batman movie by Tim Burton, the franchise slowly lost ground to directors who didn't respect the material, eventually finding its way into the hands Evil Incarnate himself, the bad guy fanboys loathe everywhere: Joel Schumacher.

It's not that Schumacher's vision was wrong, because Batman has certainly been campy before (one look at Adam West's television series drives that point home). It's that Schumacher was making a movie for himself. Conversations about "staying true to the material" didn't happen then. Schumacher did whatever he felt like, and to heck with anybody who disagreed.

Like the big dumb animals that movies tend to be, franchises only stop charging down a path when they get seriously wounded. When Batman & Robin finally, blessedly, flopped in the box office, comic book movies stopped getting made and, unfortunately, Batman along with them.

Given that little history lesson, it's understandable that Batman Begins strives very hard to "keep it real." Every character is perfectly cast, from Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne/Batman, to Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox, from Michael Caine as Alfred, to Gary Oldman as Jim Gordon. The actors, the directors, the studios now take comic-based films very seriously and stock them with the right people…casts that had been only fantasized as "dream teams" for comic book translations are now regularly realized. Bale has the physique and brooding manner necessary to pull off a believable Batman and an even more believable Wayne. Freeman has the reserved kindness and intelligence required for Fox. Caine imbues Alfred with whit and charm as only he can. And Oldman is both frightened and frail as a lone good cop in a world gone mad.

With this newfound respect, Batman Begins starts the franchise all over again by going back to his roots. And by doing so, in the same way Enterprise helped Star Trek (but alas, could not sustain it), Batman Begins forgives past sins by focusing on the visceral parts of the its protagonist. There is a gritty realism that serves as a constant reminder that Batman person could exist, from the training Bruce receives from ninjas to how Bruce, Lucius and Alfred conspire to create Batman's suit and Batmobile.

Even the villains are carefully weaved through the plot. The Scarecrow is actually Dr. Jonathan Crane (Cillian Murphy, creating zombies instead of fighting them this go round), with grandiose plans of psychological experimentation on Gotham City. Ra's Al Ghul, the leader of a shadowy organization that destroys empires, employs Crane. If there is a high-minded plot point that might lose some members of the audience, it's the ninjas…but man I just love me some ninjas.

There are links to Batman history all over the place. Batman Begins largely follows the events in Batman: Year One, especially when Bruce falls down a hole and is terrorized by a swarm of bats-a fear that, to the writers' credit (Christopher Nolan and David Goyer), is never forgotten even as they amp up the action and violence. The tank-like form of the Batmobile harkens back to The Dark Knight Returns. In that regard, Batman succeeds admirably.

There's a lot to cover. The chase scenes are a little too long, and the Rachel Dawes character played by Katie Holmes is almost unnecessary. Still, Batman Begins alternately feels like an urban horror or a dramatic character study. There is nothing campy or self-parodying here. When Batman strikes, it's horrifying. When Bruce Wayne manipulates, it's believable. It's to everyone's credit that there are no jarring transitions between the two worlds.

Ultimately, Batman Begins is the platform for a much larger story. The events in the first movie stage the platform for the next and explain why so many crazies-with-a-theme populate Batman's world. If the Batman franchise can stray true to this new "comic book realism," it will be a joy to watch unfold. Here's hoping this is just the beginning.