No spoilers, so don't worry.

I've been looking forward to Batman Begins, directed by Christopher Nolan of Memento fame ever since seeing a preview for it months ago. I'm not a big fan of the Batman movie franchise in general - quite honestly I remember watching all the earlier Batman movie's but not being very impressed with them at all.

The movie was friggin awesome. I absolutely loved it. I had a big-ass smile from the beginning straight to the end because the movie was everything I expected it to be.

The storyline is a bit clunky in only a few places, but for me, the character transition from Bruce Wayne to Batman was very well done. It didn't drag, but certainly wasn't rushed like the "turning" of Anakin (ugh). I really liked Christian Bale as Batman/Bruce Wayne ... he was very well-cast for this role (plus he kicked total ass in Equilibrium).

I heard a long time ago that Darren Aronofsky (Pi, Requiem for a Dream) might write and direct this Batman (Source), which had me under the impression that this movie would be a completely character-driven gothic view of Batman, but Christopher Nolan does a wonderful job of balancing out the character and the action in this movie.

I also LOVED the fact that there wasn't too much focus on the retarded love interest. I'm not sure why directors/writers/studios feel the need to dilute the value of a wonderful movie with a stupid love interest that seems forced. I'm not saying that love interests should be removed, but some movies... they just don't belong. The love interest in this movie seems almost pointless, but I guess it's always good to have SOMETHING that would humanize Bruce ...

Superbly cast, well-paced, action-packed ... all met my expectations. A great movie to start off the summer.