But 40 minutes in to Batman Begins I was almost wishing for a dose of the Burton/Schumacher Batman attitude. Almost. Some of what is being characterized as the “psychological depth” of the new Batman is repetitive gobbledygook. Seeing the young Bruce Wayne falling down the abandoned well and being rescued by his father is compelling. Hearing the wise words of his father about fear and the purpose of great wealth is interesting and valuable information. Seeing the young Bruce witness the murder of his parents is also well done and wrenching to watch.

But Bruce’s young man’s sojourn into the ways of evil is more than a little repetitive. Batman Begins begins in a prison somewhere in Asia, a place to which he has descended by walking away from wealth and exploring criminality. But because he’s Bruce Wayne, he can’t just disappear. Or, at least, that’s what he’s told by Liam Neeson, nattily dressed in a tweedy suit, who shows up in Bruce’s cell one day and introduces himself as Ducard.

Ducard offers Bruce the chance to truly learn the ways of good and evil, vengeance and justice by becoming an apprentice to Ra’s Al Ghul (the miserably underused Ken Watanabe) and joining the League of Shadows. Bruce, following only the logic of a comic book or a movie based on a comic book, climbs the snowy, jagged mountain with the requisite blue flower calling card and enlists in the ranks of this mysterious figure.

As the door clangs behind Bruce, feel free to get up and go get some popcorn, because what follows is several scenes of creaking leather and clanking steel and a lot of nonsense. What are supposedly little gems of lessons about fear, anger, justice, vengeance, balance, power, leadership, evil, yada, yada, yada, are mouthed as Bruce is trained to be a stealth ninja. It is all generically, and condescendingly “Asian.” These scenes are tired - a very familiar feeling combination of Star Wars and The Last Samurai and a dozen or so other pictures.

Unlike Anakin Skywalker, Bruce cannot simply kill a demonstrably evil man, and that leads to a series of big explosions and Bruce’s departure back to Gotham. Once we’re back in Gotham, Batman Begins picks up speed and interest.

Bruce comes back to Gotham to save it. His former colleagues at the League of Shadows believe Gotham has become a hopeless cesspool of crime and evil. Bruce’s father believed in doing good and believed in helping the city, and Bruce wants to continue that legacy. And so he begins his transformation.

He begins with Alfred’s help. Michael Caine plays Alfred with a very proper mix of fatherly feeling and loyal support. Alfred does a lot of covert administrative work so that Bruce can purchase with anonymity the kind of gear he needs to get his alter ego launched. Bruce transforms the scene of his childhood trauma, the fall into the well and the cave behind it, into the home for his new mission.

Bruce’s other ally is Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman), a research-and-development kind of guy who works for Wayne Industries but has been sent to the basement of the company with the ideas and projects he developed when Bruce’s father was alive. Lucius is like “M” in the Bond movies. He’s the guy with the gadgets. Most of the gadgets are materials designed for soldiers or military applications that never went beyond the prototype stage because they were so expensive. When Lucius shows Bruce the vehicle that will become the batmobile, Bruce’s only question is, “Does it come in black?”

Most merciful about that line and these scenes is that we get to laugh, relax and enjoy. Batman Begins is trying so hard to prove that it isn’t like its slick, campy Batman predecessors, it is a little short on fun. I applaud Nolan’s desire to reshape our idea of Batman, but he’s working so hard to make things plausible and true to the particular logic of this superhero that he has made a very serious picture.

Bale, when given the opportunity to be a silly playboy, easily pulls off the dual identity. He can be quite charming, urbane and funny. I wish that knowing so much more about Bruce Wayne included more moments of Bruce having fun or, at least, pretending to have fun.

Taking a superhero too seriously is tricky. Batman Begins scrupulously details how a regular guy like Bruce can dazzle the masses with the appearance of super powers, but the movie is burdened with an evil plot so over the top that long before the end of the film the notion of the film having any relationship with genuine possibility is out the window.

The more realistic plot and villains in front of the deep, dark threat to Gotham are very entertaining and plausible. Tom Wilkinson as the extremely powerful drug smuggler and organized crime boss Carmine Falcone is great. His corrupt cop colleague Flass (Mark Boone Junior) is suitably sloppy and stupid. Cillian Murphy’s transparent blue eyes make his very criminal psychologist chilling. Gary Oldman is wonderful as Jim Gordon, an honest cop. What a pleasure it is to see Oldman playing a normal guy and not chewing the scenery. If Batman Begins laughed at itself a little more, Katie Holmes’ crooked smile would be put to better use, but she’d still seem awfully young and sweet to be a tough assistant district attorney.

I enjoyed Batman Begins in part because of the movie itself and in part because it restores a beloved superhero to the screen. This is a great Batman team. I hope they make a sequel soon - Batman Begins ends with a tantalizing tease of what’s to come. And I hope when they make the sequel they keep all the good things they’ve put in place and have just a little bit more fun.