I’d wanted to see “Batman Begins” since it was in the theatres several years ago, and never got around to it. Recently, I told my father I wanted to borrow his DVD so that I could at least see the movie before the sequel, “The Dark Knight,” later this year. Dad called me yesterday afternoon after noticing the movie on FX’s Sunday night schedule, and I watched it last night. I was delighted. So here, because absolutely no one asked for it, is my three-years-late review:

I loved Tim Burton’s 1989 movie “Batman,” but “Batman Begins” is a better, more faithful depiction of the character. The Tim Burton and Joel Schumacher films tended to have more memorable villains than heroes — Jack Nicholson, after all, got top billing in the first one. And the production design was sometimes too impressive — the movies seemed to take place in some sort of depressing, surrealist theme park. Schumacher lightened up Burton’s bleak vision but wandered into campiness while doing so.

“Batman Begins,” by contrast, is all about Bruce Wayne and Batman and how the two are intertwined. The cast is fantastic — Christian Bale and Gary Oldman especially, but also (of course) Liam Neeson, Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman. Linus Roache, the prickly new ADA on “Law & Order,” was so likable as Bruce Wayne’s father than I hated to see him go. Katie Holmes (who will be repaced by Maggie Gyllenhall in “The Dark Knight”) was even OK. The look of the movie is just fanciful enough to pay tribute to its comic-book roots but just realistic enough to allow you to suspend your disbelief from time to time.

“The Dark Knight,” of course, will be more of a challenge, because of The Joker. The Joker, by his very nature, commands attention. Will Heath Ledger be able to make the role his own, or will everyone be sitting there in the theatre thinking about Nicholson? And will The Joker steal the movie away from Batman?

It will be tricky, no doubt, but Christopher Nolan did such a fantastic job directing “Batman Begins” that I have high hopes for the sequel.