DVD REVIEW: Batman Begins
The new "restart" of the Batman franchise under the helm of Memento Director Christopher Nolan, and more in the tone with the early history of the Dark Knight as was seen in the comics Batman: Year One...
Product Details
Actors: Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Liam Neeson, Katie Holmes, Gary Oldman
Directors: Christopher Nolan
Format: Color, Special edition, Widescreen
Number of discs: 2
Rated: PG-13
Studio: Warner Home Video
DVD Release Date: October 18, 2005
Run Time: 141 min (original theatrical or airing runtime)
DVD Features:
- Available Subtitles: English, Spanish, French
- Available Audio Tracks: English (Dolby Digital 5.1), French (Dolby Digital 5.1)
- MTV's Tankman Begins: a spoof
- Inner Demons comic: Explore the special features through an exclusive interactive comic book
- The Journey Begins: creative concepts, story development and casting
- Shaping Mind and Body: Christian Bale's transformation into Batman
- The Tumbler: reinvention of the Batmobile
- Gotham City Rises: production design of Gotham City, the Batcave, Wayne Manor, and more
- Saving Gotham City: the development of miniatures, CGI, and effects for the monorail chase scene
- Genesis of the Bat: A look at the Dark Knight's incarnation and influences on the film
- Confidential files: Go beyond the movie and discover facts and story points not in the film
- Theatrical trailer
- Cape and Cowl: the new batsuit
- Path to Discovery: filming in Iceland
- Confidential files
- Character/weaponry gallery
- Photo gallery
- DVD-ROM features: Batman Begins mobile game demo & Web links
- Exclusive collectible 72-page comic book containing: Detective Comics #27 (the very first Batman story), Batman: The Man Who Falls (a classic story that inspired Batman Begins), and an excerpt from Batman: The Long Halloween (a chilling story that also inspired the film)
Editorial Review by Amazon's David Horiuchi
Batman Begins discards the previous four films in the series and recasts the Caped Crusader as a fearsome avenging angel. That's good news, because the series, which had gotten off to a rousing start under Tim Burton, had gradually dissolved into self-parody by 1997's Batman & Robin. As the title implies, Batman Begins tells the story anew, when Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) flees Western civilization following the murder of his parents. He is taken in by a mysterious instructor named Ducard (Liam Neeson in another mentor role) and urged to become a ninja in the League of Shadows, but he instead returns to his native Gotham City resolved to end the mob rule that is strangling it. But are there forces even more sinister at hand?
Co-written by the team of David S. Goyer (a veteran comic book writer) and director Christopher Nolan (Memento), Batman Begins is a welcome return to the grim and gritty version of the Dark Knight, owing a great debt to the graphic novels that preceded it. It doesn't have the razzle dazzle, or the mass appeal, of Spider-Man 2 (though the Batmobile is cool), and retelling the origin means it starts slowly, like most "first" superhero movies. But it's certainly the best Bat-film since Burton's original, and one of the best superhero movies of its time. Bale cuts a good figure as Batman, intense and dangerous but with some of the lightheartedness Michael Keaton brought to the character. Michael Caine provides much of the film's humor as the family butler, Alfred, and as the love interest, Katie Holmes (Dawson's Creek) is surprisingly believable in her first adult role. Also featuring Gary Oldman as the young police officer Jim Gordon, Morgan Freeman as a Q-like gadgets expert, and Cillian Murphy as the vile Jonathan Crane.
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