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List Price: $19.98 | | Label: Warner Home Video
Salesrank: 9235
Released: October 18, 2005 |
| Our Price: $10.92 |
| Used Price: $4.40 |
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MPAA Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
Batman Begins explores the origins of the Batman legend and the Dark Knight's emergence as a force for good in Gotham. In the wake of his parents' murder, disillusioned industrial heir Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) travels the world seeking the means to fight injustice and turn fear against those who prey on the fearful. He returns to Gotham and unveils his alter-ego: Batman, a masked crusader who uses his strength, intellect and an array of high tech deceptions to fight the sinister forces that threaten the city.
Description of Batman Begins (Two-Disc Special Edition):
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?
Cowritten 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. --David Horiuchi
Batman at Amazon.com
All Batman DVDs | 
Batman Begins 101: A Comic Book Primer | 
Where Have I Seen Christian Bale? |
All Batman Comics and Graphic Novels | 
Batman Toys | 
Batman Begins Soundtrack |
Stills from Batman Begins (click for larger images)
DVD Features
The first disc is filled out by the theatrical trailer and a Jimmy Fallon-starring Batman Begins spoof from the MTV Movie Awards. The second disc consists of eight featurettes (about 105 minutes total) on a variety of topics. "The Journey Begins" covers the early stages of the movie, including the casting and how director/co-writer Christopher Nolan brought in co-writer David S. Goyer for his comic-book expertise. "Shaping Mind and Body" covers Christian Bale's fight training, and other featurettes discuss the sets (the Batcave is shown being constructed out of wood and sheets), the Batman costume, the Batmobile, the monorail sequence, and the hazards of filming in Iceland. All the behind-the-scenes featurettes are solid but somewhat routine, and while "The Journey Begins" is the widest overview, there's not really any centerpiece documentary (all are 8 to 15 minutes, and there's no Play All option). Interviewees tend to be the same throughout: Nolan, Goyer, Bale (the only cast member to get much face time), and other crew members (it's nice to hear from the stunt people).
Potentially more interesting to fans is "Genesis of the Bat," which covers the comic books that influenced the film, including The Long Halloween, Neal Adams's Ra's Al Ghul from the '70s, Dennis O'Neill and Dick Giordano's The Man Who Falls, and Frank Miller's Batman: Year One and The Dark Knight Returns. Interviewees include DC Comics editor Paul Levitz and artist Jim Lee, but the latter's involvement eventually degrades the featurette into a pitch for DC's All-Star Batman line. Filling out the disc are overviews of four gadgets and eight characters, DVD-ROM features, and a variety of poster-art concepts. To get to the features menu, you have to scroll through a multipage Goyer-scribed comic book, which is a good read, but you can't skip it the next time you want to watch the second disc. Note that the second disc offers a French menu and French (but not English) subtitles for the featurettes. --David Horiuchi
Batman Begins (Two-Disc Special Edition) Reviews:
The Dark, Grim Batman Has Returned 
2009-11-07 - Live-action wise (the animated films having always retained a mature nature since 1992), this is the best take on Batman since Burton's two. Batman's origin's are explored and some of his training is delved into. Christian Bale makes for a good Batman, the voice that he uses for the character doesn't get on my nerves as most people would think but my main complaint are, like others, is the action sequences. There are too many fast cuts and the action is just barely indistinguishable. Michael Caine is the best Alfred, Michael Gough from the previous four hardly being in them until Batman & Robin, and that was only because he was dying. Caine's version is much more involved with Bruce and cares about him, a noted scene being when he's driving a poisoned Batman home. You can tell that he's deeply worried about him. Katie Holmes. How to describe her. Well she's more believable as a DA than Denise Richards was a physicist but she doesn't really convey any emotions (much like Lois Chiles and Barbara Bach from the Bond films). And her inexplicable interest in wanting to know Batman's name seems almost forced in my opinion. I know he saved her life, twice, but she's never really given any inclanation to really find out who he is. Liam Neeson and Cillian Murphy are perfect as Ra's al Ghul (Ra'Z al Ghul is not his name) and the Scarecrow respectively. My main problem with the villains, Scarecrow imparticular, is that they look nothing like their comic book counterparts. I know Nolan wants to keep a "realistic" look to the films but I wish he were a little more faithful to how they looked in the comics. The plot is very good, with plenty of twists and turns to keep a new viewer on their toes. Lastly, James Newton Howard and Hans Zimmer's score is quite good but their heroic theme is quite forgettable when compared to Danny Elfman's, but definitely a step up from that atrocious Elliot Goldenthal.
Erroneous Amazon Info, Won't Play on Some SONY BD Players 
2009-11-07 - First, there is no Japanese language track and only Japanese or Chinese subtitles, not both. (I'm not sure which subtitled language is listed because I don't read either language, but I suspect it's Chinese because some of the characters are much more complex than most Japanese characters.)
Also, IF YOU OWN A SONY BLU-RAY PLAYER THIS DISC MAY NOT PLAY! I sold a perfectly fine Batman Begins BD to a guy with a Sony player who fantasized that the disc was filthy or heat damaged, neither of which were true. Only after he bought a 2nd BB BD and discovered that it, too, would not play in his Sony BD player did he realize the problem was his player, not because I was some sort of scheister, which I'm not.
[...]
After the guy returned the disc to me it played (and is playing now) perfectly fine in my PS3.
Batman begins blue Ray
2009-10-29 - The movie worked without flaw and looked great on my tv, no problems playing it. Thanks for the DVD.
Excellent Movie
2009-10-17 - This movie renewed my interest in Batman. Christian Bale is probably the best batman yet. I highly this movie.
Part 2 of my Batman Begins review part 1 is on the Batman Begins 2009 rerelease DVD reviews 7/10
2009-10-06 - Look for the 2009 release on page 2 or just look in my reviews. I was naming off some flaws of the movie another 1 is Scarecrow taking basically a backseat to Ra's Al Ghoul but yeah I like this movie not as much as the Tim Burton but Batman Begins is better than that sorry รค** piece of s*!t Batman & Robin. Chris Nolan your a d@** good director you did a good job.
