Product Description
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.Format: BLU-RAY DISC Genre: ACTION/ADVENTURE/HEROESProduct Details
- Brand: Warner Brothers
- Released on: 2008-07-08
- Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
- Aspect ratio: 2.40:1
- Formats: AC-3, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, Limited Edition, Special Edition, Subtitled, Widescreen
- Original language: English
- Subtitled in: English, French, Spanish
- Dubbed in: French
- Number of discs: 1
- Dimensions: 1.00 pounds
- Running time: 140 minutes
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
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. --David Horiuchi
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Stills from Batman Begins (click for larger images)
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From The New Yorker
And ends with a whimper. Christopher Nolan, working with a screenplay that he wrote with David S. Goyer, has attempted a literal-minded myth of creation. The orphaned young Bruce Wayne (a gloomy Christian Bale) undergoes an initiation in some nameless Asian snow-capped mountains, where he's trained by a morally ambiguous adjunct (Liam Neeson) to a shadowy ninja vigilante leader (Ken Watanabe). Neeson, wearing a pointy little beard, keeps knocking Bale down as he says such things to him as "To conquer fear you must become fear." The screenplay sounds as if it were written after a course in self-realization taken on Santa Monica Boulevard, and the direction is both pompous and cheesy, with ridiculous plot developments and lots of whirling movement shot so close that we can't really see anything. Gotham is no longer a malignant paradise of evil; it's just dark. With Morgan Freeman and Michael Caine wasted in poorly written roles as Batman's allies.-David Denby -David Denby
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker
Customer Reviews
I love this movie but
If you already have the actual movie then the gift set is not worth the money. it comes with a bunch of extra cardboard, a USB, a dark knight sneak peek disc(which is really just the latest trailer) and all the same features that are on the double disk version. I'm sorry i pre ordered it. That was the third time I bought this movie.
however if you haven't see the movie then absolutely buy this!
If You Can, Skip the "Deluxe Edition"'s 2nd Disc
"Batman Begins" is a five-star film. Don't forget it. But the 2nd disc, packaged only with the "Deluxe Edition," is one of the most underwhelming "bonus" discs ever sold. Yes, Christian Bale's transformation into Batman is amazing, but he merely talks about it--we don't see much of his grueling eating and workout habits. There's some insight into the director and screenwriter's collaboration, but to get there you'll need to page through a maddening "comic book" interface. By the time I finished making it through the "interactive" DVD, I felt like Bruce Wayne after his parents were murdered.
The Legend of the Batman Begins
After the first Batman franchise was driven into the ground by a succession of terrible sequels, it seemed unlikely that there would ever be a respectable Batman film again. But then there came a hope from an unexpected source. Christopher Nolan (director of Memento and Insomnia) wanted to reinvent the character in a more realistic and epic way. He teamed up with screenwriter David S. Goyer (The Blade Trilogy and Dark City) and together they wrote an exceptionally smart screenplay. The filmmakers have thoughtfully evaluated the mistakes made in the previous films (mainly poor acting, shallow characterization, campy humor and mindless action) and avoided repeating them. They've brought a new level of depth to a genre that has recently been overexposed and streamlined. This is an intellectual superhero film. It deals with dark thematic subject matter, which is only appropriate considering that Batman is essentially a guilt-ridden vigilante who symbolically avenges the death of his parents.
The story looks at the origins of Gotham's Dark Knight. As a young boy, Bruce Wayne fell into a dilapidated well where bats attacked him. The incident would haunt him much of his life and helped to shape who he was to become. His parents, the wealthy Thomas and Martha Wayne, are altruistic and philanthropic. His father owns Wayne Enterprises, a large manufacturing company but he spends most of his time volunteering at the hospital. But one night when the Wayne family was leaving the opera, they were approached by a desperate criminal who shoots Bruce's parents. Years after their death, Bruce tries unsuccessfully to get revenge but ultimately learns that it wouldn't solve anything to perpetuate the cycle of killing. He attempts to infiltrate the criminal underworld so that he might better understand what drives people to "prey on the fearful", but he is caught stealing from his own company. He's thrown into a prison in an unnamed Asian province, where he daily fights the other inmates for "practice". A man calling himself Ducard visits him unexpectedly. He offers Bruce a "path" and suggests he joins a secret fraternity, The League of Shadows, which seeks to bring balance and sanity to the world. When he agrees he is subjected to a brutal training regiment that takes him to the breaking point. Mentally and physically exhausted, he is accepted into their ranks providing that he display his devotion to justice by executing a criminal. Bruce refuses to knowingly take a life and a great battle ensues. After barely escaping and saving Ducard from a fiery demise, he heads back to Gotham alone. He is reunited with his former girlfriend, Rachel and his parental butler, Alfred. He secretly assumes the identity of Batman. When Alfred asks, "Why bats, Master Wayne?" he responds, "Bats frighten me. It's time my enemies shared my dread." Soon Batman uncovers corruption within the police force, the legal system and even within Wayne Enterprises. But at the heart of this new crime wave is an insidious conspiracy being carried out by a psychotic psychiatrist and an old acquaintance. Ducard returns and reveals his intentions to destroy Gotham City by releasing a "fear-inducing toxin" upon the population. And only Bruce, his former apprentice can stop him from succeeding.
The film features an excellent cast featuring Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne / Batman, Michael Caine as Alfred, Liam Neeson as Ducard, Katie Holmes as Rachel Dawes, Gary Oldman as Police Sergeant Jim Gordon, Cillian Murphy as Dr. Crane / The Scarecrow, Tom Wilkinson as Carmine Falcone, Rutger Hauer as Earle, Ken Watanabe as Ra's al Ghul, Linus Roache as Thomas Wayne, and Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox.
Arguably the best "comic book movie" ever made, Batman Begins resurrects the Dark Knight with style and sophistication. Rarely do these kinds of films touch upon philosophical beliefs, psychological disorders or social corruption and yet this film does so with ease. Batman Begins breathes new life into the legend and is the first chapter in a thrilling new Batman saga, which will be continued in 2008's The Dark Knight.
Also recommended:
Batman Begins
Batman: Year One
Batman: The Long Halloween
Batman (Shadow of the Bat, No. 52)
Batman Begins
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