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DVD : Batman Begins (Two-Disc Special Edition)In association with Amazon.com List Price: $19.98 Amazon.com's Price: $6.99 You Save: $12.99 (65%)Prices subject to change. Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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Aspect Ratio: 1.77:1Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested) Binding: DVD Brand: Warner Brothers EAN: 9781419828171 Format: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD-Video, Special Edition, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC ISBN: 1419828177 Label: Warner Home Video Manufacturer: Warner Home Video Number Of Items: 2 Publisher: Warner Home Video Region Code: 1 Release Date: October 18, 2005 Running Time: 140 minutes Studio: Warner Home Video Theatrical Release Date: June 15, 2005 Sales Rank: 502 MPN: WARD76677D Related Items:
Editorial Review: 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. 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? 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
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 Average Rating:
 Rating:  - Re-inventing Comic Book MoviesThis is one amazing film. There is no better fleshed out Hero then Bruce Wayne aka Batman the Dark Knight. Other Superhero films touched one deep feeling of the protagonist and carried that theme throughout the film. Best example is the first Spirder-Man where the main character has to protect his secret identity in order to protect those that he loves. Peter Parker was an interesting, easy to pull off character. But what Christian Bale does for Bruce Wayne easily surpasses even Robert Downey Jr's ... Read More Rating: - Exactly where Batman should have begun in the first place!!!Finally Batman is being tributed as it should have been a long time ago. Batman Begins is where it should have really begun in the first place. The production is flawless, the portrayals keep you in disbelieve all thruoghout the movie... Rating: - As dark and rich as a good cup of coffeeI will preface this by saying that I might have glanced at a Batman comic book when I was a kid, but have never read one. I did watch the Michael Keaton Batman movie, but my main Batman experience, prior to this movie, was watching the television series, non-animated, as a kid. In short, I am not an expert, at all. I bought this movie because, when I was in the hospital, it was showing on cable television and, while I did not get to see the entire movie there, I liked what I saw. When ... Read More Rating:  - it worksI suppose producers could not leave Batman alone in the course of the current revival of every possible cartoon figure, even if the last filmed series had already exploited most of the possibilities with one peak, the beautiful "Batman returns" with the superb Michelle Pfeiffer as the deadliest and most convincing Catwoman ever. So, to find something new, we have here a "let's go back to the beginnings", hark! hark! such a novelty this is, trying to explore what was purposefully left unsaid ... Read More Rating: - A unique take on the Batman sagaI have doubts this movie (or its sequels) fit in with Warner Brother's previous Batman series of movies (though there are some similarities). I also doubt it fits in with the TV series (which has far fewer similarities). If there is a weak link, it is the time spent on the origins development. The comic books give the impression that Bruce Wayne trained after his parents' murder getting physically prepared for his role as Batman. The TV series didn't deal with the subject at all and the movie ... Read More Browse for similar items by category:
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