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Usually ships in 1 business days | | | 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 
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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 | | | |
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| | Product Details | | Actors: | Christian Bale, Mark Boone Junior, Richard Brake, Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman | | Format: | AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD-Video, Special Edition, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC | | Language: | English | | Subtitle: | English, French, Spanish | | Number of Discs: | 2 | | Studio: | Warner Home Video | | Run Time: | 140 minutes | | DVD Release Date: | October 18, 2005 | | Average Customer Rating: |  based on 1178 reviews |
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 Back To Its Roots Aug 19, 2008
After the colossal flop that was "Batman and Robin", the entire Batman franchise went into a bit of a lull. Rumors of a "young Bruce Wayne becoming Batman" movie circulated for years, but nothing substantial was finalized. That is, of course, until this masterpiece from Christopher Nolan.
Whereas the first two Batman films were very gothic, and the following two were little more than action-adventure fare, this film delved into the important issue of "why is a man driven to dress up as a bat?" The other films used the old, tired "murdered parents" excuse, but Nolan realized that the psyche of Batman goes much deeper than familial matters.
Thus, the plot of this movie centers on Bruce Wayne's transformation into the Dark Knight, an intriguing process that probes the very roots and civilized society and makes us question whether "right" really is "right". The genius of this film, as a result, is the portrayal of Batman as a vigilante, not entirely accepted by all citizens of Gotham City. Is he a psychotic criminal, or a winged avenger who does not the police force can and will not? Can the primarily villain, The Scarecrow of comic book fame, be stopped by traditional means, or his Batman (despite his violent tendencies) actually needed to keep the peace? Those questions are what will keep this movie in your mind long after viewing.
Lest I get too philosophical, though, this film contains its fair share of exciting chases and intense action, staples of summer superhero films. However, it is the almost seamless weaving of those elements into the overall storyline (not just pointless action like this film's predecessor) that combines into an overall thrilling experience.
Finally, the acting in this movie is terrific. Christian Bale is easily the best Batman to date, while an ensemble cast of Michael Caine, Liam Neeson, Katie Homes, Gary Oldman, and Morgan Freeman are delightful to watch in each's respective role.
Overall, this film is nearly the perfect amalgamation of intense action, superb acting, and thought-provoking plot. If you were intrigued by the first two Batman films but fell away from the franchise after "Batman and Robin", you need to re-discover the true Dark Knight as represented by this film.
Batman Begins. Aug 18, 2008
Blu-Ray quality is amazing both in sound and visuals, would have loved more extras but excellent all in all.
Better than the DARK KNIGHT Aug 17, 2008
After watching the Dark KNight, twice, I couldn't help but thinking 'why everybody is so crazy about the neew movie, isn't the Begins way better?'
I'm not here to criticize the Dark KNight, because it really is a great movie that has everything. Smart and sly evil character doing whatever he can to destroy people's lives, and the Batman struggling to keep up with his selfcommitment to justice without people's fair recognition. What a Drama.
However after all, I should raise hand of the Batman Begins.
This movie answers every questions of batman lovers will ever have.
His origin, his philosophy, his characteristic, his agony, his struggle, his courage, his brilliance... in a very quasi-realistic way.
and most importantly, this movie answers WHY the Bruce Wayne is going through all those, sacrificing his reputation, personal relationships, and risking his life at all.
For just weekend moviegoer, Dark Knight must be a Great Movie.
but for True Batman Maniac like me, Begins is the mile stone that resurrected, personified, and liberated the Batman.
 May be my Blu-Ray player, but... Aug 14, 2008
...I did everything I could to get the latest software updates to my BDP-S1 Blu Ray player in preparation for this disk. By the time I did all the updates I had the very latest software right off of Sony's website. It looked great once I finally got it playing (which took 3 or 4 attempts for some reason - again may have been my player). However, I had to watch the entire movie before finally seeing the DVD menu with the extra features. I really wanted to watch the Dark Knight movie preview right away so that bummed me out. Also, once you finally do get to it, the menu looks very hastily put together. It just had a very rushed, "beta" edition feel to it. Normally I really don't care about the bells and whistles on DVDs, but I had an exceptionally difficult time dealing with this disk, which is a bummer because this is one of my all time favorite movies.
 It's about time. Aug 14, 2008
Finally a version of Batman that seems made for adults instead of children. A decent plot and villains that are not completely over the top. My only complaint would be that most of the scenes in Gotham city are too dark. All in all, an enjoyable action movie to show how the Batman legend begins.
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