Batman Begins
December 2005 Reviewed by: Josh Barber Format: DVD	(all ratings out of 5): Overall Enjoyment Picture Quality Packaged Extras Sound Quality

We all know the story: As a young boy, Bruce Wayne witnessed his parents' murder and now dons a costume to fight crime as Batman. He drives the Batmobile, works in the Batcave and has all sorts of "wonderful toys" to help him in his war on crime. But how does a child go from a life of luxury to Dark Knight? That's the question tackled by director Christopher Nolan in this past summer's blockbuster, Batman Begins.

Christian Bale stars as Batman, but he spends nearly as much time in suit and tie as he does in cape and cowl. This is Bruce Wayne's story; Batman just happens to be in it. Considering that one of the complaints about the previous Batman films was that there were too many characters, the fact that Batman Begins manages to turn an equal eye upon at least ten different characters without short-changing them is most impressive.

The film's largest flaw is probably that the plentiful fight scenes are often hard to follow. This works fine at the beginning of the film, when Batman is still a mysterious presence, but by the end it would be good to get at least one clear brawl. Still, Begins makes Batman cool again. Very cool.

The DVD is cool as well. The picture quality is clear, which is particularly surprising since no one in Gotham City seems to have recently paid their electric bills. This is a dark movie, but it seldom gets muddy. However, it seems the entire disc was calibrated with the dark shadows of Gotham in mind, because the early scenes in the snows of Tibet sometimes look overly bright, with some streaking noticeable in the sky.

The sound is awesome. Whether it is the cavernous echoes of a mountain temple or the thundering bass rumble of the Batmobile racing down city streets, the presentation is great. Voices are always clear, and the incidental noises seem to be constantly on the move. This is a solid soundtrack, with a few scenes that go right to reference-quality status. This is a two-disc set, the movie separated from most of the special features. The only things sharing space with the film on the first disc are the theatrical trailer and "Tankman Begins," a spoof from the MTV Movie Awards.

The menu for the second disc is a bit of a pain. Designed as an interactive comic, there are links to the various features scattered at random among the pages. Fortunately, if you skip past this, you get a more normal menu with easier access to the ample features.

"Batman -- The Journey Begins" goes in-depth on how Chris Nolan and screenwriter David Goyer retreated to Nolan's garage in a few marathon sessions to build this film from the barest ideas into a fully fledged pitch to Warner Brothers. It shows how they came up with character designs and built some conceptual miniatures before a contractual deal had even been struck.

Christian Bale is the focus of "Shaping Mind and Body," which begins with his ultra-gaunt appearance in The Machinist and shows how he trained and bulked up for his role as millionaire playboy Bruce Wayne, and shows that there was more to it than just getting the biggest muscles possible.

"Batman -- The Tumbler" is a look at how the designers pimped Bruce's ride. The car was actually designed to be fully functional, and performed all its own stunts. There was no digital trickery or fiberglass stand-ins here, folks: this angular black behemoth was all real. Batman Begins utilized more full-sized sets than miniatures or CGI, as detailed in "Gotham City Rises." However, as you'll see in "Saving Gotham City," it wasn't all entirely real, but a careful mixture of physical sets and special effects that brought the city to life.

"Genesis of the Bat" and "Confidential Files" both offer some history on Batman, covering the comic-book and film worlds. Overall, this is a wonderful collection of extras, and the only thing that might have added to it is a commentary. Maybe the studio is saving that for a new release when the inevitable sequel comes out. If you buy the two-disc edition of the film, you also receive a nifty 72-page comic that reprints the very first Batman tale and two of the stories that inspired the film.

• Go Back