Product: Batman Begins (Two-Disc Deluxe Edition) (2005)
Rating: 4.0
A disillusioned and excellent BATMAN movie
Director/co-writer Christopher Nolan has done two movies I admire very much: MEMENTO and INSOMNIA. With BATMAN BEGINS he works with co-writer David S. Goyer to explore Batman's roots. Goyer apparently did a first draft, then passed it on to Nolan for polishing because Goyer knew more about comic books. The movie is based largely on three DC comic stories: "The Bat-Man," "The Man Who Falls", and "The Long Halloween." These comic stories are actually included in the deluxe dual DVD as a nice bonus.BATMAN BEGINS is so long and complex that I needed two viewings to like it. A first viewing left me confused and sorry I bought the DVD. Not helping matters is a bonus disk that has featurettes as Easter Eggs hidden inside comic strip panels. They are interesting and made the film coherent for me, but were hard to find. I went back to the movie a second time the next night and loved it. The first hour or so has Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) on a seven year quest in the Himalayas for inner peace after witnessing the murder of his parents when he is ten years old. He also falls down a well full of bats when he is a child, and childhood friend Rachel has to rescue him. These are all flashbacks, with a strong and interesting good-bad performance by Liam Neeson as a martial arts expert. Location filming for the Himalayas was done in Iceland, which has a rugged top of the world feel.The cast here is huge. Bale is a perfect Bruce Wayne/Batman, full of both anger and disillusionment. The actor apparently did a lot of his own stunts. Rachel will grow up to be lovely Katie Holmes (DAWSON'S CREEK) and work in the D.A.'s office. Gary Oldman is unrecognizable and magnificent as Commissioner Gordon, and Michael Caine is butler Alfred. Alfred is also the unofficial caretaker of Wayne Manor, along with Morgan Freeman as Lucius. Lucius invented the batsuit and batmobile, and controls Wayne Manor. But it gets a bit confused because Rutger Hauer is chief financial officer of the estate until Bruce Wayne fires him at the end. And Tom Wilkinson (IN THE BEDROOM) is a formidable Mafia don. The second half of a 140 minute movie has Batman fighting for truth and justice in a violent world; the movie is rated PG-13.BATMAN BEGINS is a technical masterpiece, with constant night for night aerial cityscapes with lights everywhere, a very busy and noisy soundtrack, and a lot of rain. Nathan Crowley was the brilliant production designer and apparently designed set models in the same house where Nolan and Goyer were collaborating on the script, which must have been very convenient. The cinematographer for a Panavision movie is Wally Pfister, whom I have never heard of. A bonus feature shows how Gotham City was built almost to scale inside a huge and abandoned London factory eight blocks long. Some of its action set pieces, including batmobile-car-monorail chases, are just stunning. And the dialogue is wonderful for them: "He's not ON a street, he's driving on ROOFTOPS!" "Well, at least tell me what he LOOKS like." The editing, by Lee Smith, is sensational as Batman flies or drives all over the brightly lit night city and says poignant lines like "I don't have the luxury of friends."This new BATMAN movie may be the best yet in terms of taking everything seriously, treating it as realistically as possible with the material, and being intelligent. There are no over-the-top villains here, no Nicholson as the Joker or DeVito as the Penguin. Again, it is a movie I hated on one viewing, did not understand at all and found long and boring. But it came alive for me on a second viewing with help from the bonus second disk, which I was also ready to give up on. But be patient, my friends, and you will be rewarded.BATMAN BEGINS is an excellent comic book adventure for adults, and I look forward to reading the 75 page comic book included with the double DVD set. I guess whether you want to actually buy this movie depends on how badly you want this included comic book; the alternative is to just rent it and watch it twice. But I believe there is also a single disk edition with no bonuses. Whichever you choose, be sure to get it in widescreen format to see all of Gotham City.