Product: Batman Begins (Two-Disc Deluxe Edition) (2005)
Rating: 4.0
Sets a new benchmark for the genre
Aside from setting a benchmark for other franchises (perhaps most notably 007) to follow, Batman Begins is a remarkably ambitious and mostly successful attempt to bring some real substance to the comic book genre beyond mere mood. It has a sense of the epic to it, as well as an awareness of the escalation of moral quandaries that come with taking the law into your own hands that haven't been seen in a big-budget summer picture since Clear and Present Danger. It's not just a case of a superhero fighting a supervillain either: the various mobsters, evil geniuses and crooked businessmen are all part of a much larger corruption that ensures that even a semblance of moral balance cannot be restored by the end credits as per other superhero flicks. Christopher Nolan even manages to get strong performances from actors who had long ago drifted into ham and volume like Gary Oldman and Rutger Hauer. It also has a few problems, not least the lack of depth in the photography or Nolan's deficiencies as an action director (not Michael Bay bad, but not particularly good either), but they're outweighed by the pluses.The 2-disc set boasts an impressive array of extras (including numerous Easter Eggs), although the lovingly crafted comicbook art menu pages can get a little annoying to work your way through at times and it's a shame that only the brief teaser trailer has been included.