Product: Batman Begins (Two-Disc Deluxe Edition) (2005)
Rating: 5.0
One of the best films of 2005, Batman Begins flies high on DVD
As a fan of Tim Burton, I like his Batman films, but as a Batman fan, they couldn't have been further from the Batman flavor. Or that's what I thought till Joel Schumacher killed Batman with his 'films'. It's sad when a cartoon has better writing then FOUR feature films combined, but that's all the real Batman fans were left with if they wanted well told intelligent stories about Batman and his multi-layered villains aside from reading the books. That is until a ballsy director and writer came along, those people being Christopher Nolan and David S. Goyer, and FIXED Batman. Goyer, I had faith in. I'd just hoped he could retain the characters' personalities. Nolan, has MORE than proved he can deliver a dark and gritty Batman film without turning it into dark camp like Burton,or something so insane and flamboyant it would never happen, like Schumacher. I think that's why this film succeeds where the other films failed miserably, because aside from a man in a rag/mask calling himself Scarecrow, and another man in a Batsuit calling himself Batman, the film is camp free, a first for ANY live action Batman representation.Nolan gives us a gritty city with slums that echo the worst from around the world, AND he makes it dark enough to be very 'Batman' without making it look unnatural. Gotham City is supposed to be ugly and decayed, a virtual urban cesspool of crime, and a nightmare for the viewer. I loved Burton's Gothic flavor, but he couldn't capture reality. Everything felt like a fantastic set, but what Nolan does, is give us something that exists. Part of the nature of this film is the internal. Fears, primal impulses, what drives us to do the things that we do. How does a well meaning person go down a path of corruption? What is a person willing to do for justice and is it that far away from vengeance? These are the things the other films NEVER touched on, or if they did, it was never done right. This film does that. It's gritty, it's a crime movie. I think it's the first time since Batman'89 where organized crime was touched on at all, which is a large staple of the BATMAN comics. Simply put, a great comic book movie with a fantastic digital presentation and the DVD extras are fantastic.