Product: Batman Begins (Two-Disc Deluxe Edition) (2005)
Rating: 5.0
Use Your IMAXination
Here in San Francisco the house was completely packed at the huge, sprawling IMAX cinema at Fourth and Mission. People say you should sit right in the middle of the audience, not too far over to the left or right, otherwise the screen will start curling at the edges and you'll lose some of the detail of the grain. (For the same reason they say not to sit in the first few rows, for the top of the screen will seem too far away and starts "whiting out" like the Aurora Borealis.) I don't know if that's so, but why take a chance, so we picked our way through till we found a pair of seats directly under the projector. It seems to me that all big movies should be released in IMAX simultaneously to their release in regular stock, so kudos to Warner for making this happen with BATMAN BEGINS. Once the theater went dark you could hear a pin drop, and then, out of the three hundred plus speakers embedded behind the giant screen, you heard the massed orchestra, heavy with brass and glass, launch into the IMAX theme and we were all there. A whispery little promo under the strings says, "Use your IMAXination."Christian Bale, America's number one actor, outdid all of his previous roles (except those in NEWSIES and VELVET GOLDMINE) playing Bruce Wayne as a young man, younger than we're used to seeing him and eliminating the need for a Robin in the story. Why have Robin when your Batman is just Robin's age? After all the brouhaha about Katie Holmes' supposed inadequacy in the part of Rachel, I was surprised to see how good she is. For me, she has always been up and down. Good sometimes, as in THE GIFT or WONDER BOYS or THE ICE STORM, but I remember seeing that horrible, horrible picture about her being a bohemian in the East Village and trying to make a Thanksgiving dinner for her family, from whom she has been estranged, and nothing, nothing, not even Scientology, could ever be as bad as that horrible movie PIECES OF APRIL and Patricia Clarkson as her mother! Anyhow her Rachel here was just as good as her Rachel in DISTURBING BEHAVIOR. I think people just like her playing "Rachel," I'm surprised she wasn't Rachel on FRIENDS. In IMAX she soars about thirty-five feet tall and she's a good enough actress to hold her own in scenes opposite many old pros who chew every piece of scenery they find.The people ahead of us in the theater were talking about how the DVD is supposed to have some deleted scenes that Nolan and Co. left out the BB due to excessive length. (It is pretty long, you definitely get your money's worth.) I hope they will give us Christian Bale's screen test! I know many fans who would pay premium money for such a treasure.