Product: Batman Begins (Two-Disc Deluxe Edition) (2005)
Rating: 5.0
What HD is All About!
I purchased an HD-DVD player with this title in mind and it doesnt disappoint. This is by far one of the very best HD-DVD's on the market to date and even tho the brand is somewhat new, that is still saying something as there are a bunch of beautiful releases already. This is without a doubt a reference quality disc both in terms of the picture, Audio and in terms of extras and what the HD format can do that regular DVD's cant.First the picture and what a picture it is. It is a flawless transfer with absolutly stunning detail. The amount of grain is perfect with no noticable noise & no edge enhancment was visable throught the entire film. The skin tones are beautiful and the colors accurate. One of the most impressive aspects of the picture is the rendition of the color black. Black levels are perfect with plenty of detail seen in the shadows. The scene where he is spraypainting his batsuit with the black spraypaint has to be seen to be believed. I dont think I have ever seen the color black presented so perfectly in a home movie before and there are alot of dark scenes in this film so that is one of the reasons why this transfer is so beautiful. There isnt a single thing I would change with the picture. My hats off to the people that were in charge of this transfer, its one of the best I have ever seen.As for the audio, the Dolby Digital Plus track is amazing but the TrueHD track is where this baby really takes off. if you own the Toshiba A1 you need to update to the 2.0 firmware udate to be able to use the TreHD and its everybit worth updating. The Batman begins soundtrack is an awsome one in general, very heavy in bass it just a wonderful mix that adds an extra oopmh to the action scenes like any good soundtrack should. On the TrueHD track it sounded simply stunning. Dialogue was easily heard without sacrificing any of the other sounds and effects. Overall its the best TrueHD track so far and that again is saying something as Training Day had an awsome TrueHD track, it just couldnt beat out the power this soundtrack had.As for the extras, were presented with all of the extras from the 2 disc special edition plus the HD-DVD exclusive IME track (In-Movie Experience). There were some people who complained that this IME track wasnt as good as some of the others because some of the pauses between speakers were fairly long. I have to 100% disagree with this. When people on the IME track are speaking non stop and the IME track runs non stop you are never really given a chance to get into the movie as all of your attention is focused on the IME screen. With Batman Begins they made it so the IME track was active during the less important and less exciting scenes and inactive during the exciting and important scenes. What this did was allow you to actually get involved with the movie while at the same time get information from the IME track during the more boring and less important parts of the movie. They absolutly did this on purpose and you can tell alot of thought went into when the IME should be active and when it shouldnt. In the end it was unlike anything I have ever experinced before with a commentary track and when the movie was over I had felt like I had not only just seen the IME track but I had also watched the movie. It was awsome and really has me sold on IME. I thought that IME might be kind of gimmicky when Ifirst got into HD-DVD but it couldnt be farther from the truth. IME is the future of commentary tracks and there really is no comparison between IME and the old style of commentary.So to sum this up, Batmen Begins is a must buy if you own a HD-DVD player. Its one of the best super hero movies ever made and this HD-DVD transfer is the best it has ever looked. Put a big dose of amazing sound and a big dose of IME on top of that and you have what is arguably the best release so far for HD-DVD.Its releases like this that make me happy I got into HD-DVD right off the bat without worrying about the damned format war. as long as HD-DVD keeps performing at this level, I will be an HD-DVD supporter till the end.OrangeCrush