Product: Batman Begins (Two-Disc Deluxe Edition) (2005)
Rating: 5.0
A HERO WITH A PURPOSE
After a foiled attempt at avenging the deaths of his parents by a common street thug and a run-in with Gotham City's crime boss, rich kid Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) realizes that he knows very little of the injustice and evil that adorns the world like a plague. He grew up a rich snot-nosed kid, but his father always told him to protect the less privelaged. But Bruce decides that he needs to study those who take advantage of the weak, and so becomes a criminal himself in order to further his study. While in an Asian prison, he is visited by a mysterious man named Ducard (Liam Neeson) who is a member of the League of Shadows, an organization dedicated to stamping out evil and corruption wherever it can be found, even if it means destroying Gotham City to further their ends! Bruce, in the guise of Batman must return to his home to save his city from tearing itself apart and rein in the criminal elements that rule the streets.Batman Begins is a modern classic with beautiful shots reminiscent of Kurosawa that George Lucas would envy. When I saw it at the movies, I knew the director was doing a 180 degree turn from previous installments by concentrating on the characters, almost making it a domestic drama that just happens to be a superhero movie by accident. I thought then that maybe he took things TOO slow, but after seeing it on DVD on a small-screen I was more impressed. This is a very personal film and relies a lot on old style acting. And by that I mean Bale actually ACTS. He shows emotion and nuance in his performance. A good example is when he runs into Katie Holmes, his old love, for the first time in years in his guise of drunk playboy Bruce Wayne and you can just feel how much he wants to explain himself, but is hampered by his secret identity. Or a scene where Alfred (Michael Caine) tries to comfort Bruce Wayne as a young kid after his parent's deaths. The actors and actress were very good at relaying their character's inner lives with the lost art of close ups and the director's use of reaction shots. The other great thing that Bale does in this film is make Batman scary for the first time. Of course, if you know Bale's work from American Psycho you know he can play the unhinged really well as he murdered people to theses on Huey Lewis and Whitney Houston and here he seems tough as nails and unforgiving but his Batman never slips to murder as a means to an end. As for the look of the film, it was very similar to the first Batman and Blade Runner, but I guess there hasn't been much advancement in the field of set design when it comes to slightly futuristic cities in decline. Batman Begins feels more like a film from the 40s or 50s when movies truly mattered and is the better for it.I would highly recommend buying the Deluxe Version for a little more money, since there are absolutely ZERO extras included on this version.