Extras:
Trailer, Featurettes: Batman: The Journey Begins, Shaping Mind and Body, Gotham City Rises,
Cape and Cowl, Batman: The Tumbler, Path To Discovery, Saving Gotham City, Genesis of the Bat,
Confidential Files, Art Gallery
Director:
Christopher Nolan
(Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, Doodlebug, Following, Insomnia, Memento, The Prestige)
Producers:
Larry J Franco, Charles Roven and Emma Thomas
Screenplay:
David S. Goyer
Music:
James Newton Howard and Hans Zimmer
Cast :
Bruce Wayne/Batman: Christian Bale
Alfred: Michael Caine
Henri Ducard: Liam Neeson
Rachel Dawes: Katie Holmes
Det.Sgt. Jim Gordon: Gary Oldman
Dr. Jonathan Crane: Cillian Murphy
Carmine Falcone: Tom Wilkinson
Earle: Rutger Hauer
Ra's Al Ghul: Ken Watanabe
Flass: Mark Boone Junior
Thomas Wayne: Linus Roache
Lucius Fox: Morgan Freeman
Finch: Larry Holden
Judge Faden: Gerard Murphy
Loeb: Colin McFarlane
Martha Wayne: Sara Stewart
Joe Chill: Richard Brake
Fredericks: John Nolan
Victor Zsaz: Tim Booth
Batman Begins
was a reinvention of the franchise that won a great amount of critical acclaim, but then given
the state of the films made between 1989 and 1997, they'd got away from the campy '60s versions
successfully but had created a new bunch of footage to be laughed at for all eternity (and Tim
Burton's 1989 movie just dragged on and on to the point where you'd just wish he'd not bothered).
So, does Christopher Nolan's first attempt at a Batman movie succeed where others have failed?
Mostly.
The first hour is taken up with a mix between a look back at two periods in Bruce Wayne's (Christian Bale)
past, the first as an 8-year-old child when he was playing out with a similar-aged version of Rachel Dawes (who
later grows into Katie Holmes, in real life four years younger than Bale but we'll let that pass)
and also witnessing the murder of his parents (Linus Roache and the hottie MILF from Sugar
Rush, Sara Stewart) at the hands of an apparent homeless guy, Joe Chill (Richard Brake),
both of whom seem to die with such a ridiculous calm nature about it all. His mother goes without a fuss,
while his Dad looks up and whispers "Don't be afraid" with about as much importance in his words
as if he was asking Bruce to put the cat out.
The second period is when Master Wayne is fetched out of a ghastly prison, which for some reason he's chosen to
make a temporary home, but why would he live in such a dingy shit-hole when he's rich? Henri Ducard
(Liam Neeson) is a goateed bloke who turns up when Bruce is in his early 20s to state his assessment
of our hero's mind that he's not really feeling any guilt over his parents' death but that this has now
changed to anger and claims he can teach him to overcome his anger and face the truth. Ducard has a
fighting training ground up in the mountains, during which time once they're up there together he continues
to wax lyrical about anger and grief for what seems like forever.
It's also at that point in which Bruce Wayne is introduced to a spiritual bod with the bizarre name of
Ra's al Ghul (Ken Watanabe) who will apparently help Batman and show him the path of what's known
as The League of Shadows, and at this point you're wondering what on earth all this ninja twaddle going on
is about as it plays out more like the CGI into to a computer game, not a blockbuster Hollywood movie.
Events take a turn in his life which cause him to want to fight injustice, not as a man but has a
"symbol", he calls it. No, he doesn't dress up like a diminutive pop star and start singing about
Alphabet Street or Purple Rain but, with the help of Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman
who plays his role like 'Q' to Batman's 'Bond') who works in the department at Bruce's father's
big office tower where they make big important military-spec weapons and protective gear that never
see the light of day to the general public, he uses the gear to become Batman, including driving
a new style of Batmobile that you would never have dreamed of since it looks less 'Miami Vice'
and more 'Flintstones'.
There's a change for the hired help as well, since Alfred is now played by Michael Caine whose
character doesn't age, even when faced with an older Christian Bale trying to look younger than his
years at the 'inbetween' stage with Ducard. Caine also acts more like Barry Norman during the '80s
on his Film show, making you wonder when he's going to utter "And why not..."
Meanwhile, down at the cop shop, another of Batman's allies is Detective Sargeant Jim Gordon (played
against type by Gary Oldman since you usually expect him to be on the wrong side of the law),
but he doesn't really get time to shine until the final act.
In the baddie camp are Tom Wilkinson whose American accent is dreadful as mob boss-type
Carmine Falcone, who we learn about when Mr Chill is testifying against him, 14 years after the death
of Bruce's parents, in a bid to get early parole. Then we have Cillian Murphy as Dr Jonathan Crane
who experiments on patients in the asylum he runs and he also has one other card to play. Finally,
the Wayne corporation is now being run by Earle (Rutger Hauer), who doesn't come across as a
baddie who'd do any physical harm but you just know that the way he behaves he's not really acting
in the best interests of the company, the way Bruce's father would've wanted it to be, and he makes
for a good addition to a well-starred cast.
Oh, and James' lead singer Tim Booth pops up as criminal Victor Zsaz, not that he gets to do much
than snarl a bit but either way it's not the kind of part you expect a pop star to get.
Katie Holmes - she's absolutely gorgeous... what a shame she's engaged to a nutter.
Christian Bale buffed himself up big-time for this role after practically wasting away in The
Machinist, but even once he's given himself some definition, I still have to ask how does he
jump and fly about? And what about Health & Safety as he's standing on top of buildings looking down
over the city? We get the fact that Bruce Wayne is obviously an angry young man, but do just get
over yourself!
I also have to say that this is occasionally pretty bloody violent for a 12-cert with chief weirdo
Scarecrow's weirdness as he makes you see things that aren't really there while setting about with a
plan to sort out Gotham City once and for all by polluting the water supply with something very
nasty, and there's also the time when he sets fire to someone... Oh, it's a fantasy story, sorry, so
that's how they get away with it, I guess.
Batman Begins is a mostly entertaining film but it's overlong and doesn't make for the masterful
piece of cinema a number of people seem to think, even if it does have a better background to it than
the last lot of Batman movies directed by Tim Burton and Joel Schumacher. It also paves the way for
a sequel at the end - cue The Dark Knight, currently penned in for 2008.
Until then, by the time you've reached that point, you realise that there were no opening credits and
now you've got them all to come.
The film is presented in anamorphic 2.35:1 widescreen with no problems whatsoever, looking great whether
in the bright outdoors for the mountains or down in Batman's cave. Some of the fight scene editing
could've been improved, though, the way they jump about a bit.
Most of the time, particularly towards the end, the Dolby Digital 5.1 sound is fantastic, but the
opening shot of bats flying was a big disappointment as it was all in the front speakers with barely
anything flapping behind me and this wasn't the only the only missed opportunity for with sound effects.
The majority of the extras are on disc 2, with just the first thing below on disc 1:
Trailer (1:00):
Presented in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen and summing up the basics of the movie nicely.
Batman: The Journey Begins (14:13):
Presented in letterbox 16:9 with film clips letterboxed in their original ratio and completely
chapter-free (Grrr!), like the rest of the supplemental material, director Christopher Nolan and
writer David S. Goyer, plus other key crew and cast members discuss how they got together to
reinvent the Batman franchise.
Shaping Mind and Body (12:48):
More of the same, we see how Christian Bale got in shape for the lead role and all the fight training
he went through.
Gotham City Rises (12:48):
Set in the mythical Gotham city, this film took locations in England, including Mentmore Towers that
stood in for the Wayne mansion, Iceland, Chicago and New York, plus a whole heap of CGI to finish
things off. Director Nolan wanted Gotham to look like "New York on steroids" and he certainly achieved
that.
Cape and Cowl (8:16):
A featurette that, respectively, discusses what he puts on his body and what goes on his head.
Batman: The Tumbler (13:38):
AKA the Batmobile. With massive tyres and a body that looks like it's an entire Meccano set put
together by a drunk blind man, this movie certainly takes the brave step of doing something
that has never been done before.
Path To Discovery (14:12):
A look at the time near the start of the movie when Bruce Wayne travelled to the back of beyond to
pick a blue flower and then go and train big-time like a ninja.
Saving Gotham City (12:58):
Can you get mono from riding the monorail in Gotham City? No, but it's not wise to be on it when
one of the climactic scenes is taking place. Christopher Nolan says he wanted the action to go as big
as possible at the end and he did a fine job with the finale, which is dissected here.
Genesis of the Bat (14:49):
A look back at Batman's origins and how they translate to this movie.
Confidential Files:
A brief insight into anything else you might need to know about Batman's hardware - including his utility
belt and The Tumbler, his enemies in the movie and his allies and mentors including Rachel Dawes and
Alfred. A nice selection to dip in and out of.
Art Gallery:
Over 60 pieces of poster designs for the movie.
Overall, a good film with a large selection of informative extras for the completist, and additional
stuff if you put it in your PC's DVD-ROM drive. The casual viewer of this one will, however, find
the supplmentals rather watch-once-only.
There are subtitles in five languages, not all of which I can make out because they're in their native
writing, but English and German have 'hard of hearing' versions too. The disc contains 40 chapters which
is perfect for a film running almost two-and-a-quarter hours.
Finally, the menus. On disc 1's opening menu, you have to go through four pages of language selections
to choose "UK"! This is then followed by one of those stupid 'anti piracy' trailers which, thankfully,
can be skipped through but do you really need that once you've bought the damn DVD? Then the actual menu
appears as 16:9 clips from the film are mixed together with basic options at the bottom of the screen.
Disc 2's extras menu features animated still comic strip frames, if that makes sense... Well, it will
when you load it up.
DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TXW32R4 32" widescreen TV
connected to either a Creative Dxr2 DVD-ROM player or Microsoft Xbox and
played through a Sony STR-DB930 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
Batman Begins
was a reinvention of the franchise that won a great amount of critical acclaim, but then given
the state of the films made between 1989 and 1997, they'd got away from the campy '60s versions
successfully but had created a new bunch of footage to be laughed at for all eternity (and Tim
Burton's 1989 movie just dragged on and on to the point where you'd just wish he'd not bothered).
