Batman Begins
Collector's Edition 2-Disc Set
(Warner Bros. Region 1 NTSC DVD)
(2005)
review by Head Cheeze

Forget Tim Burton, Michael Keaton’s weak chin, and the “Bat-Dance”. Cast aside all memories of Val Kilmer, a thirty year old Robin, and nipples on the Batsuit. You see, now is the time for healing, forgiveness, and celebration. That era of Batman is over, and a new one Begins.

Yes, after four tries, Warner Bros. has finally found the recipe for a successful Batman film, and, somewhat ironically, this particular mix calls for less of everything. Less forced romance, less “star” power, less innuendo, and less gloss. Those previous films, they were overcooked. Gotham City was all matte paintings and miniatures, with faceless inhabitants, and cartoonish antagonists. Real Batman fans, they like it raw; real cities, real people, believable villains, and a dark, pulpy vibe. Tim Burton’s Batman lived in a twisted gothic fairy tale, while Joel Schumacher’s inhabited a neon-splashed metropolis. Problem is Batman lives in neither place. His world is darker and more dangerous than anything Hollywood could manufacture; his world is the one outside our door. Batman Begins Director Chris Nolan gets that. That’s why he used Chicago as his Gotham. There’s a moment where the camera drifts across the Chicago/Gotham skyline, pausing on Batman as he stares out over his city. A real sunrise is behind him, and real lights in real windows on real buildings signal the early morning rise of the denizens of this very real city, and, for the first time in a Batman film, I believed they did so with the confidence that their nocturnal guardian was out there, making the streets safer for all of them. It’s a brief moment, but, when it happened, I felt a smile creep across my face. Now that I finally own the film and can watch it whenever I damn well please, I'm even happier.

Batman Begins spends its first act focusing on the origin of the character, and, while it had been touched upon in the previous films, the one presented here is a comprehensive melding of both the Golden Age incarnation and Frank Miller’s reinterpretation. When we first meet the adult Bruce Wayne (Bale), he is in China, incarcerated in a brutal prison camp where he is hardening himself in preparation for his return to Gotham. He is offered a new path by the mysterious Henri Ducard (Neeson), a member of an ancient vigilante society known as The League of Shadows, led by the enigmatic Ra’s Al Ghul (The Last Samurai’s Ken Watanabe). Bruce trains with Ducard, who teaches him how to instill fear in his enemies through a combination of lethal fighting styles and ninja-style theatricality. However, when Bruce opts not to take the League’s final test (beheading a “convicted” murderer), he becomes his master’s enemy, and returns to Gotham to begin his new life as the city’s protector.

It is in this second act that this Batman really stands out from its predecessors, as it is extremely dark, gritty, and intense, with our hero faced with a nefarious plot that treads into full-on horror movie territory. As Batman first takes to the streets, we see him only in glimpses, as if through the eyes of his criminal prey. He moves with inhuman speed, glides through air, and dispatches mobs of thugs with brutal efficiency. As word of the Batman spreads through Gotham, so does the fear through the criminal underworld, and, for the first time, we can see why they fear him.

Of course, the good citizens of Gotham need not be afraid, but, in this city, good people are few and far between, falling between the cracks of the wealthy and the corrupt. Good cops like Jim Gordon (Oldman) see an ally in the Batman, while idealistic assistant D.A. Rachel Dawes (Holmes), the childhood sweetheart of Bruce Wayne, will take any help she can get. Decent folk like the inventor, Lucius Fox (Freeman) and the faithful butler/father figure Alfred (Caine); they, like the Batman, believe that Gotham is worth saving from the greedy (Wayne Corp. Chairman Earle, played by a suitably smarmy Rutger Hauer), the depraved (Tom Wilkinson’s mob boss Falcone), and the plain old evil (Cillian Murphy’s delirious Jonathan Crane).

Warner brings home the hit film in two editions; a standard, one-disc version, and the two-disc collector’s edition reviewed here. This slipcased set features an insane assortment of supplemental materials, including no less than ten featurettes, a mildly amusing MTV parody called “Tankman Begins”, trailers, photo galleries, and much more. The set also features a 72-page comic book with chapters from three separate Batman story arcs, including Joseph Loeb and Tim Sale’s excellent “The Long Halloween”, which features this film’s villain, The Scarecrow, and inspired the horror elements of Batman Begins.

There’s just so much good to say about this film. It is just such a joy to see this franchise finally in the hands of a director who gets it, and populated by an outstanding cast who seem not only to understand his vision, but firmly embrace it, as well.

So in the end, Gotham gets its champion, and we get the Batman movie fans have been clamoring for; one that is exciting, original, and as darkly authentic as the back alleyways of Gotham itself.

Batman truly does begin here.