BATMAN BEGINS SPECIAL EDITION(2005)
This starts out with the re-telling of Batman's origin! It then
progresses into one of the best superhero movies ever made,
only surpassed by the first Batman and Superman movies!!!
There's some poetic licenses taken here, but truly this could
be incorporated into the lore of Batman fairly easily! I was
quite surprised at how well Christian Bale took on the role
of Batman! And adding two great actors in Michael Caine
(Alfred) and Morgan Freeman(playing Batman's go-to guy
when he needs a piece of equipment that doesn't exist!)
was a stroke of genius! A movie well worth watching at
least a few times!
A couple of notes:
Disk 2: Special Features has many many hidden "easter
eggs" on it. You can really get lost in this pretty easily.
Make sure to give yourself plenty of time to view them
all!!
Also in this special Deluxe Edition there is a graphic novel
that is pretty cool!! An A++!!
A review from Amazon.com:
Batman Begins discards the previous four films in the
series and recasts the Caped Crusader as a fearsome
avenging angel. That's good news, because the series,
which had gotten off to a rousing start under Tim Burton,
had gradually dissolved into self-parody by 1997's Batman
& Robin. As the title implies, Batman Begins tells the story
anew, when Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) flees Western
civilization following the murder of his parents. He is taken
in by a mysterious instructor named Ducard (Liam Neeson
in another mentor role) and urged to become a ninja in
the League of Shadows, but he instead returns to his
native Gotham City resolved to end the mob rule that is
strangling it. But are there forces even more sinister at
hand?
Co-written by the team of David S. Goyer (a veteran comic
book writer) and director Christopher Nolan (Memento),
Batman Begins is a welcome return to the grim and gritty
version of the Dark Knight, owing a great debt to the graphic
novels that preceded it. It doesn't have the razzle dazzle,
or the mass appeal, of Spider-Man 2 (though the Batmobile
is cool), and retelling the origin means it starts slowly, like
most "first" superhero movies. But it's certainly the best
Bat-film since Burton's original, and one of the best superhero
movies of its time. Bale cuts a good figure as Batman, intense
and dangerous but with some of the lightheartedness Michael
Keaton brought to the character. Michael Caine provides much
of the film's humor as the family butler, Alfred, and as the love
interest, Katie Holmes (Dawson's Creek) is surprisingly believable
in her first adult role. Also featuring Gary Oldman as the young
police officer Jim Gordon, Morgan Freeman as a Q-like gadgets
expert, and Cillian Murphy as the vile Jonathan Crane. --David Horiuchi