Product Details

• Released on: 2005-10-21
• Rating: Suitable for 12 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 2.40:1
• Number of discs: 2
• Formats: Dubbed, PAL, Widescreen
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: Arabic, English, German, Hebrew, Icelandic
• Dubbed in: German
• Number of discs: 2
• Running time: 134 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Just when you though that the Batman franchise was dead and buried--certainly after the abomination that was 1997’s Batman & Robin--along comes director Christopher Nolan to brilliantly bring it all back to life with the astonishingly strong Batman Begins.

Nolan, whose curriculum vitae already features Memento and Insomnia, focuses his attention where films in the franchise haven’t gone before--by examining that character of Batman himself. Thus, the story here is the genesis of the character, from the death of Bruce Wayne’s parents, harrowing training with the mysterious League of Shadows, right through to the Dark Knight’s first appearances on the street of a crime-ridden, moody Gotham City.

Nolan plays several trump cards in his take on the Batman legacy, and none pay off quite so handsomely as his casting. Christian Bale is an immense force in the dual role of Bruce Wayne and Batman, bringing a brooding anger and genuine unease to the Batsuit. He’s backed with strong turns from Tom Wilkinson, Michael Caine, Liam Neeson, Gary Oldman, and Cillian Murphy as the unstable Scarecrow.

In spite of a last twenty minutes that can’t quite sustain the tone of what’s gone before, Batman Begins is a major achievement, and one of the finest superhero movies to date. Easily the best of the Dark Knight’s big screen adventures, it manages to be a blockbuster film that’s unpredictable, compulsive, superb to look at and well worth many repeated viewings. A staggering achievement, particularly considering the state the Batman franchise had got itself into.--Simon Brew

DVD Description
Batman Begins explores the origins of the Batman legend and the Dark Knight's emergence as a force for good in Gotham. In the wake of his parents' murder, disillusioned industrial heir Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) travels the world seeking the means to fight injustice and turn fear against those who prey on the fearful. He returns to Gotham and unveils his alter-ego: Batman, a masked crusader who uses his strength, intellect and an array of high tech deceptions to fight the sinister forces that threaten the city.

Special Features
· Batman: The Journey Begins: Creative Concepts, Story Development and Casting

· Shaping Mind and Body: Fighting Style

· Gotham City Rises: Production Design

· Cape and Cowl: The New Batsuit

· Batman – The Tumbler: The New Batmobile

· Path to Discovery: Filming in Iceland

· Saving Gotham City: The Monorail Chase Sequence

· Genesis of the Bat: Batman Incarnations from the Mid-1980s to the Present

· Confidential Files Character/Weaponry Gallery

· Still Gallery of Design Ideas Developed to Market the Movie

· DVD-Rom* Weblink

Customer Reviews

Pretty darn good entertainment!!!
This Batman film just shows that the who idea still works. Quite frankly, after the Michael Keaton/Val Kilmer/George Clooney efforts I was beginning to have my doubts.

Sure, there are one or two places where this film may be a bit slow, but on the whole I think that even those patches serve the purpose of explaining how Batman became Batman ... i.e. why the Bat bit. As always the gadgets are brilliant, the one liners excellently delivered and Batman's escapes truly unbelievable - in other words a proper Batman film!

Christian Bale is excellent as Batman, and Michael Caine just about perfect in the role as Alfred the butler - in fact, when I win the lottery and have to hire my own butler Michael Caine will be top of my list of candidates!!

In short this is a very good film. Brilliant entertainment, and one which you can easily watch more than once. Just go for it!!!

Great Movie
Now that's more like it. I'd like to start off with mentioning that a lot of people have said to me that the original Batman by Tim Burton was Good. I'd like to iterate that, in my opinion, that Batman movie by Burton was horrendous, and that's being nice. Now that that is out of the way, let's move on. I always knew that Christopher Nolan was a great Director (loved Memento, Insomnia and The Prestige). I have also felt that Batman/Bruce Wayne is an interesting and tormented character. In simple words, it requires a director who is good at exploring character to give this particular character justice. Christopher Nolan is that Director. I would go as far as to say that he is as good as Ridley Scott. The direction is great, the acting is brilliant, the story is good, the production design is amazing. The only complaint i have for this movie is the action. The camera is too close and the cuts are too quick. Otherwise, it couldn't have been better. It will be interesting to see what they do with The Joker in a sequel. Not much more i can say!

Bad title, bad cover, dull hero.
This film, I'm afraid gets a bit boring. It attempts to make the `creation' of Batman a real life possibility but never really convinces. At the first sign of fire he bursts into flames and melts his wings. The car isn't very cool and the idea of thinking Batman is quicker at getting through Gotham in a car anyway is a nonsense, so why does he have one at all?
The film starts with the clichéd going to seek some seemingly Tibetan wisdom. There is then a very long and over indulged initiation followed by the too hasty capture of a baddie - who isn't the real baddie and a pretty lame scarecrow story relating being poisoned and people being turned mad.
Tom Crusies wife is very difficult to watch - basically because she is so known as Tom Cruises wife and loses credibility and isn't all that great an actor. Also I think Katie is too young for the role and for that matter, so is the guy playing Batman.
But as the title suggests it is leading up to the sequel so we can perhaps forgive it all these things. It doesn't do the excellent job Iron Man does though in making a normal person a hero. But Batman is flawed because he cant spin webs and doesn't have a big jetpack to make him fly - so all he really is is a bit of a glider with some abseiling kit. Excited? No. Me neither.
Oh the stairwell sequence was filmed in St Pancras Station before they made it all new.