Batman Begins (Limited Edition Gift Set) [Blu-ray] | ![Batman Begins (Limited Edition Gift Set) [Blu-ray]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51SGFlc0%2BuL._SL160_.jpg)
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| Director: Christopher Nolan
Actor: Christian Bale
Studio: Warner Home Video
Category: DVD
List Price: $49.99
Buy New: $18.00
You Save: $31.99 (64%)
New (20) Used (15) from $15.99
Rating:  1341 reviews
Sales Rank: 27560
Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, Limited Edition, Special Edition, Subtitled, Widescreen
Languages: English (Subtitled), French (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled), Chinese (Subtitled), Japanese (Subtitled), Korean (Subtitled), Portuguese (Subtitled), English (Original Language), French (Dubbed)
Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Media: Blu-ray
Region: 1
Discs: 1
Aspect Ratio: 2.40:1
Running Time: 140 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 7.4 x 5.4 x 0.9
MPN: 883929017690
UPC: 883929017690
EAN: 0883929017690
ASIN: B0017HRCQU
Theatrical Release Date: 2008
Release Date: July 8, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Studio: Warner Home Video Release Date: 07/08/2008 Rating: Pg13
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
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 1341
 Brooding and Pretension September 4, 2010
Ricardo C.
Batman Begins is exactly what it sounds like, the early years of Bruce Wayne/Batman and his motivations. The film tries desperately to be more than what it really is, an okay action film.
Christian Bale is the perfect choice for Christopher Nolan's Batman and I am not saying that like a good thing. Bale is a totally un-charasmatic and bland actor who does little more than brood. His Bruce Wayne is not much of a human being, he is a machine operating on vengance. The real tragedy of Batman is that he is destined not to have a normal life in his persuit of his rather un-obtainable goal. Not once during this film do you feel that he is split, he simply has a one-track mind goes down one path. Not much genuine character development ever occurs, it's really just Bruce Wayne learning how to fight and then later acquiring his gadgetry.
When Bruce finally dons the mask, it's an introduction of an action film character and not so much a myth or a legend. True Batman uses fear and confusion to defeat the crowd of thugs by lurking and picking them off one by one; I wish I can only say the thugs were confused because the poorly shot fighting bewildered me as well and it's sadly evident through out the film. This again a case of trying to be "realistic" in a film that certainly needn't bother itself with such concerns. Batman is suppose to appear in full view of his victims so they, and the viewer, could absorb that he is the creature of the night come to attack his prey. Of course this could not work with this particularly banal costume Batman wears, it's really meant to conceal one instead of appearing as a theatrical figure; Totally wrong for film or comic books.
As for supporting cast, a lot of talent here is wasted. Liam Neeson is cast as the main anatognist as a very banal Ra's Al Ghul. Al Ghul, in the comics, was depicted as larger than life figure who is looked up to by his minions as a god and speaks like a biblical figure; He posses fantastic wealth and power beyound the common man due has lived longer than any human being in history. He wants to rid the world of man entirely so he can restore to it's natural beauty. This underwhelming counterpart in Nolan's film is little more than an angry man who lost his wife. Like Wayne, simply a machine for vengance but simply takes it one step further. Neeson does well with a banal role and the same can be said for Cillian Murphy. Murphy is not as boring as Al Ghul but he certainly is wasted. He plays a creep with burlap sack over his head, dubbed Scacrecrow, fascinated by fear and uses a gas to induce fear among people but he really is used as a tool in this film for Al Ghul's plot to destroy Gotham. I would like to have seen Scarecrow as a genuine threat but he fails to be as much when he only successfully has one victim that no one has sympathy with. Finally we come to the allies and there isn't much to go on here. Everyone here is just "meh". Alfred and Rachel Dawes spout prentension about Bruce's obligations every five secounds and Gary Oldman does a good job as a young Jim Gordon not having much else to say because everyone else pointed out the obvious but he does do so at the end. Oh and Lucius Fox played by a Morgan Freeman on auto-pilot was a nice touch for some decent humor.
Now does this film hold up ? Not very well. The action is badly shot and editied, when people fight or get shot it's all in a blur. This seems to be the popular thing in film, bad presentation, but I don't see the appeal. The plot is incredibly stupid and worthy of a lame James Bond feature. Ras Al Ghul wants to use the Scarecrow's fear gas by dumping into the water supply and evaporating it into a gas using some giant Microwave Emitter. When you care about nobody in the film, it dosen't help too much to try and cobble together some silly ticking time bomb plot. They should have taken the time to make Batman an actual flesh and blood character and gave people credible dialogue which dosen't constantly hammer themes in. I love Nolan's formula of close ups, the banal Hans Zimmer score blaring, and then tossing in some fortune cookie sayings to make the film intelligent. Sorry Nolan, it didn't work on me. Let actions speak for themselves and let the audience decide.
Overall, this is an okay action film but if you want great Batman films, look no further than Tim Burton and Bruce Timm's freshman Bat outings.
 Great movie! Decent gift set. August 29, 2010
foolsgold
Batman Begins is an amazing movie and the two-disc deluxe edition is an amazing combination. Tons of great special features that give you a unique insight into Christopher Nolan and David Goyer's thoughts about Batman's story.
The two-disc set alone would easily worth five stars, but as this is a limited edition gift set I gave it four because I feel that the extra "gifts" that come with the two-disc set aren't really anything too cool or exciting.
Awesome movie, if the gift set costs more than the two-disc set alone then buy only the two-disc set.
 Maybe it's me August 21, 2010
Jon/Sarah (Ventura, CA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I don't really get the rave reviews here, and from some critics. (Maybe it's a demographic thing? I am a 40-year-old male college grad, with no Batman product experience in the last 15 years, although I have seen a lot of other TV/movies.) So I am adding this review for any potential viewers that are like me to consider.
This was a decent action movie, not as good as Spiderman 2. I did love their basic idea of explaining how Batman and all his props and methods came to be. Some of the acting was subpar, although Christian Bale was OK. The fight scenes could have been easier to follow. The main problem as often happens for me, is the story. It seemed like a bunch of scenes from other movies strung together, and I kept having this feeling that things were just too convenient and/or weren't making logical sense. There were occasional good effects, or surprising twists in scenes, but too often they were just ho-hum.
By the way, the widescreen version Amazon is selling for $5.95 at this time comes with literally one minute of bonus features (for those who care about such things!)
 Great movie July 27, 2010
Olympic Man
This was such a great movie. The Dark Knight was so good that so often people forget how good Batman Begins was. The special features disc is so cool. You flip through all the features like the pages of a comic book, and there are so many features. Great product. Would recommend to anyone.
I love this movie July 23, 2010
AKAGrinch1
The new Batman movies are awesome. I love Batman, I hope they come out with a third movie soon.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 1341
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