OK, OK, I know I am way behind in writing these things and Truthbringer has been giving me shit for that. It’s football season and frankly I have been watching my Trojans kickass and take names instead of watching DVD’s. But I digress.
Truthbringer called this movie his favorite of the summer and I am in total agreement. If you have not seen this movie, stop reading right now and go rent it. If you have seen it and didn’t like it, stop reading right now and go throw yourself into traffic because you’re probably the type of person who thinks The Village was robbed at the Oscars and if that be the case, the world is better off without you.
I will not bore any of you with a review of the movie itself as Truthbringer did a great job of reviewing this under his movie reviews. So here’s the skinny on the DVD: If you buy the generic edition of Batman Begins well, you get the movie. That’s it. Nothing special, nothing extra, just the film. And that’s fine because this movie kicks major ass. I decided to buy the 2-Disc Special Edition and what I got was a very solid DVD. Not the greatest I have ever gotten but a solid package. Disc one has the movie (again, a fantastic piece of art unto itself). It also has a parody of the movie from the MTV Movie Awards. This parody stars Jimmy Fallon, Andy Dick and the guy from Napoleon Dynamite. Jimmy Fallon = NOT funny. Andy Dick = less funny than Jimmy Fallon. Guy from Napoleon Dynamite = you’re already overrated, you’ll be type cast forever, and your movie was not all that funny. Needless to say, this bit on my DVD will never be watched again.
The only other thing on disc one is the theatrical trailer. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: “Attention movie studios! The theatrical trailer is NOT an extra. Stop advertising it as an extra and you know what, just stop putting them on my DVD’s altogether.”
On to Disc two. Disc two has a bunch of short documentaries. They are actually very, VERY cool. They include interviews with the director, Christopher Nolan, and stars, Christian Bale, Liam Neeson, Katie Holmes and many of the other makers of the film. They are all informative and tell a hell of a lot about what went into making this film. I had no idea that they actually built Gotham City in an airplane hanger! So what are the documentaries about? There’s one on how the film got started and how the director, writer and production designer all got attached to the film. There’s another on the making of the Batmobile and one on the making of the new Batsuit. There’s a doc on the development of the fight scenes, another about the building of Gotham and finally one on the special effects for the film. All-in-all it’s a great set of mini-docs.
Also on Disc two are files on each of the characters in the film and also some production stills.
Finally, the two-disc set comes with a comic book. This book includes the first Batman story from the Detective Comics series and 2 other stories that influenced Batman Begins. As I said, it is a solid DVD package. The studio actually put some time into these mini-docs and there is a ton of information that you can learn about this amazing movie. But I do have some complaints. First of all, NO COMMENTARY. There should not be a single DVD released today (let alone any “SPECIAL EDITION”) that does not include commentary. The mini-docs almost make up for the lack of commentary. They have a lot of information but I REALLY love to be able to watch the film and listen to all of the fascinating info at the same time.
Also, nowhere in any of the docs do they discuss Cillian Murphy or his character, The Scarecrow. Cillian is a great actor and he does a fabulous job in his role in this movie. How in the world can we talk about Katie Holmes and her moronic character in the docs and not discuss at all about one of the major villains?!
Other than these complaints I recommend everyone buy this DVD. If extras mean nothing to you, save some cash and get the regular edition. If you are an extras junky like myself, this is a solid package with some decent extras. All-in-all my verdict is:
BUY THIS DVD.
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