Batman Begins Director Christopher Nolan (Memento, Insomnia) and screenwriter David S. Goyer (the Blade trilogy) join forces for another action-packed chapter of the Batman saga! As a young boy, Bruce Wayne watched in horror as his millionaire parents were slain in front of him - a trauma that leads him to become obsessed with revenge. But the opportunity to avenge his parents' deaths is cruelly taken away from him by fate. Fleeing to the East, where he seeks counsel with the dangerous but honorable ninja cult leader known as Ra's Al-Ghul, Bruce returns to his now... decaying Gotham City, which is overrun by organized crime and other dangerous individuals manipulating the system. Meanwhile, Bruce is slowly being swindled out of Wayne Industries, the company he inherited. The discovery of a cave under his mansion, along with a prototype armored suit, leads him to assume a new persona, one which will strike fear into the hearts of men who do wrong; he becomes Batman!!! In the new guise, and with the help of rising cop Jim Gordon, Batman sets out to take down the various nefarious schemes in motion by individuals such as mafia don Falcone, the twisted doctor/drug dealer Jonathan 'The Scarecrow' Crane, and a mysterious third party who is quite familiar with Wayne and waiting to strike when the time is right. Blu-Ray Special Features: In Movie Experience The Dark Knight IMAX Prologue Tankman Begins Batman - The Journey Begins Shaping Mind and Body Gotham City Rises Cape and Cowl Batman - The Tumbler Path to Discovery Saving Gotham City Genesis of the Bat Reflections on Writing Batman Begins Digital Batman Batman Begins Stunts Confidential Files Stills Gallery The Dark Knight Christopher Nolan returns to direct the follow up to his own 2005 blockbuster 'Batman Begins', with Christian Bale once again suited up as 'The Dark Knight'. Gotham City, previously a playground for organised crime and petty thieves, has been cleaned up under the ever watchful eye of Batman. With the continued help of Lt James Gordon (Gary Oldman) and determined District Attorney Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart), Batman continues to round up the remaining criminals plaguing it. As the opening sequence quickly shows, a new threat has emerged. The Joker! brought to life again, this time by the late Heath Ledger (Best Supporting Actor Oscar winner). With his eerie grin and wicked laugh, mixed with pyschotic madness, he unleashes a new danger to the people of Gotham amidst all his chaos. As Batman struggles to bring the madman to justice, his alter-ego Bruce Wayne is caught in a love triangle as Rachel Dawes' (Maggie Gyllenhaal) relationship with Harvey Dent grows stronger. Knowing that Harvey may be the 'White Knight' required to bring continued peace to Gotham, Batman hopes that for the last time his skills and arsenal of equipment will be needed to stop the crazed villain before the city falls back into turmoil! - Michael Woodhall Blu-Ray Special Features: Gotham Uncovered: Creation of a Scene Batman Tech Batman Unmasked: The Psychology of The Dark Knight Gotham Tonight The Galleries [show more]
With the release of The Dark Knight Rises this month, Warner Bros. have re-released the first two films in Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight Trilogy in a fantastic new special edition, limited release packaging on Blu-ray, and it is a real treat for fans of the films.
What Nolan and his brother Jonathan brought to Batman in Batman Begins was truly a new vision - not only did it redefine the DC comic hero, it redefined comic book blockbusters for the twenty-first century.
Most importantly, it takes us back to the beginning: to Bruce Wayne's childhood. It gives us Batman's all-important origin stories. The first, when young Bruce falls down an empty well, disturbing a nest of bats, developing a phobia for the creatures that stays with him for years. And the second, the murder of his parents, shot at point blank before his very eyes.
The two events are integral to the character of Batman, both in the original comics and in the Nolan brothers' films, from Batman Begins right through to The Dark Knight Rises. In rescuing him from the well, Bruce's father puts a simple question to him: 'Why do we fall, Bruce?' And his father tells him it is, 'So we can learn to pick ourselves up.'
The question and answer echo through the trilogy, and picking himself up upon falling is exactly what Bruce learns to do. He travels east on his quest to learn the necessary skills to save Gotham from the living hell it has become for its citizens, becoming a member of the League of Shadows under the tutors Henri Ducard (Liam Neeson) and Ra's al Ghul. It is here, training as a ninja, that he fully begins his journey to becoming Batman.
What Bruce understands, better than Gotham itself, is that the city needs a symbol, something impenetrable, to save it. Overcome with corruption, crime, and violence on all levels, it is a symbol that can defeat injustice, that can be incorruptible. And thus he takes up that symbol, and becomes Batman. He takes his own fear and uses it against those that would see Gotham delve further into anarchy.
Yet all is not well by the film's end, which fantastically sets up the sequel in The Dark Knight, by placing a single playing card before the credits roll, described as a calling card of a rising local criminal: The Joker.
The Dark Knight begins with one of my favourite opening scenes of all time. It opens with a bank heist. And not just any bank heist, but a bank heist carried out in broad daylight, with multiple masked criminals, and a street full of traffic.
Shot with IMAX cameras, the scene literally pops out of the screen whilst you watch it, even at home, and you cannot help but feel in awe of its brilliance.
The film is well noted for Heath Ledger's incredible performance as the antagonist, the one who continually seeks to draw Batman out throughout the film, and who wants to see Gotham burn. Not because he wants to profit from its losses, not because he has a cause he believes in, but because he sees it as a game, and he just wants to have fun.
Batman Begins had a fantastic cast, and The Dark Knight added two more main players in the form of Ledger and Aaron Eckhart. It also added two of the most notorious and well-known characters from the source material, with Harvey Dent/Two-Face appearing alongside the Joker as well.
What The Dark Knight did was develop Bruce Wayne's character, in and out of the Batman suit, even further. It gave him greater depth, and it gave him something to live for: Something to give him hope that he might one day hang up his armour and retire. That hope comes in Rachel Dawes (Maggie Gyllenhaal), his childhood fried, and assistant district attorney.
In Dent, Wayne sees a district attorney who can fight crime in the daylight, out of the shadows, in the court of law. And in Dawes, he sees the woman he loves who he could spend the rest of his life with.
Yet at its end, the film inevitably sees Bruce Wayne unable to hang up his armour for good. The day that Gotham no longer needs Batman has not quite come, and whether or not it ultimately will will be told in the Nolan brothers' epic conclusion, The Dark Knight Rises.
Having seen the final instalment this month (and without spoiling it for those who haven't), I can assuredly say that the brothers have brought us the greatest trilogy in the history of cinema. It has been years in the making: The filmmakers, cast, and crew have given us all they have, and we thank them for it. Batman remains one of the greatest superheroes known to the world, and this trilogy is by far the finest version of him committed to film in all his iterations.
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Double bill of films from the hugely popular 'Batman' franchise. In 'Batman Begins' (2005), 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. 'The Dark Knight' (2008) sees Gotham's avenging angel squaring up to a new kid on the block - psychotic prankster, the Joker (Heath Ledger). In the space of a year, Batman (Bale), aided by Commissioner Gordon (Gary Oldman) and new District Attorney Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart), has managed to rid Gotham's streets of the organised crime gangs that once ravaged the city. Things seem to be looking up, although on the personal front, Bruce Wayne discovers he has a rival in his affections for main squeeze Rachel Dawes (Maggie Gyllenhaal) in the shape of the new DA who, as a political climber, likes to keep his cards close to his chest. But just when the authorities think they're finally making progress in their fight against crime, the appearance on the streets of a sinister new figure, with a demented grin and a passion for chaos, causes panic among the good people of Gotham, and leads to a battle of wits between Batman and the Joker which threatens to get extremely personal.
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