BATMAN BEGINS (2 DVD) Deluxe Edition with 72 page comic

Christopher Nolan sows the seeds of Batman & watches it grow in a reboot that set the standard of all reboots we've seen in recent years.

We're introduced to Bruce Wayne as a young boy who for reasons that soon become obvious is terrified of bats. After witnessing his parents coldly murdered in a back alley, we see a disillusioned Bruce travelling the world, getting caught up in the world of criminality, until a mysterious mentor guides him to a mountain lair where he will be trained to fight by the 'League of Shadows', a secret ninja organisation hell-bent on destroying criminals & the cities who sire them. Thankfully, Bruce is not quite so genocidal in his ways in refusing the latter & returns to Gotham to fight crime, where he learns Wayne Enterprises is now a global conglomerate, with a particular department in military technology, including body armour, a terrain vehicle & several gadgets in tow.

Hence, Batman's origins are explained in full, the anguish, the pain, the fighting skills, the suit, the batmobile & the grapple gun. It takes about an hour for Batman to finally appear but this back story is an enthralling watch & builds up to one of the movie's most rewarding moments where Christopher Nolan got it right where so many TV & movie directors have got it wrong - finally the criminals are afraid of Batman, terrified in fact as they know something is there but they don't know what (What is more terrifying than that?) But Batman's enemies are inventive intelligent characters and it's not long before Bruce's past catches up with him.

Visually, this film is a stunning watch, Gotham city disturbingly portrayed as a city of darkness, decadence & decay with a criminal underworld controlling everything. The batsuit looks terrific, no longer with a big yellow bat symbol across its chest (or nipples either for that matter) while the batmobile is one of the most memorable vehicles in movie history & its chase scene is a cracker. Bale portrays a tortured Wayne with conviction with an excellent supporting cast in Michael Caine as Alfred with a subtle humour, Tom Wilkinson as a Crime Boss, Cillian Murphy as the cool yet demonic Scarecrow, Liam Neeson as Bruce's mentor (is there any role Neeson can't play?), Gary Oldman as Jim Gordon & Morgan Freeman as the gadget-letting Lucius Fox and Katie Holmes.....well, we'll forgive her this time.

This is a superb telling of the origins of the Batman character, full of brooding tension, a very apt musical score and an exciting finale. That reboots of the James Bond, Predator & Star Trek franchises followed in the aftermath of this film is a testament to how effective it is as an origin story.

The special features disc is also worth a watch (particularly as the DVD menu is controlled by navigating a virtual comic!) and contains plenty of interviews with cast & crew (Nolan's vision in creating this movie is of particular interest) and intriguing documentaries on the suit & batmobile amongst others. The packaging for this particular version could be considered to be for the die-hard fans only, but it has an undeniably cool holographic cover where Batman emerges from a colony of bats and also includes a 72 page comic book with some classic Batman stories including a re-print of the first ever Batman strip from 1939.

Considering the franchise was buried by Joel Schumacher's 'Batman & Robin' debacle, this shines as a truly excellent movie, with memorable packaging and well worth the inflated price over the single 1 disc edition.

Welcome back Batman.

Finally a movie that captures the nature of the Dark Knight and makes me hope this team will continue the series in the same vein. This is a fantastic movie, which must be watched. Not only was a good script written. But Christian Bale is perfect as both Bruce Wayne and as Batman. During the parts of the movie were we watch Bruce Wayne, not once did I wonder where Batman was. He played Bruce Wayne so well...I wanted to see what Bruce would do next. And then you have a fantastic cast surrounding him. This is a winning formula.

Batman Begins takes us back to the beginning. And shows us how Bruce Wayne get the skills to be Batman. And within this story we see how he chose the symbol of the bat. The movie jumps over his youth where Alfred raises him. But takes us to the end of the trial of his parent's murderer where he his vengeance has pushed him. Bruce learns that though he is filled with anger and feels he has nothing to lose...he does. So Bruce discards his identity and travels throughout the world learning all he can about the criminal mind. For as he was told, you only fear what you do not know.

We also see the process he goes through to not only condition his body, but to learn martial arts. The disillusioned Bruce is enticed by mysterious League of Shadows who claim to fame is dispensing Justice. And it is here that Bruce learns to channel his anger and fears into his newly honed skills. Making him a true fighting machine. But he learns he cannot follow the leagues methods, for they do not only dispense justice...but also go to the extreme and become the judge and executioner as well. A line Bruce will not cross. He finally decides he needs to go home to Gotham and help stop its downward spiral into corruption. And Batman is born.

The extra material not only includes the movie's trailer, a wonderful plethora of posters, but a spoof on Batman staring Jimmy Fallon on his way to an MTV Movie Award program. The spoof is well done, fun and silly all at the same time. There is also eight short features that cover everything from the Batmobile being built, casting, Mr. Bale's conditioning, all the great work on the Bat Suit, the sets being built and what I thought was most impressive, the filming in Iceland.

The included comic book shows more of what Bruce Wayne did to prepare himself in his travels and schooling to become Batman. And it has a couple of other stories in it as well. One, which includes Harvey Dent, called The Long Halloween. All in all the deluxe set is a winner.

received the dvd in perfect order. took just 2 days to arrive very good service will order again