BATMAN BEGINS - HD DVD review

Well, it's about time, I heard somebody say. Warner Bros. had been advertising the HD-DVD edition of "Batman Begins" in all of their magazine ads, even in their disc inserts, for many months. It was one of their most-successful films in recent years, and parts of it are spectacular. Much of the film is very dark, too, literally as well as figuratively, but one of HD-DVD's strengths is resolving inner detail in darker areas of the screen. Along with its Dolby TrueHD and Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 soundtracks and every extra found on the two-disc SD set and more, the HD-DVD is pretty hard to resist.

"It's not who you are underneath; it's what you do that defines you." --"Batman Begins"

The "Batman" comics were already popular when I was a kid in the 1950s, and at that time I had hoped there would be something better on the big screen than the corny 1943 serial, "The Batman," of which I had seen a chapter or two. I was doubly frustrated in the 1960s when the Adam West television series only seemed to ridicule the Caped Crusader.

So it was that I found myself among the many people standing in line on the opening day of Tim Burton's "Batman" in 1989. It had been a long wait, but it was worth it. Burton's "Batman" became one of my favorite superhero movies. Yet with each successive "Batman" movie I saw the franchise fall further and further into the campy style of the old TV show. By the third and fourth installments of the movie series, I had given up hope.

Then we got 2005's "Batman Begins," cowritten and directed by Christopher Nolan, and I was happy all over again. I found the movie spellbinding, easily among my favorite films of the year. While it didn't conjure up quite the mystique of Burton's first issue, it had, like the Burton film, abandoned the look of an old comic book for the darker, more realistic aspect of a graphic novel. I'm glad Nolan resolved to go back to square one and take everything seriously for a change, loading his cast with fine, serious actors like Michael Caine, who steals the show, and Morgan Freeman, a close second. Then, too, Liam Neeson, Gary Oldman, Cillian Murphy, Tom Wilkinson, Rutger Hauer, Ken Watanabe, and Katie Holmes portray characters who are also plausible and well drawn. And Christian Bale is the first actor in the title role who actually fits my mental image of Batman. In Nolan's hands, this is no mere comic-book character; this is a Knight Noir.

"Batman Begins" is a rethinking of the cinematic "Batman" saga, and as the title suggests, it starts by going back to the beginnings of the "Batman" legend as suggested by the early comics. The first half of the movie, and the best part in my opinion, recounts the origins of Batman: How an angry, disillusioned young billionaire, Gotham City's Bruce Wayne, travels the ends of the Earth to study the criminal mind and grapple with his own fears, forever seeking a means to fight the injustice he sees around him.

Eventually, on the edge of nowhere, he finds the counsel he's looking for in the League of Shadows, a centuries' old secret society bent on checking world corruption. Here, he learns to look inward, face himself, and draw on his inner as well as outer strength. Besides learning new martial-arts skills, Wayne learns several other things: He discovers that theatricality and deception are powerful weapons and that "You always fear what you don't understand," notions that would presage his eventual donning of cape and mask to become the melodramatic Dark Knight.

The film takes great pains to present every detail of its plot and characters as things that might actually happen, no matter how preposterous. There is no radioactive bat biting Bruce Wayne and turning him into an instant superhero with supernatural powers. Wayne is an ordinary human being with extraordinary sensibilities, a strong physical makeup, access to high-tech gadgetry, and a ton of money. What he decides to become as "Batman" seems entirely within the realm of possibility (if not probability). Even the Batmobile, the Tumbler, is a believable real-life incarnation of the hackneyed comic-book creation.

Then, the second half of the film takes us closer to comic-book territory with a far-fetched plot involving madmen attempting to destroy the "decadent" Gotham City by pouring hallucinogenic drugs into the city's water supply and using a microwave emitter to vaporize it and cause panic in the streets. "If you'll excuse me, I have a city to destroy." While it's all very silly and tends to diminish somewhat the more realistic goings-on that preceded it, I have no strenuous objections to anything that happened. Comic-book plots are comic-book plots, no matter how earnestly their creators present them, and one has to accept such conventions if one is to appreciate any work in the genre.

Everybody in the film, heroes and villains alike, are more true-to-life than in previous "Batman" movies and come close to being almost believable in Nolan's vision. Christian Bale's Bruce Wayne may not exhibit the haunted complexities of Michael Keaton's Batman, but we are able to see in Bale's characterization a strong moral courage and a determination to do good. "What chance does Gotham have when the good people do nothing?" asks his friend Rachel (Katie Holmes). He resolves to be one of those "good people" who will stand up and fight.

Nevertheless, as sympathetic as Bale is in the role, Nolan hedges his bets by surrounding the actor with a supporting cast to die for, peripheral characters who despite their number the director weaves well into the fabric of the plot and who never detract from the movie's focus on Bruce Wayne/Batman. Michael Caine as the surrogate father figure, Alfred the butler, for example, is good enough to get his own show. I've always thought there were three actors in Hollywood who consistently transcended their material, routinely putting in great performances even when their scripts were against them, and in this movie (which does not work against them in any case) we get two of these folks: Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman. (I missed only Gene Hackman among this magic three.) Freeman plays Lucius Fox, an old friend of Bruce's father whom Bruce comes to trust; and whom we come to trust just as much as Bruce does.

Liam Neeson plays Henri Ducard, a strong, tough, wise, but vaguely sinister mentor, a role Neeson seems consigned to play forever unless he puts a stop to it. Well, OK, he does it so well, one can't blame him, but really--"Star Wars," "Kingdom of Heaven," and now "Batman Begins"? Next up, it's gratifying to see Gary Oldman portraying a good guy for a change as Sgt. Gordon, and Oldman has played so many Americans in films it's hard to remember that he's British. Cillian Murphy is perfectly cast as the slimy Dr. Crane, alias "the Scarecrow"; but make no mistake, the villains are not any more superhuman than Batman is. The Scarecrow works his mischief with a crude burlap mask and a powerful hallucinogen. Then, there's Tom Wilkinson as a ruthless crime boss, Rutger Hauer as a scheming business partner, and Ken Watanabe as a shadowy cult figure, all equally up to the task. Even Katie Holmes as Bruce Wayne's romantic interest (the romance admittedly taking a backseat to the rest of the story) is fine, although she appears too young to be the Assistant District Attorney of a major city.

In a nod to "Batman Begins" fitting into the world of the earlier films as well as the comic books (several minor but notable inconsistencies aside), I liked the way Nolan ends his tale with a signal of things to come in subsequent installments. Without giving too much away, the ending tells us about the construction of a new Batcave; Sgt. Gordon's becoming Lt. Gordon, suggesting a Commissioner Gordon in the future; and, most important, the escape of a whole passel of inmates from the Arkham Asylum for the Criminally Insane, foreshadowing the various loonies dressing up in costume to commit their evildoings, one in particular who at the scene of his crimes leaves his calling card, a Joker.

OK, did I have any misgivings about this new venture? Of course, but I didn't find them severe enough to spoil my enthusiasm for the movie. First, I found director Nolan's fondness for close-ups and quick edits a bit off-putting, not only in the fight scenes but throughout the picture. Nolan probably uses so many of these devices because he believes they involve the audience more in the action and, just as likely, because he believes people expect this of an action film. As far as I can tell, this was Nolan's first outright adventure movie, and while he does a superb job moving things forward, it is clear he's feeling his way along like anybody else.

Next, there's James Newton Howard and Hans Zimmer's new score that tries hard to recall Danny Elfman's original music without actually duplicating it. But the new score succeeds mainly in sounding louder and less inspired than before, reminding one again how unique Elfman's music was. However, I won't complain too much since the new score does have an epic, heroic quality that grows on a person, especially as the film wears on.

Then there's the matter of the villains, something I mentioned earlier is primarily a plus. What I didn't mention is the lesser problem that "Batman Begins" offers us a layering of villains throughout rather than a single dominant force. Although I can understand how the surprise factor in using multiple evildoers can keep audiences on an expectant edge, it also tends to water down our fear of any one scoundrel, particularly when we don't know who is at the top of the hierarchy.

Still, these are minor carps in a film that succeeded in keeping my attention from beginning to end. I've seen it four times now--in a regular theater, in an IMAX theater, on SD DVD, and now on HD-DVD--and I look forward to watching it again.

Video:
I found little to fault in the standard-definition disc's high-bit-rate, anamorphic video reproduction. Now that I've had a chance to compare it to this new HD-DVD transfer, I'm not sure I can say the same thing, except that the SD is still good by standard-definition standards, while the HD-DVD takes the picture into a whole new area. Again, the screen size measures a ratio of about 2.40:1, but this time the detailing is ever more precise, colors are richer and more radiant, and textures are better delineated.

It seems like with each new HD-DVD, the picture quality gets better and better. "Batman Begins" looks as good as anything I've seen on my television. Yes, it is a dark film, but inner detail is good even in darker areas of the screen, and black levels are intensely dark on my CRT television. Facial features still appear a tad soft, but it's all really quite beautiful.

Audio:
The disc makes the audio available in Dolby TrueHD 5.1 and Dolby Digital Plus 5.1. Either way, it is as good as the video. In the standard-definition's Dolby Digital 5.1, I found big dynamic contrasts and a robust deep bass; in the HD-DVD's Dolby Digital Plus 5.1, I found more of the same but a touch clearer. And Dolby TrueHD 5.1 takes things an incremental step further. In TrueHD there are strong dynamic surges and impact; pinpoint surround activity; taut bass; a wide, open feeling; an extended frequency response; and a realistic clarity. Comparing TrueHD to DD+, I heard a bit more fullness and, if anything, an even wider stereo spread, imagined or not, thanks to the TrueHD track not placing as much emphasis on the center speaker as DD+ and regular DD does. Oddly, perhaps, it makes the TrueHD soundtrack seem slightly more subtle than the other audio formats, but, believe me, it's every bit as good and better.

Extras:
The bonus features on the HD-DVD include everything found on the standard CD two-disc set and more. For me, the most important aspect of the extras was what Warner Bros. wisely decided not to give us; namely, the goofy, hard-to-navigate, interactive comic-book format that made finding anything on the standard edition so difficult. Here we get all the bonus items listed in a straightforward manner on a single screen.

The first item is the In-Movie Experience, which basically replaces any regular audio commentary. The filmmakers take you behind-the-scenes as you're watching the film, providing inserts, comics, special effects, and the like, all on screen along the way. After that is a section called "Additional footage" that contains "Reflections on Writing Batman Begins" with David S. Goyer, two minutes; "Digital Batman," the effects you may have missed, a little over one minute; and "Batman Begins Stunts," two minutes.

The longest section is one the disc calls "Beyond the Story," and it includes eleven sections. There is MTV's "Tankman Begins," a cute parody lasting about five minutes, integrating scenes from the movie with added shots of Jimmy Fallon and a surprise guest. Next is "Batman: The Journey Begins," a fourteen-minute documentary on the development and casting of the film. It's typical of such making-of documentaries, with comments from the director and filmmakers, plus excerpts from the movie. After that is "Shaping Mind and Body," twelve minutes on Christian Bale's transformation into Batman. Then it's "Gotham City Rises," twelve minutes on the creation of Gotham City, the Batcave, Wayne Manor, and more. Following that is "Cape and Cowl," eight minutes on the development of the new Batsuit; "Batman: The Tumbler," thirteen minutes on the reinvention of the Batmobile; "Path to Discovery," a fourteen-minute look at the first week of filming in Iceland; "Saving Gotham City," thirteen minutes on the miniatures, CGI, and effects for the monorail chase scene; and "Genesis of the Bat," a fourteen-minute look at the Dark Knight's incarnation and influences on the film.

Things conclude with "Confidential Files," which list and explain "Hardware," "Enemies," and "Allies and Mentors" in the story; a stills gallery; forty scene selections (but no chapter insert); and a widescreen theatrical trailer. There are English, French, and Spanish spoken languages available; and English, French, and Spanish subtitles, with English captions for the hearing impaired.

As usual with Warner Bros. HD-DVDs, this one also includes pop-up menus, an indicator of elapsed time, a pan-and-zoom feature, and an Elite Red HD case.

Parting Thoughts:
Was "Batman Begins" the best film of 2005 or one of the greatest movies ever made? I have no idea. But is it entertaining? You bet. There hasn't been another film in years I liked well enough to watch twice in a movie theater except this one. I found it creative, energetic, imaginative, involving, and even a little inspiring. Its edgy tone and dark atmosphere coupled with its comic-book theatrics make it a winning combination for older children and adults alike. If this HD-DVD version doesn't sell a few copies, nothing will.