4k-UHD Review- Batman Begins

 

Batman Begins was the 2005 reboot of the live-action Batman franchise which had mostly been killed off by the hot garbage of a movie that was Batman and Robin. This movie was co-written and directed by Christopher Nolan who, at the time, was best known for movies like Memento and Insomnia. It starred Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne, Michael Caine as Alfred, Gary Oldman as Jim Gordon (who was a Sergent at the time), and Morgan Freeman as Lucious Fox. It included a supporting cast of Katie Holmes, Liam Neeson, Rutger Hauer, Tom Wilkinson, and two who would become Nolan regulars, Ken Watanabe and Cillian Murphy.

The movie was another origin story for the character of Batman, but unlike other adaptations in which the murder of Bruce's parents is shown and then there is a time jump to him being established as Batman, this movie shows the process of Bruce becoming Batman, and what he had to do to get to that point, including training with the League of Shadows, a society of assassins who practice ninjutsu and want to restore law and order to the world. Then the movie shows Bruce returning to Gotham to take on the criminal underworld (mainly Tom Wilkinson's Carmine Falcone) that has taken over the city.

The 4k-UHD set is a three-disc set. There is the UHD disc that just has the movie, a regular blu-ray disc that also just has the movie on it, and then a second blu-ray disc that has all of the special features. The A/V quality of the UHD disc is very good, near reference quality, and definitely an upgrade from the original 1080p release. There are well over two hours worth of bonus content on the third disc, including several making-of and behind-the-scenes featurettes, which detail nearly every part of the filmmaking process from the creation of the new Batmobile to the stunt training. The first six-minute opening sequence of the second movie in the trilogy, The Dark Knight is also included, as is the theatrical trailer for Batman Begins.

Overall, the movie is great. It is much better than the Joel Schumacher-helmed movies, and very much on par quality-wise with, but much different than Tim Burton's movies. Nolan grounds the movie in reality as much as he can, making Gotham look like a real city and using as few CGI effects as he possibly can. Bale, as much as he can be a jackass in real-life at times and seems to take himself way too seriously, does a great job both as Bruce Wayne and as Batman. He absolutely threw himself into the role (as he does for all his movies), and was really the first actor that I think nailed both roles in live-action. Katie Holmes was very good as Rachel Dawes, Bruce's childhood friend turned assistant District Attorney who was one of the few officials in Gotham who was not corrupt, and Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman were great in their respective roles. So, if you are a fan of Batman it is a must-see movie, and the 4k disc is definitely worth the upgrade.