Warner’s Batman Begins Limited Edition Bluray release is chock full of superfluous Dark Knight promotional tchotchkies that any movie-collecting junkie will go apeshit over shortly before stuffing them all back into the box and promptly forgetting they exist. There are Dark Knight comics, a script booklet, and a Movie Money certificate that’ll knock $7.50 off of your Dark Knight ticket price. Oh, and there’s also a fantastic movie called Batman Begins that’s included.
Batman Begins looks great but it’s the same transfer as was on the film’s original HD-DVD release, so if you decided to buy into that rotting technology when it came out (like I did) you’re not really seeing anything new in terms of picture quality. There aren’t really any problems, per se, but it isn’t a new transfer so don’t expect any surprises if you’ve seen Batman Begins in hi-definition before.
Of course, the film is a masterpiece of its genre. The talented Chris Nolan, who delighted film students and critics alike with his much-ballyhooed ass-backwards thriller Memento back in 2000, brings his A-game to the world of Batman. Christian Bale is perfect, the action sequences are great and even though the Batmobile is re-imagined to look like a big clunky tank, this is a fantastic movie and probably one of the best comic book movies ever made. At least until The Dark Knight comes out. Did I mention The Dark Knight is coming out on July 18th? If you forgot, this Limited Edition release is basically designed to remind you!
The big exclusive to-do included on the disc is the first 6 minutes of The Dark Knight, which was shot in IMAX and looks mind-blowingly fantastic, ensuring us that the inevitable Dark Knight Bluray release will trigger countless nerd orgasms when it’s released later this year. Oddly enough, all of the extra crap included in the box that’s related to The Dark Knight is based on these six minutes of footage – for some reason they saw fit to include a booklet that has the original script for this sequence, along with storyboards and production stills, and if that isn’t enough for you, they’ve also included a comic book adaptation of it. It’s all totally unnecessary, but for Batman geeks it’s cool enough.
That’s not to say there aren’t plenty of special features and odds ‘n ends related to Batman Begins. The lenticular art included is the same card used on the Best Buy exclusive DVD release that came out years ago, and there are also a set of promotional postcards with alternate movie poster styles from the film’s theatrical release. Other than the Dark Knight footage, the extra features included on the disc are identical to the HD-DVD release, using the spankin’ new BD Live technology to replicate the previously HD-DVD exclusive feature where Chris Nolan and friends “reveal the movie’s backstory” while you watch. It’s neat enough.
SO IS IT WORTH IT?
Batman Begins is a triple-dip for me; I owned the first special edition, then the HD-DVD version, and now this overstuffed box set. The film looks great, the box is attractive, and as unnecessary as they are all the little promotional items are, they’re pretty cool. Unless you’re a huge Batman nerd, you may want to skip this limited edition and go for the disc-only release, but for fans and collectors, it’s worth it. You can snag it for 34 bucks on Amazon, which is very reasonable considering the amount of crap that comes with it; retail outlets will probably knock you for $45-$50. Go with the Amazon price and you won’t regret it.
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