Batman Begins (Widescreen)

|Academy Award Nominee - Best Cinematography.


Features: DVD, Widescreen, Aspect Ratio 2.40:1, Dolby Digital (5.1), Dolby Surround Sound, Mobile Game, English, French, Spanish Subtitled

Batman Begins explores the origins of the Batman legend and the Dark Knight's emergence as a force for good in Gotham. 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.

"One of the year's best films. It's the Batman movie I've been waiting for." ; ;Roger Ebert, Ebert & Roeper
"**** Phenomenal. Not only the must-see movie of the summer, it's the film of the year!" ; ;Shawn Edwards, FOX-TV
"Without question the best Batman ever." ; ;Joel Siegel, Good Morning America
"A rugged, rousing adventure." ; ;Newsweek
"A bold and brilliant superhero movie, Batman Begins is the best outing ever for the Caped Crusader." ; ;Nev Pierce, BBC
"They finally got it right." ; ;Sean Burns, Philadelphia Weekly
"...Bale gives us the best Bruce Wayne that has ever graced the screen." ; ;Ty Burr, Boston Globe
"...rousing, reverent, often brilliant...Batman is at home in the 21st century as he was in the 20th." ; ;Keith Phipps, The Onion A.V. Club
"A great movie, period. It's great because it's so real." ; ;Kyle Smith, New York Post
"A confidently original, engrossing interpretation." ; ;Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly
"Fantastic. Emotional. Genuinely gripping." ; ;Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle
"A bold and brilliant superhero movie, Batman Begins is the best outing ever for the Caped Crusader." ; ;Nev Pierce, BBC Online



Editor's Note

Genius of mystery and intrigue Christopher Nolan (MEMENTO, FOLLOWING, INSOMNIA) helms this prequel to the Batman films based on the DC Comics series, explaining how Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale)--the billionaire prince of Gotham whose parents were killed in an alleyway mugging--transformed into the crime-fighting superhero. With flashbacks to his privileged childhood, young Master Wayne, as he is called by the butler Alfred (Michael Caine), develops a terrible fear of bats when he falls through the backyard garden into a hidden cave. As a young adult, Wayne lives among the League of Shadows, a martial arts group in the mountains of Asia. His leaders Ra's al Ghul (Ken Watanabe) and Henri Ducard (Liam Neeson) teach him strength, endurance, and--unfortunately--evil, against which he naturally rebels. Returning to Gotham and reinstating himself as a dapper socialite and the rightful heir to his parents' enterprise, Wayne quickly devises his secret identity, commanding help from the gadgetry expert Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman). With one eye on his childhood playmate Rachel (Katie Holmes)--now a beautiful woman and dedicated lawyer--and the other on his mission to save Gotham from criminal corruption, Batman makes his fledgling debut. But when the blue-blooded mastermind Dr. Crane (Cillian Murphy)--who steals every scene with chilling menace--taints the water system with a hallucinatory substance, Batman realizes he has met his first true opponent. An attitude of grave seriousness elevates BATMAN BEGINS above more cartoony Batman movies, as Nolan crafts a dark drama that thrives on sci-fi intrigue. Bale strides into the role with grace, adding refinement that is seldom seen in action-oriented films. And while the action scenes explode with high-tech glitz and fast-moving thrills, they are evenly placed among sequences of plot and character development, making for a complex and satisfying viewing experience