BR: BATMAN BEGINS

Available at Amazon for £15.98 Fear, loss and obsession. Those are the themes that has driven the cinema of British filmmaker Christopher Nolan into one of the most gifted storytellers the movie industry has right now. Whether he is exploring a guy whose struggle to overcome the loss of his wife, literally takes over his life (Memento), a guy whose lust for a women some years his junior leads him to murder (Insomnia), a guy's obsession with bettering his enemy no matter how deadly the consequences which again takes over his life (The Prestige) or a guy who dresses up in a Bat suit swearing vengeance against a whole city of criminals responsible for his parents death, thus again taking over his life - the theme is so universal and strikingly powerful that Nolan has tapped into something that he can't himself shake off. I've yet to lose a parent, though my mother and father did separate when I was around 7 - a quite awful time for your life to change so dramatically. The anger, the hatred, the confusion which never goes away, no matter how much older you get... it's no wonder I looked to the Batman character for guidance when growing up. I no longer lived with my father and neither did Bruce Wayne, the absence of the person we most look up to in life can never be an under-estimated. The idea that you might have been responsible for, whether it's true or not - the loss of your father is a notion that haunts you relentlessly. I could understand Bruce Wayne's fear, Bruce Wayne's anger and his obsessive desire to not let it happen again to anyone - though this was always a connection I got from the written Bat material and never the films. It's not something I ever took from a Tim Burton attempt at the character and only briefly in Batman Forever in those quite brilliant flashback sequences did I feel it in Joel Schmaucher's vision. It's the basic principle of the character and amazingly up until this point we had never seen it used before on film with as much depth as it truly warrants. That was until Batman Begins. For the first time we saw the tortured soul of Bruce Wayne as a fully fleshed character, and his flashbacks to that fateful night that set course the rest of his life is no longer just the death of a guy called Thomas Wayne and his wife. It is instead, THE death of Thomas Wayne, a warm and inspiring father who is played with such great presence from Linus Roache. You feel his absence for the whole film, he does a terrific job with just a few moments of screentime... amazing how much an actor can do with a very scenes. And this is the trajectory and the holding foundations of the character which elevate the film into something more than just popcorn entertainment and summer blockbuster - which so many superhero films in the past have only inspired to be. For the the first time... I really felt it. With Batman Begins, after four massive Hollywood productions, a long running animated and camp live-action t.v. series, finally we got a true sense of why billionaire Bruce Wayne roams the streets of Gotham at night. The themes mentioned above all play their part and possibly for the first time in the history of the character, you kinda believe - however far fetched it may be - that his COULD happen. Nolan takes his time to show us the tools of how he became what he is. It takes at least forty minutes before we see Batman suited up, a significant statement when you consider that Tim Burton and Joel Schmaucher often couldn't barely wait until the end of the credits sequence. Using the holes and the little hints we know of Batman's origin, Nolan creates his own mythology and plugs the gaps with believable reasoning for how he came in possession of certain things. Nolan answers questions that we should have considered in the previous movies. How did he get the batmobile, his suit, why did he even chose Bats as his symbol? How does Bruce Wayne make a living, who runs his company? Refreshingly, Batman Begins is more interested in telling us Batman's story rather than the colourful and eccentric villains he is up against. If Tim Burton was more interested in the costumed villains of Catwoman, The Penguin and The Joker in the first two movies, then Nolan clearly sides with the Batman character. And for the first time you see why. He is the most interesting character in the universe, his story of how he came to be and why he does what he does is more interesting than the rest of DC's canon and it's shocking when you see this film how criminally under-used as a character he has been in the past This movie really made that ten year wait from the Hollywood pit of humanity that was Batman & Robin absolutely worth it. It makes that Batman vs. Superman and Darren Aronofsky's Batman Year One failed projects pale and weep in comparison, they would have been unable to make a Batman movie as epic but at the same time as self contained as this one. Watching Christian Bale grow into the role and Chris Nolan becoming more and more confident throughout the film, leading to a epic car chase of destruction - I was convinced that under any other circumstances they could not have found a better director and actor to lead this franchise. What an incredible origin movie, commercial as hell but remarkably with as much Independent sensibility as the rest of Nolan's filmgraphy. Michael Caine makes Alfred into something so much more than the "sandwich maker" of the previous franchise, he is the support for Wayne - more a surrogate father than anything else. Liam Neeson is terrific in this film, so much presence. Tom Wilkinson I wish had more screentime as Falcone... Gary Oldman IS Gordon... Katie Holmes is damn near unwatchable as Rachel Dawes. Cillian Murphy is great as Scarecrow but again he was under-used... Freeman and Hauer were just delicious. There's no real need for me to review this movie further, you have all seen it before. It's possibly the greatest origin superhero film ever made and it is without doubt one of the best Blu-Ray transfers I've seen so far. Seeing those deep blacks and the high buildings of Gotham and Wayne Tower... just insanely beautiful. This is the best movie I've seen on Blu-Ray so far.

rating: 4.5

EXTRAS All the extra's from the 2 Disc Standard DVD have been transferred over to the Blu-Ray Release. There's around 10 small featurettes, all varying around 10 minutes in length which if you put together make for a pretty extended 2 hour documentary. Sadly (I don't think Chris Nolan likes to do them) there is no audio commentary to supplement this release and no deleted scenes or a really great interview with the director. There is exclusive to the Blu-Ray release that delecious opening IMAX scene which looks incredible at 1080p. I watched it literally seconds before I had to leave the house to see The Dark Knight.

rating: 3.5

OVERALL Before The Dark Knight, unquestionably the greatest Batman story ever told on screen. An absolute stunning Blu-Ray release, Gotham particularly comes alive in this format like never before. If you own a Blu-Ray player and HD TV, then I can't imagine you not wanting this your collection.