DVD Review


BATMAN BEGINS (Limited Edition Gift Set)

By: Robert T. Trate
Review Date: Saturday, July 19, 2008

To start, the C rating is for Warner Brothers new Batman Begins Limited Edition Gift Set. The actual film, Batman Begins, is a Mania grade A film. Christopher Nolan’s approach to Batman was a godsend compared to the butchering done by Batman and Robin director Joel Schumacher. Nolan made a film that returned to a darker Batman and placed him in the real world. Now, when the Batman logo appears at the movie theater it causes a stir of excitement not gasp of dread. The following is the review of Warner Brothers new Limited Edition Gift Set.
 
The DVD itself is identical to the Batman Begins two-disc deluxe edition from 2005, right down to the UPC code. Placing the two side by side made this evident. Included are movie post cards from Batman Begins, which are great for all of about ten seconds until they either fall out or impede your attempt at placing the DVD back into its special edition box. 
 
Sadly, the 72- page comic book that was included in the 2005 deluxe edition has been omitted. It featured stories by Bob Kane, Dennis O’Neil and Jeph Loeb. In its place is a Flash Drive of 18 Dark Knight high resolution images. Great for those who like to use Photoshop, but none of the images included are exclusive to the Flash Drive. A quick web search will turn up the exact same images. The comic should have been reissued or included as a digital comic on the Flash Drive. After all, what better marketing is there for Batman movies than its original source material?
 
The lure is supposed to be the sneak peek disc for The Dark Knight. More than a trailer, it is two minutes of action, story and totally worth watching. The last 3 seconds alone are everything a Batman fan would want. However, this disc should not have been exclusive to this DVD. Warner Brothers has all the rights attached to any DVD title tied to the character of Batman. This sneak peek disc should have been released with Birds of Prey: The Complete Series, , Batman - Gotham Knight (Two-Disc Collector's Edition) and The Batman - The Complete Fifth Season, all of which were also released this month. , all of which were also released this month. 
 
If you are looking to upgrade to Blu-Ray version the Batman Begins (Limited Edition Gift Set) is perfect. It features The Dark Knight prologue footage that is not on the standard edition. The Blu-Ray DVD also has a sixteen page comic book adaptation of the first six minutes of The Dark Knight. This is better than the 128MB Flash Drive (not included with the Blu-Ray edition) of pictures easily found on the internet.
 
 

Batman has been good to Warner Brothers over the years. If they were going to go out and re-release Batman Begins they should have either added something to the film or included new special features, commentary would have been nice. The movie cash to see The Dark Knight and the sneak peak DVD are nice perks but really not enough to buy Batman Begins for the second time. If you feel the need to upgrade to Blu-Ray what better reason do you need?



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Comments/Responses
1
hanso • Jul 19, 2008, 05:24am •
I went for the single disc Blu Ray version of the film to see the Bat in all his HD glory.
3 things interested me from the deluxe blu ray version though, 1. the prologe 2. the flash drive 3. the $$ to see Dark Knight.
I decided on the single version though because the prologue is on you tube and I will have it when I but TDK blu ray, the flash drive isn't big enough and finally the price difference between the versions was bigger than the movie ticket that the deluxe version had.
Anyway, the single disc is on Amazon for $18, it's the cheapest I've seen.

Muldfeld • Jul 20, 2008, 11:36am •
Thanks for the review. Good to know I shouldn't replace my 2005 deluxe version. The odd thing was you had to look considerably harder to find this edition in stores. The single disc version was everywhere. it was almost like Warner didn't want you to buy it. By the way, I'm gonna wait at least a year before even attempting to buy blu ray. I remember DVD was pretty bad in the late '90s, and then DVD companies began remastering things and adding extras. I'll wait.

SinisterPryde • Jul 20, 2008, 02:08pm •
I bought the Gift-set even though I already own the two-disk edition. I got it from Best Buy so it came with an extra lenticular image (which was cool). Between the movie cash, the flash drive (I didn't own any) and the money from selling my other copy I came out pretty good on this deal.

Its interesting to note that the original four Batman movies seem to have gone out of print. My set (the original single disks) were unavailable to me for a time so I decided to upgrade to the two-disk sets. Only, those aren't available anymore and hard to find without spending a lot of money. (I finally found the box set for $40 at a local entertainment store). The first Batman alone sells on Amazon for over $40 used. (For the two-disk version).

Dazzler • Jul 21, 2008, 04:46am •
I like the 3d cover if this is it. That would be my only draw to it.

scytheofluna • Jul 21, 2008, 11:04am •
I bought the Blu Ray version. What gives with the lack of a flash drive for Blu Ray? I don't care about the preloaded pictures, but a Bat logo on a flash drive would have been sweet. I couldn't really care less about the comic. It's kind of redundant after seeing the footage for Dark Knight already included on the disc.

BryanWay • Jul 30, 2008, 03:25pm •
I didn't buy the old one and I'm not buying the new one either. I have almost no doubt that it'll be re-released yet again when The Dark Knight emerges on DVD. I'm banking on at least a trilogy of these new Batman movies, so in a few years I'll be able to plunk down on a series boxed set with way better special features and packaging whilst saving myself a hundred dollars racing around after the newest editions of both films.

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