Posted: Sunday 20th July 2008

Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) travels the world looking for ways to fight injustice after his parents were murdered when he was eight years old. After being invited to join an elite vigilante group known as the League of Shadows led by Ra’s al Ghul (Ken Watanabe), Bruce learns how to fight and overcomes his fear of bats. When he’s asked to execute a criminal, he can’t go through with it and burns down the League’s HQ before escaping back to Gotham City. Determined to fight the corruption in the city, Bruce creates his alter-ego Batman and with the help of his butler Alfred (Michael Caine), his childhood friend Rachel (Katie Holmes), detective Jim Gordon (Gary Oldman) and ally Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman), Bruce must stop Dr Jonathan Crane (Cillian Murphy) aka The Scarecrow from terrorising the people of Gotham. Unfortunately for Bruce, a face from his past is also about to catch up with him.

Batman Begins was originally released in 2005 and was a huge box-office success. It surprised everyone with its gritty take on the Batman story and managed to get the franchise back on track after the disastrous Batman and Robin. Now with The Dark Knight ready for release in the UK, Warner Bros are releasing Batman Begins for the first time on Blu-ray.

Blu-ray really enhances Batman Begins. The movie is very atmospheric and with the high-definition picture quality and incredible sound, the movie is almost as good as it was at the cinema.

The success of Batman Begins really lies in the casting of Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne and the direction from Christopher Nolan. Bale is perfect as the tortured Bruce Wayne and is completely believable in the role. On its theatrical release the movie was criticised for Katie Holmes’ performance as Bruce’s love interest Rachel Dawes. It’s fair to say she wasn’t the best actor in the movie but we don’t think she’s too bad.

The Blu-ray edition of Batman Begins is stuffed full of extras. Several featurettes take you behind-the-scenes on the movie and reveal all of its secrets. Unique to Blu-ray is the In-Movie Experience which utilises the Blu-ray feature BD Live. If you choose the option you can watch the movie with director Christopher Nolan explaining the backstories as you watch. This adds a whole new dimension to the movie. Also featured on the disc is the first six minutes from the new movie The Dark Knight.

Batman Begins is the strongest Batman film since the movie series began in 1989. Christopher Nolan has managed to inject some credibility into the series once again with Christian Bale matching Michael Keaton’s performance in the original movie. Batman Begins is everything you’d hope for from a superhero movie and is actually made for adults rather than kids. We can’t wait to see The Dark Knight.