Blu-ray Movie Reviews

Batman Begins is not only the best Batman film ever produced, and arguably the best superhero movie ever, but it was one of the best films of 2005.

With a perfect cast, a good script, and the sure hand of director Christopher Nolan (Memento, The Prestige) at the helm, the film is both great fantasy and great drama—a rare combination. It starts the Batman saga off from the beginning (as you might assume from the title) and immediately renders most of the previous Batmedia forgettable.

The standard DVD was decent, but this new HD DVD wipes the floor with it. It's simply one of the best high definition discs released so far. The detail and sharpness are superb but never exaggerated; grain and noise are kept in check even in the darkest scenes (and there a lot of dark scenes in this film), the colors look real, and the image pops with depth and dimensionality.

As good as the video transfer is here, the sound may be even better. Even the Dolby Digital Plus track I auditioned (there's also a Dolby TrueHD lossless mix available) is superbly clean, with a huge soundstage and wide dynamic range. It also has some of the deepest bass you'll find on any high definition disc, deeper in fact than on any other title reviewed here. But unless all the planets are aligned (a great sub, great room, and the right positioning of the sub and listener) you may not entirely appreciate it. For example, in the first meeting between Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) and Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman) in Lucius' office/warehouse there's a pervasive, low level, very deep and ominous rumble. It didn't appear to relate to anything obvious on screen, but my guess is that it was meant to suggest the rumble of machinery in the background.

Kudos, also, to the recording of the Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard score (an odd pairing, that). It's one of the most majestic, and majestically recorded, scores I've heard in some time. The brass, in particular, has a genuine weight that is all too rare in recordings of any sort.

They even managed to squeeze in an impressive number of useful extras to accompany this 140-minute film. All told, this is a must-have HD DVD.

(Picture: 9.5 (out of 10), Sound: 9.0, Film: 9.0)