Batman Begins: Dark Cut

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Overall rating
 
9.6
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9.0
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Batman Begins has become a wildly-underrated movie in the wake of the character's later success. People often remember Keaton's first Batman film as being what defined the character, but when you watch it, there's still a lot of silliness and very little explanation for who the character is or what grounds him. It was THIS film that did the work of creating the modern Batman, and all films since have been living off the dividends. So I did not in any way need an "improved" version of it, though I was happy to give this edit a shot. (Full thoughts on the film here: https://boxd.it/3rjubD )

The largest defining feature of this edit will be for those who just have a hate-on for Katie Holmes. If you cannot buy a powerful lawyer with a cutesy face and a high voice, then this fixes that. I actually very much enjoy Holmes and had no issue with her, BUT it does make the altered portrayal in The Dark Knight tough. I mean, I know who I'd rather jump off a building for, but if you want them to seem like the same character, the voice alteration here does help.

What surprised me were all the other trims. Coming off the back of the '90s Batman films, this one was far and away the most serious and grounded ever. It's only again, after The Dark Knight, that elements of humor or suspension of disbelief stand out. However, we do now have TDK, so I have to admit it's better to not have Gordon in The Batmobile, to not have wanton explosive use and city destruction. The edits are all very solid and make the film better.

I did have to dock one point for the ending (spoilers?), which cuts out a vitally important line from Holmes' character. I have to assume that the faneditor's distaste for Holmes blinded him here, but the film's narrative hangs on it. The ending of this is a great tragic ending suitable for Batman, because he actually has become the man his father would be proud of. And his childhood love now knows and loves him for it, and there's nothing to stop them from being together. Except that she knows that he's sacrificed being a normal person, being able to turn off...he's now consumed by being Batman and there isn't any room left for a real Bruce Wayne, or for her. Her line about "Batman is the real you and Bruce Wayne is the mask." was the first time this was defined on film, even though it's been a staple in the comics for years. Without this line, it doesn't make sense that they go their separate ways, and it's also something that Bruce is just realizing at that moment, so the audience needs to SEE him realize it.

That one ending change aside, this is far and away a better film, and my preferred choice for re-watching. The edit is quite old and the file is lower quality by recent standards, so don't expect a crystal image. But it's very worth adding to your fanedit library, until someone does an updated version of it.

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Overall rating
 
9.4
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9.0
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10.0
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10.0
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9.0
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9.0
WARNING: I have not seen this movie in about a year, I don't normally watch this movie as I don't really like it that much

This edit makes the movie significantly better, the changes made to the film are very subtle but improve the story drastically. The edit is called "the dark cut" and it does exactly what you would expect: it makes the movie darker. By removing campy humour, silly lines, and strange writing/directing-related decisions (looking at Gordon driving the batmobile). JMB also has done a great job at changing Rachel's voice in order to improve her (awful) acting.

Video/Audio quality was fine, nothing wrong that I noticed. Visual editing was great, cool effects with the batmobile's GPS/AI interface. Audio editing was superb, Rachel's voice was amazing and video game lines were perfectly integrated into the film. The narrative is now much better and flows quicker with more developed and less goofy characters making the story way more interesting.

I really enjoy this version of Batman Begins, it is now my go-to version of the movie if I ever feel like watching the movie. Good work, JMB! :)

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Yes
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Overall rating
 
9.4
Audio/Video Quality
 
9.0
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10.0
Visual Editing
 
10.0
Narrative
 
9.0
Enjoyment
 
9.0
Foreword: I haven't seen the original in sometime, which prefer for watching edits and I also didn't review your changes ahead of watching, which I also prefer. I looked at the edit list back when I downloaded the edit, but I like to not know exactly what I'm walking into so I don't watch an edit for a few months or more after downloading them.

What I liked: It did feel darker, but I wouldn't say it felt more batman. There are so many version of batman, that, yes it felt more like a dark batman but not the "true" batman. I really thought everything flowed after the first 30 or so min. I Also, like how you repeat the childhood scenes throughout the movie, much better than I remember the original doing this. I also, thought batman seemed more put together with your version than what I remembered the first time watching.

What I didn't: I think my only complaint coming into this not familiar with the original (meaning I hadn't seen it in years) was that the beginning felt a little rushed and jumpy compared to the remaining 3/4 of the movie which I thought was overly clear. I also thought some of the humor left in felt more out of place than it did in the original since I remember one liners being through the movie. And my last thing is I had thought the movie would be streamlined a little more down to say 90, not a big deal, I just remembered a lot of filler in from the original that I thought wasn't needed, so this last thing is more me than necessary.

Overall: I really liked this, but I think it might have made the point more to put things in more linear, start with this childhood (you did some), then flash forward to the court room stuff, and then after he disappears start with him in prison and such.

Extra: This edit would benefit from a re-encode from the source material, also you should include the commentary on the avi, as extra audio tracks are very easy to embed.

Great work

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Yes
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Overall rating
 
8.8
Audio/Video Quality
 
10.0
Audio Editing
 
8.0
Visual Editing
 
8.0
Narrative
 
9.0
Enjoyment
 
9.0
for people who fanedit and like to watch fanedits their number one reason for doing so is to re-watch a film with a different experience to when they first saw the film. i fondly recall seeing the batman begins at the cinema for whatever reason i didn't rush to see it but instead saw the last screening of it. they was just me and a mother with her two sons at the front but i remember just being blown away with what i saw and that ending which led us into the sequel i still believe to be one of the best endings to a film i've seen. so of course i bought it and fast forward some years later and i'm looking to re-watch the series i thought why not try a fanedit version.

the problem with this trilogy is that it has to pander to the summer blockbuster audience so often these films have humor that seems so out of place. thank god this edit cuts this out (the homeless guy and the jacket) though the cuts made are all done very well because i've seen this film a few times now it often took me out of the film (i didn't read the cut list before hand) but this happens a lot with fanedits and is in no way a negative against JMB.

so the big selling point is the voice change to Rachel, for me it's not a major concern when i first saw the original but obviously for JMB it was. so doe's it work? strangle enough i found it doe's, while cuts may have took me out of the film the new voice i found fits perfectly. i'm sure the more times i re-watch the edit the more i'll pick up the imperfections. i pretty sure you could show this edit it any casual fan and they wouldn't know the difference until you told them at the end.

the only change to the story that i feel didn't work was removing Gordon from the Batmobile. while it's done really well and to a degree i myself didn't like his involvement on repeated viewings, his removal here impacts on the characters final. overall i just felt that why did batman want gordon to have the antidote. in the original batman of course needs gordon but here it just seems like batman saves gordon and rachael but to hell with everyone else. now all gordon doe's is knock-out / chain his work college so he doesn't kill anyone.

overall i say this is a really good fanedit, it takes what was a very good film and improves certain aspects to it. i'm not sure when it comes to re-watching batman begins again that i'll go back to this version but i can say that i enjoyed watching edit and would recommend it to anyone who would like to see a different take on batman begins

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(Updated: August 25, 2012)
Overall rating
 
9.6
Audio/Video Quality
 
10.0
Audio Editing
 
10.0
Visual Editing
 
10.0
Narrative
 
9.0
Enjoyment
 
9.0
Definitely my preferred version of Batman Begins.

Technical quality – 10/10 – Great!

Editing – 10/10 – Sometimes I forgot I was watching a FanEdit, which is, in this case a good thing. I just got into the story and didn’t notice any cuts that took me out of it.

Presentation – 10/10 – No problems here.

Entertainment – 9/10 – I loved the redone scene of Chill’s shooting, the added dialogue, the changes to Katie Holmes’ voice, the trimming of unnecessary humor, the little blond kid being gone, and the changes to the Tumbler chase. Basically, I liked all of your cuts except for one: Gordon not driving the Tumbler. One thing I loved about Batman Begins is the fact that Gordon’s isn’t utterly useless like in the 90′s series. I liked how he was involved in the climax. Now it’s just a GPS and isn’t explained terribly well. I was also hoping you’d keep the “I’ve got to get me one of those” line. So I’m taking one star off the entertainment factor.

Overall – 9/10
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