Batman Begins: Dark Cut

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.

Years after discovering this edit, I STILL recommend it to anyone. This is a text-book example of fanediting at its finest. JMB had lofty goals and I will say he pulled it off completely. Character motivations are clearer, annoying dialogue is gone, Rachel's voice is now tolerable, and this has one of the best 3rd act endings I have ever seen from this site. I do wish an HD version would be made available though. This film is just THAT good!

A wonderful edit that does exactly what it sets out to do.

Altering Rachel's voice is ingenious. Nothing sets this edit apart more than her change in character. Such a small thing, yet a great effect. Overall, the audio editing is perfect. Adding the video game-lines works fine and helps sell the self-driving Batmobile. A slight change in audio fidelity is noticeable when the video game-lines are inserted, but if one is not listening for it...

The visual editing is great and all the inserted shots works fine, from the sniper to the HUD. All the trims feel justified and are not done for the sake of trimming.

I think Batman Begins is a good movie, but JMB's Dark Cut tightens and makes it great.

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! :)

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