Batman Begins: Dark Cut

Finally got around to watching this,

When the thread was still going on about the edits I couldn’t wait for it, but for some reason I just downloaded and impatiently skipped to the newly edited things.

But after taking some time to watch it I must agree with everyone else here: this is a tremendous fanedit.
From a technical standpoint there are almost no problem (except at the end the new batmobile lines were a little low and the scene with Rachel at the end had noticeable louder music, but that’s just nitpicking) and the only things that detract from this edit are my personal opinions.

I love Batman Begins, I love extensive driving on the top of roofs, I love the fact that Gordon and Batman work together at the end since Gordon until then never had a shining role in Batman movies

But personal preferences aside: does this edit work?

Yes it does. Not having Gordon is my problem, the new take works as well as the original, it changes the mood of course, but it works nevertheless, same goes for the shortened chase sequence, I’m pretty sure that if you’ve never seen Begins you won’t notice the edits.

Katie Holmes’s voice works in 98% of the cases, only when the original voice tries to talk in a deep voice the new pitch sounds a bit awkward. A lot of cringy Rachel lines are thankfully gone as well and most of the things you don’t even miss.

Will this replace my DVD? No

But it is a very good alternate take on the source material: 8/10

Batman Begins: Dark Cut by JMB

review by boon23

Prologue:
I have been involved in the discussion of this project since it was announced a long time ago. I am also probably the only FE member who has watched the first release of this fanedit as it was sent to me by jmb. It was a fullscreen version, but it blew me away and I was patiently waiting for the final widescreen release with all the cool changes and improvements. JMB is one of the most devoted faneditors I have ever met. On the way to this release he went through so much fault and error, yet he never gave up and I have a huge respect for that.
I consider BATMAN BEGINS a great movie and more consistent and thrilling than DARK KNIGHT. This is not always the best premises for watching a fanedit that is supposed to even improve on the original, but because I knew the first version, I was aware that it was indeed possible.

As for all my reviews: this is just my personal opinion of this fanedit. I cannot tell anybody else, if he or she will experience it in the same way or the opposite. So my review is not objective and does not reflect the opinion of fanedit.org.

!!!!This review contains heavy spoilers!!!

The edit:
There are so many small but important changes to the movie that it is unnecessary to list them all, just that they work marvelously. Just 2 of many examples: Ken Watanabe’s appearance is a lot improved. The dock fight is so much more powerful and the lame one-liners are never missed at all. JMB managed to give a lot more depth to this movie and I enjoyed watching it for the most part.
The idea to not have Gordon drive the Bat mobile was well done and worked well, yet to me the entire final battle scene felt more flat than it was in the original. The panic over Gotham did not get to me so much, I was less thrilled and somehow pulled out of the movie.
The voices from the game did not work too well for me.
Rachel’s deeper voice is a very nice idea, however at some points she sounds artificial and there are several scenes, when an audio change (as if switching from mono to stereo) can be heard.
To me the edit was great for about 105 minutes and lost a lot of its drive in the last 15 minutes. Still it is an awesome job.

editing: 8 of 10 (beautifully edited, but the finale of the original had to me a lot more impact)
entertainment: 7 of 10 (original 9 of 10)(I love the original movie and although this one has many improvements, I will still rather watch the original).

Image and video quality:
The image quality is perfect and there are no hard cuts at all in the movie. The entire editing was done with an incredible amount of care and considering the huge changes a piece of art.
Video quality: 10 of 10

Audio editing and audio quality:
The audio was unfortunately a problem at times as mentioned above. The change of Rachel’s voice did not work perfectly IMO and lead to some occasions that pulled me out of the movie. The game voices did not match the movie voices. There are a few scenes, where an audio channel switch is noticeable. But for 95% of the edit the audio is perfect and it was a great effort to make this possible.
audio editing: 8 of 10
sound quality: 9 of 10
resulting in a 9 of 10 for overall audio

presentation:
It’s an avi and it looks great. Cover art is attached and the info given is very detailled. The DVD will come with a few nice extras and animated menus. The beginning was altered and the end credits were self created, looked great and were perfectly synced with the music.

This results in a 10 of 10 rating from me for presentation.

Final result: 8 of 10 (because I do not rate a fanedit more than 1 point higher or lower than its entertainment to me).

This is hereby approved for fanedit.org.
Thanks, jmb, for creating and releasing it. We have been waiting for this for a long time and it’s a really nice fanedit. Recommended.

The little things that bugged me about Batman Begins are almost all gone.

I really enjoyed this edit as it removed the silly parts, eg Gordon driving the batmobile, "gotta get me one of those" line, the rasta man, etc. I'm with Neglify with the voice change though. At first I liked it, but then it became very distracting.

Audio/Video: The quality is great, the menu is great, it's great. 10/10

Visual Editing:
Almost everything is smooth, but some of the cuts were a bit choppy/quick, eg. Rachel during her first conversation with Bruce/Batman. The video editing made her responses to quick imho. Also, the insert of a sniper was a bit jarring to me. Other than these examples, I really enjoyed your visual editing. Editing out the rooftop chase, the added drugged effects to Rachel's perception of batman during the chase and the mobile batmobile ui were great! The video editing was done very well. 9/10

Audio Editing:
Rachel's new voice is a little inconsistent as Neglify states. I liked it during the initial viewing of this edit, mostly for the novelty effect. But, after viewing this edit about 4 or 5 times, the voice just isn't working for me anymore. Other than the voice, the rest of the audio editing is superb. 7/10

Narrative:
The story is played out pretty much the same as the original source. The only narrative changes come by way of Rachel and Bruce's relationship, which I feel wasn't necessary. The kiss at the end is even more awkward to me as they jump in emotion so quickly, almost akin to anakin and padme in sw2. The sniper was an interesting idea, but I thought the original narrative made Falcony more dangerous and menacing, ala Bane's men willing to die for him without thought. I also missed Rachel saying "Bruce?". I think this line is key to the scene. She isn't saying "bruce is batman" she's just exclaiming naturally as a person would. No insult to the audiences intelligence here imho. The narrative did uphold Batman's no gun rule for all the purists out there. I'm giving it 7/10 because of minute changes that I personally didn't care for and/or thought added awkwardness to characters and pacing.

Enjoyment:
Initial enjoyment was a solid 9/10. Returning enjoyment is an 8/10 due to narrative changes and Rachel's new voice. I still watch this version if I'm going to watch Batman Begins simply for the no rooftop chase and no Gordon driving the batmobile editing alone. Thanks for the edit! I'd recommend this to all Batman Begins fans.

The first time I saw BATMAN BEGINS was when the family rented the film when it came out on DVD in 2005. I had grown up on Bruce Timm’s animated Batman series, and that’s where my interest in the character stemmed from. My thoughts back then: Scarecrow freaked me out, Katie Holmes was hot, and Bale made a decent if unremarkable Batman. A few years later, after THE DARK KNIGHT was released, I re-visited BEGINS and found it lacking. I no longer had a crush on Katie Holmes, and while I loved the more fantastical elements like Bruce’s ninja-training and the fear gas, the film dropped the ball too many times and was a disappointing start to Christopher Nolan’s set of Bat-films.

My problems? The overplayed ‘mwa-ha-ha’ villainy during Bruce’s training, low-brow humour (guy looking in coffee cup, “nice coat”, etc), unsubtle dialogue between Crane and Rachel, Holmes seemed too young to play such a mature character… and my biggest gripe: the film entered dumbass-American-action-movie mode too often. Too much wanton destruction and a goofy climax which saw Jim Gordon take control of the Tumbler to help out our hero.

To my delight, JMB’s DARK CUT addressed practically every issue I had with the film. I had to check it out.

A lot of work obviously went into this fan-edit, and mad props to the editor for being so sensible and creative! Removing the young Bruce’s goofiest moment (waving back at Rachel) made that scene much more human. The inserted footage of a sniper shooting Joe Chill blended right in with perfect colour correction, and the vfx added to the shots from the drugged Rachel’s POV worked a treat, adding another dimension to the chase scene (which Nolan really should’ve done in the first place). Lots of little annoyances (such as Falcone’s corny dialogue when he meets Bruce, or Rachel being bitchy to Bruce on his birthday) were removed. I was shocked initially to hear Katie Holmes’ new voice, but I quickly got used to it. She suddenly sounded mature… and sexy! Awesome idea and execution. I didn’t miss a single cut gag, and to boot the best ones (“a black… tank” and a number of Alfred’s lines) were left in.

The one cut that drove me to download the DARK CUT was the removal of Gordon from the climax, and I must say, it put much better emphasis on the struggle between Ra’s and Batman, how the pupil had surpassed the teacher. Good stuff. The one problem with this change was that after Batman gives Gordon a fear toxin antidote, Gordon disappears for the film’s ending. A bit irksome, but the trade-off for a straight-faced and believable climax was worth it. The reworked ending, with the call-back to Rachel and Bruce’s childhood, was touching and framed their relationship well.

A few problems showed up along the way. The aforementioned conversation should’ve had more dialogue cut, I felt. As it stands, Bruce tells Rachel that he was a coward when he was younger, then says that justice is about more than revenge (an idea that’s communicated well enough through the narrative, anyway). She then tells him that deep down, he may still be that same great kid she knew. I feel this conversation would flow better if it went straight from Bruce claiming he was a coward as a young man, to Rachel contradicting his sentiment by praising the younger Bruce. Finally, the credits made for a damp squib of an ending. The pieces of text were huge and seemed slightly off-sync with the music at moments. I also didn’t appreciate not getting a full credits sequence.

What could’ve been cut that wasn’t? The original film suffered from too many call-backs, I think, and these eventually got tiring and were a cheap way of stirring emotion and communicating themes to the audience. For example, Thomas’ stethoscope or Alfred’s cliche “why do we fall?”. Deciding which call-backs could be cut would require some amount of analysis. But the one moment that is referenced twice: Bruce sacrificing his footing for a killing stroke. Ra’s Al Ghul announces that Bruce never learned to mind his surroundings later in the film, and this is referenced again at what should be the film’s most powerful moment – the death of Ra’s. The second reference just isn’t necessary, considering the tension it drains. The one edit that should’ve been reconsidered, IMO, was the removal of Ra’s telling Bruce that the League of Shadows tried to destroy Gotham using economics. (I like the implication that the League’s efforts to ruin the city began long ago, and that perhaps they inadvertently contributed to Gotham’s current economic woes.)

Two edits I would’ve liked to see included in this DARK CUT (perhaps in a future release?) were the removal of the romantic tension between Rachel and Finch (if only because she hooks up with another co-worker in THE DARK KNIGHT) and some alteration of the scene where Loeb is interrogated by Batman. I admit that Bale’s Batman brought the lulz a lot in his second outing, but not so much in BEGINS… except for this scene. He’s intense, laughably intense. If the image were distorted, some of Batman’s shaking would be lost – maybe the shots of Batman from Loeb’s POV, when he’s hanging upside down, could’ve been flipped vertically.

Editing 9/10
There were a few head-scratcher moments (eg. a shot was used twice over a short period, with the footage reversed the second time), but overall it was a professional and clean job, with no awkward transitions or flashing frames.

Video 9/10
The quality was acceptable for an avi.

Audio 10/10
I had no problems, really. The added video game dialogue worked fine and patched up the narrative admirably.

Overall 9/10
DARK CUT is just the edit BATMAN BEGINS needed to sit alongside THE DARK KNIGHT. And I’d say that with JMB’s help, BEGINS manages to eclipse even the latter. A stellar job.

Batman Begins: Dark Cut by JMB
review by blueyoda

Prologue:
Let me begin by saying that I only saw Batman Begins once. I’m one of the few who was annoyed by the movie. Although it was undeniably the best, most faithful adaptation of the comic book ever commited to screen in terms of tone, some things irked me enough that I never felt the need to see it a second time; Kathy Holmes’ atrocious performance and Batman’s cluelessness being two major points.

I am a huge fan of the Batman, mostly because of the comic book; The Dark Knight Returns, Year One and The Killing Joke are the “definitive” comics that left their mark on me when I was younger and shaped my idea of who Batman is and why he does what he does. I was really hoping that movie would capture the essence of what has made Batman such an enduring character for more than 70 years and although it succeeded in many aspects like the music, lighting and overall mood it let me down so hard on other, much more important elements like Bruce Wayne’s whole character arc and the way he becomes Batman that I never went back to it. This edit completely changes that.

The edit:
There are many, many small changes in this movie that completely change our perception of it. Batman is a much leaner, much more focused and dangerous character than in the theatrical version of the movie. I remember not thinking much of the dock fight in the theater but here the scene is incredibly effective, almost playing out like a horror movie. Batman is now a force of vengeance, the symbol Liam Neeson taught him to be, a shadow from which no criminal is safe. Like the best boogeymen in movies he is unseen but terrifying and from then on it is clearly established that this is a man who has become “more than a man”. He has become fear itself.

One of the biggest change in this edit is to Kathy Holmes’ character. JMB, in a stroke of genius, has altered her voice in every single one of her lines of dialog to make her sound deeper and more intelligent. Gone is the giggly cheerleader voice that took me out of the movie and made me cringe at every single one of her appearances; her character now has depth. Saying her character is improved would be a gross understatement; her performance is completely transformed into something that, not only no longer sticks out like a sore thumb, but is actually believable and up to par with the other great performances in the movie. This is truly the essence of fanediting; being able to think outside of the box to create a better viewing experience for the audience.

The other major change is the Batmobile. It now has a life of its own, quite litterally; Gordon no longer drives it at the end, it drives itself. Like Batman, it has become much more dangerous and is now a symbol of fear, becoming more than just a vehicle. It is now a monstruous beast, Batman’s faithful stead born out of the same darkness and who’ll follow him thru hell. I cannot underline how big an effect this change makes to Batman’s character who is now completely in control of the situation. No longuer dependant on other’s collaboration, Batman knows exactly what he’s doing and you better not stand in his way.

Editing: 10 of 10 – Seamless. No lost frames, not hard cuts and a much tighter movie and it is hard to believe this is a firstling effort.
entertainment: 9 of 10 - see below.

Image and video quality:
Perfect image quality. If the avi looks this good, this will simply look stunning on DVD.
Video quality: 10 of 10

Audio editing and audio quality:
I did not notice the other reviewers’ qualms about the videogame audio used; everything flowed beautifully to me. Perhaps a second viewing would make me notice it but in the heat of seeing this new take so masterfully done, it has gone by unnoticed by this reviewer. One part, which only lasted a few seconds, could have been more “rounded” but it came and left so quickly that it didn’t have time to really draw me out of the movie.
audio editing: 9 of 10
sound quality: 9 of 10

Presentation:
The avi is as good as an avi can get. I did not care much for the end credits which to me felt a little too bold and in your face, giving it a TV feel, but by then the movie was over and this is honnestly just nitpicking.
9 of 10

Final result: 9 of 10

This is a replacement disc for me. This movie was enjoyed with someone who is not a fan of superhero movies and who had not seen Batman Begins. Typically she will talk endlessly during any movie that doesn’t draw her in but here she was silent the whole way thru – except during the dock fight when Batman takes out the first thug where she burst out in exitement: “You’re all f*cked!”.

This is the Batman I’ve always wanted to see on screen. The whole story now makes sense and respects its own plan laid out in the first part; for Bruce Wayne to instill fear into the hearts of criminals, he must become more than a man. He must become a symbol. Fear itself. And this is exactly what this edit achieves to make us believe. Batman Begins: The Dark Cut is now a movie worthy of its best source material and along with Donner’s Superman movies, one of the best superhero movies I’ve seen.