Batman Begins: Dark Cut

I was wanting to give this series a rewatch as this is my favorite version of Batman on the big screen. I have always felt that Begins was the strongest entry in the series (many people say TDK, but I've always prefered this). So I wasn't sure if it really needed an edit as aside from a line here or there, most things didn't bother me.

So as I was looking, I was checking the change list for different edits and this one really seemed different. I know it's not HD but it deserves and HD upgrade because this edit was AWESOME!

If I had to nit pick anything here I would say that the altered voice or Katie Holms was a little too artificial here and there and should have been pulled back some.

This edit is very much worth a watch!

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

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

I will start off with saying that I am not one of the people who was enamored with Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins. When I first saw it, I didn’t think it was all that captivating, thought the batmobile was atrocious, and missed the mystaire that Tim Burton’s Batman brought. But then, it’s a generational thing. A lot has come and gone in film since 1989, as well as in the audience’s preference.

I have come to appreciate it as a film, as I really enjoyed The Dark Knight. In retrospect, I think it undertook something that was very difficult, in bringing believability to a real life Batman. Especially after Batman Forever…

But I love this fanedit! It has definitely replaced the original as my preference for this story. The flow is tight, the action is strong, and the interest in the very convoluted story is fairly sustainable.
So, I give it 9/10 for effort.

The drawbacks I did not like are few, but kind of strong.

I really did not like the voice modulation for Katie Holmes. I could barely pay attention to what she was saying because it was so obvious. Not that I don’t think it was a good idea, but her voice is just so specific, it was hard to maintain the suspension of disbelief.

The biggest line for the description of this edit that stood out to me was “A more streamlined version of Batman Begins, with fewer cheesy jokes”. Then there was the ridiculous line Batman says about leaving a space for him to sign the check to pay for the damages to Gotham City. It was so corny! Right after he’s just left his mentor to die.

And has been brought up, there were a few scenes that seemed like the audio was not perfectly synced; though this was not as annoying as it sounds. (get it? sounds… never mind.)

Other than that, I was very impressed. I will definitely look forward to further work from JMB.
Great job, J!