Batman Begins: Dark Cut

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9.3
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9.5(17)
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9.2(17)
Visual Editing
 
9.6(17)
Narrative
 
9.1(14)
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9.0(46)
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(Updated: August 20, 2012)
Overall rating
 
9.3
Audio/Video Quality
 
9.0
Audio Editing
 
10.0
Visual Editing
 
9.0
Enjoyment
 
9.0
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.
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(Updated: August 20, 2012)
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7.0
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8.0
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10.0
I only watched the mp4, so I can’t comment on DVD menus or authoring or anything like this, aaand I wont write up a detailed review, since there are already plenty, but I just want to say GREAT JOB. Personally I love Batman Begins, never had a problem with anything in it, except maybe Katie Holmes. I didn’t think she was horrid, but she really wasn’t that great.
Still, the idea of deepening her voice intruiged me quite a bit.

I have to say I think you succeeded with that, though there were a few times I thought her voice was altered just a bit too much. On the other hand, most of the time it was PERFECT and really made her a better character.

I pretty much have the original memorized, but still none of the edits really stood out as being edits. There were a few times where in the back of my mind I realized something had been cut, but once again, nothing because of the editing, just ‘cuz I’ve seen the original quite a few times, and I did read the edit list before watching.
Although, that said, I do have to mention that the alteration on Rachel’s lines at the very end worked, though I think only just barely. I may have only noticed that the audio was spliced a bit because I was specifically looking to see how the lips matched with the line (Like I said, read the edit list).

All in all though I do have to say that this edit was fantastic. Really a worthy companion to the Batman Begins I have on my shelf.
Superb work, looking forward to seeing more edits in the future!
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(Updated: August 20, 2012)
Enjoyment
 
10.0
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