criterionforum.org

From Digital Bits:

Well... Warner's finally gone and done it. They've officially announced the DVD release of Batman Begins for 10/18, as we've been expecting. You'll be able to buy a single-disc regular edition (SRP $28.98) and a 2-disc Deluxe Edition (SRP $30.97). Each will include the film in anamorphic widescreen video (2.40:1), with English and French Dolby Digital 5.1 audio. We believe there will be a full frame version of the regular edition as well.

We don't have all the details yet, but we do know that the 2-disc Batman Begins: Deluxe Edition will feature 8 documentaries (including Genesis of the Bat: Batman Incarnations from the Mid-1980s to the Present, The Journey Begins: Creative Concepts, Story Development and Casting, Shaping Mind and Body: Fighting Style, Gotham City Rises: Production Design, Cape and Cowl: The New Batsuit, The Tumbler: The New Batmobile, Path to Discovery: Filming in Iceland and Saving Gotham City: The Monorail Chase Sequence), several Confidential Files featurettes (broken into Characters and Weaponry), an interactive Inner Demons comic book, theatrical trailers, a photo gallery, Easter eggs and DVD-ROM features (including a Batman Begins "mobile game demo"). The set will also include an exclusive 72-page comic book containing 3 reprinted issues/stories that influenced the film (including Detective Comics #37, Batman: The Man Who Falls and Batman: The Long Halloween). There's no word yet on possible audio commentary, and additional extras are likely TBA.

And from DVD Answers

Batman Begins
Starring: Christian Bale
Released: 18th October 2005
SRP: $28.98 & $30.97

Warner has officially announce two editions of Batman Begins which stars Christian Bale, Katie Holmes, Gary Oldman and Liam Neeson. Both the single-disc, and double-disc deluxe DVD's will be available to own from the 18th October this year. The single-disc should retail at around $28.98, whereas the two-disc edition should set you back around $30.97. Both discs will carry a 2.40:1 anamorphic widescreen presentation, along with English and French Dolby Digital 5.1 tracks. The only extras on the single-disc will be a Batman Begins Mobile Game Demo and some Weblinks. The two-disc deluxe edition will carry that, along with a Genesis of the Bat: Batman Incarnations from the Mid-1980s to the Present doc, a Journey Begins: Creative Concepts, Story Development and Casting featurette, a Shaping Mind and Body: Fighting Style featurette, a Gotham City Rises: Production Design featurette, a Cape and Cowl: The New Batsuit featurette, and another featurette on the new Batmobile. Completing the package will be a Path to Discovery: Filming in Iceland featurette, aanother featurette on the Monorail Chase Sequence, a Confidential Files Character/Weapons Gallery, an exclusive 72-page comic book containing the very first Batman story, a Batman: The Man Who Falls feature on the classic story that inspired the film, and a chilling excerpt entitled Batman: The Long Halloween that also inspired the film. We're also expecting an audio commentary to be included too, although that wasn't confirmed within the initial press release.

Cover art for both releases are on the link above. Amazon.com is currrently pre-ordering the deluxe edition for the same price as the regular release.

2 dollar and change difference between the two? as crazy as the Life Aquatic difference. Another example of swinging for the Walmart audience as well as the fanbase?

I don't know anymore. Walmart carries the two-disc edition of The Life Aquatic, as well as Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (no kidding!). The single disc edition issue baffles me. Maybe they're just overcharging the people who buy less?

The single disc edition issue baffles me. Maybe they're just overcharging the people who buy less?

I've been thinking about this and I've came up with this answer. Working at Longs where we rent DVDs we only get the single disc editions of DVDs mostly because the single disc editions are cheaper meaning that we can get more copys to rent. About a week ago I was in Hollywood Video looking around at the used DVDs and again I saw only single disc used copys of The Life Aquatic and Constantine for sale so I asked one of the workers about what he thought about it. Not only did he say the same thing that I thought about that if the single disc is cheaper you can take more copys, but he also pointed out that if rental stores that sell off their used stock only take the single disc versions, it makes anyone whom wants the 2 disc The Life Aquatic new or have to hunt it down used some other way. So pretty much I think that their only making single disc editions of stuff like The Life Aquatic for rental stores.
As for Batman Begins I hope the DVD does have the audio commentary, but it looks as if the documentaries will make up for it if it doesn't.

THX1378 wrote:As for Batman Begins I hope the DVD does have the audio commentary, but it looks as if the documentaries will make up for it if it doesn't.

I gotta say I'm an audio commentary guy. This is the kind of movie where I have a lot of questions about why scenes were shot a certain way, or certain choices were made. Documentaries spend a lot of time generalizing about the way a movie was made, and then they just break it down into who was hired to do what. It's flashy and fun, but sitting down a filmmaker and making him watch his/her own film seems to be the best way to get them to open up on specifics. IMO, anyway

The HD-DVD of "Batman Begins" has been out for a month now.

Can anyone here rate the commentary? It's such a pleasure to hear Nolan, this time he's also joined by Bale.

Also, spare a thought on the In Movie Experience (IME) feature that WB is promoting on HD releases.

Personally, I don't like audio-commentaries (except for light-weight fare like Hellraiser II). Generally speaking, if I haven't watched a movie for a while, I usually want to sit down and watch it properly. If I have just watched a movie recently, I don't want to sit down and watch the whole thing again just get information that can usually be conveyed in a short making-of.

I've recently decided that my favourite types of extra-features (aside from things like 'extended cuts,' DTS sound, restored picture, etc.) are well-done production notes with galleries, or 'interactive essays' (an example being the section on Herrman's score in the Criterion Devil & Daniel Webster) because they allow one to navigate the subject matter at one's own pace. Skim (rather than 'skip') over the boring parts, look at an interesting image for as long as you want, etc. etc. (unfortunately, I think Criterion are the only ones doing the kinds of features I'm talking about. Anchor Bay does produce some very interesting 'production notes,' but they're all text, which doesn't really take advantage of the DVD medium and gets rather tedious after a while.) The Master Of Cinema booklets are a similar example of the kind of thing I'm talking about (thoroughly enjoyed being able to read through the Faust booklet, at 5:00am, after I'd watched the film, without having to sit down and commit to watching any full-length documentaries or interviews (pity about the transfer-problems on that DVD, though.)

While I agree that a director's commentary will usually serve to highlight things which are ordinarily missed, purely in terms of the potential for any special-feature, that can be just as easily (and more effectively) addressed in a really in-depth documentary (perhaps DVD producers should start having documentaries which focus on one sequence at a time.)

A Limited Edition Giftset in SD and Blu-Ray has been announced for the third quarter of 2008

dx23 wrote:A Limited Edition Giftset in SD and Blu-Ray has been announced for the third quarter of 2008

Source? I looked up DVD Active and The Bits, but they do not carry this announcement yet.

a.khan wrote:

dx23 wrote:A Limited Edition Giftset in SD and Blu-Ray has been announced for the third quarter of 2008

Source? I looked up DVD Active and The Bits, but they do not carry this announcement yet.

The WB 85th Anniversary Press Release.

July 8th is the date for the Blu-Ray release of Batman Begins:

Warner Home Video will release Batman Begins on Blu-ray Disc July 8 (prebook June 3) in anticipation of the July 18 theatrical release of its sequel, The Dark Knight. The HD DVD version of the movie is one of the fading format’s top sellers.

Two Blu-ray editions are in the works: a single-disc version at $28.99, and as part of a limited-edition gift set at $49.99. The gift set also includes a Batman Begins motion art lenticular, exclusive photos, script pages, storyboards, five collectible Batman Begins postcards and $7.50 in movie cash toward a Dark Knight ticket. Both the standalone version and gift set Blu-ray releases include an exclusive comic book prologue to The Dark Knight.

Warner also will re-release Batman Begins on DVD, re-packaged as a $39.92 gift set that includes a 128MB Batman flash drive, the collectible postcards and movie cash. A Warner spokesperson said the DVD includes all the content from the 2005 two-disc special edition DVD set.

The critically acclaimed Batman Begins, directed by Christopher Nolan and starring Christian Bale as Batman, grossed more than $205 million at the domestic box office and was overwhelmingly selected as the greatest superhero movie of all time in an AgentDVD.com poll, earning 40% of the votes.

I have to ask for those that have the HD DVD version, is it a huge improvement over the DVD? I'm not double-dipping on hi-def titles (except for the Kubricks and Blade Runner since they were upgrading from the lackluster original DVDs) but seeing this for $9.99 in places is tempting.

I haven't seen the SD DVD, but I'd say for 10 bucks this is a film worth having on HD. Looks and sounds fantastic.

If you can find one for $9.99 like I did used cdnchris then I would pick it up. I was one of the people that thought that the SD looked flat. The HD version looks very robust and the shadow detail looks great. The downside is that the In Movie Experience isn't what it's cracked up to be. It's a retread of most of the information that you would find on the second disc of the two disc set. I get that you want this for the film and not the extras, so I would say you can't go wrong for $9.99 if you can find it for that price used.

Out of curiosity, was anything said about the Burton films on Blu-Ray?

-BJ

Buttery Jeb wrote:Out of curiosity, was anything said about the Burton films on Blu-Ray?

It was mentioned in the other Batman thread that they were also going to be released in the third quarter of '08.

I was hoping for new supplements like a Nolan-Bale commentary. But this limited giftset (excl. the blu-ray, which begs purchase on its video/audio merits alone) is a huge disappointment. I mean, why the hell would I want a 128mb flash drive? WB is milking it.

The Bits posted the box art for the upcoming Limited Gift Set [blu-ray].

Does it come with a box of cereal

My vote goes w a special edition of Count Chocula (they look similar anyhow) w little marshmallow bats... fortified with vitamin achtung.