Batman Begins + The Dark Knight [Édition Limitée boîtier SteelBook]

Enough has of course been said on Christopher Nolan's achievements; in re-inventing this franchise and the comic book movie genre altogether! I had been a Batman 'fan' since I saw the Tim Burton & Joel Schumacher films when I was a child and Nolan's re-invention of the franchise proved why there are so many fans of this character still as teenagers and adults alike. Nolan showcases all the more adult problems and social questions that the Batman and other characters go through in this heightened reality; his suffering / pyschological trauma, isolation, difficult decisions he has to make, sacrifices and gritty reality of war and violent conflicts he undertakes. Influenced by the more intelligent, darker Batman comics (such as Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns and Alan Moore's The Killing Joke), Nolan gives us the more intelligent, serious and convincingly realistic superhero movie, which the Tim Burton films admirally paved the way for (especially stylistically), but fell short narratively.While as Batman Begins gives a great example of storytelling and character development, which we had never seen as fully before with the Batman character; The Dark Knight begins to ask more questions on the need of such a 'vigilante', as well as hinting at social issues in todays world and responsibilties of the media and government, which the Joker character pokes fun at whilst hinting at serious social attitudes, threat of terrorism & perceptions of the public to government. Heath Ledger's performance is legendary and deservedly so; it's no surprise that posters of the joker were on nearly every teenagers / students walls, as ledger's performance personifies (to immoral extremes) the anti-establishment rebel, highly self-confident, extrovert, free speaker and political / social activist that so many students / young people feel like being, to have their say, that sense of freedom and that the world is their oyster - we just forget for a moment that the character up on the wall goes to the extremes of also being a criminally insane, terrorist, homocidal psychopath, with a complete lack of order, morality, empathy or conscience for other human beings or the world around him (the antithesis of Batman).It is a great achievement in itself that Nolan created a superhero trilogy that was varied somewhat stylistically for each film, yet continued a masterful housestyle throughout and overall narratively and production-wise had so little flaws to mention. In Blu-ray the films unsurprisingly look and sound stunning and there are of course many interesting special features available for each film (although not as much as you might expect for The Dark Knight in comparison to Batman Begins). Overall I would highly recommend making the jump to Blu-ray with these films (if you somehow haven't already), as it's definitely well worth it!

I've never been a fan of comic books or particularly enamoured of comic book movies - I can take or leave Superman in his various guises (usually leave) and have not even bothered with Spiderman, X-Men, et al. I probably would have felt the same about Batman too, but when researching for new TV and Blu-ray home cinema system these two movies were almost universally cited as being both great films and real showcases for any HD system. So with the blessing of my wife (like me not really a comic book fan but an absolute devotee of Gary Oldman) I took the plunge and invested in this double pack and haven't regretted it since. Unlike the majority of people my personal favourite is Batman Begins, but both films offer a truly astounding audio-visual experience and the night-time sequences, particularly the Hong Kong one in Dark Knight, are both mind and eye-bogglingly impressive.I found Christian Bale to be a most convincing Batman who portrayed the human side of the character particularly well. Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman both gave excellent cameo performances. Heath Ledger deserved all the plaudits for his manic and chaotic portrayal of The Joker in Dark Knight, although I did feel that the film dragged on just a little too long and lacked the mystical feel of Batman Begins, which is probably why I prefer that to Dark Knight.The extras are not really my bag, and I certainly wouldn't buy a film on the basis of what extras were available; and I can't pass comment on these as I haven't watched any of them as yet. But if you want to watch two superbly enjoyable films of fantastic cinematic quality then these are undoubtedly for you.

This review is mainly about the physical product and not the movies so much.I personally was not happy with the digital copies of this release. Other reviewers have mentioned that the digital copies are not like normal. Usually they are on a disk. Easy. These are downloaded from a website after creating a free account. My reason for disliking this type of digital copy is that my PC will not open the webpage required to setup the account. I get an unknown error on both of my computers and it aborts the page. Very frustrating as I now have no way of doing this. As I already have the DVDs (included in this Triple Play set) I have only really gained two Blu-rays which I could have bought separately for less money. I suppose it is Limited Edition so not a waste of money to be sure. Mine is 3133 of 8000. The case looks okay but is a little flimsy on the inside. I also find I have problems closing mine sometimes as the thin plastic case seems to change shape and not line up. A few minor details but still not enough to take more than one star from these amazing Blu-ray editions of the movies.For the movies themselves most people are familiar with them. In no way could these films have been any better (in my opinion). Brilliant!Dark Knight Rises trailers look amazing too.