Where I Watched it: MAX

English Audio Description?: Yes

I mean, technically where I watched it was in a theatre 18 years ago, but where I watched it for the first time with audio description was on MAX. I watched this series completely out of order, using both The Dark knight and The Dark Knight Rises as being part of my favorite films of all time, so why not Batman begins?

The problem with Batman begins is that Christopher nolan made more Batman films. It’s like if the model T was the only car anyone ever knew, it would seem epic. But, cars evolved, and so did Nolan’s Batverse.

Like most great sequels though, The Dark Knight is able to soar because the original established these characters in such a brilliant way. We are introduced to Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne, a complicated man looking to challenge himself, almost with an acute death wish. He trains, the learns, and he has to because he’s the guy with no super human abilities (unless you count being rich as a superpower). His training really did turn him into a beast, and when he’s good and ready, he returns to Gotham. The city of his childhood that his parents tried endless philanthropy has become a crime ridden hellscape. Well, a PG-13 hellscape.

And unlike most superhero origin stories, Batman faces multiple villains. He has a range of villains, from mafia types, the League Of Assassins, and the typical Bat villain in Scarecrow (Cillioan Murphy).

This also takes time to establish franchise anchors like Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman), Alfred (michael Caine), Rachel Dawes (Katie Holmes), and a young conflicted police officer who doesn’t have any idea where his story arc will take him (Gary Oldman).

Nolan landed this film after insomnia, which just makes me believe that the studio was far more involved here than probably in the sequels. The later films feel like they have more of the trappings, and this feels like it’s the more accessible film.

It does feel very busy. That would be my only criticism looking back eighteen years later. It does feel almost like what DC has done with The Flash recently by putting the weight of an entire franchise into one film. Batman can’t just establish a hero versus villain story, it has to flesh out a supporting cast, deal with a complicated romance, and push multiple villains into Bruce’s path. There’s always a level of mastery to Nolan’s craft, as he attracts top talent to work on his films, but looking back at why this is my bottom of the three Nolan Batman films, it’s because he seems all over the place. He barely has time to address organized crime because there’s just so much happening.

However, there is a distinct difference between this and what Tim Burton or Joel Schumacher made in the 90’s. It’s almost like it sparked a new flame, and set a new standard for a superhero film that hasn’t been matched yet by anyone but Nolan.

The audio description does a good job of describing everything from the heavy combat sequences at the beginning between Bruce and the League. There’s also those great moments when someone is under Scarecrow’s spell that slip into nightmarish, and the description does a terrific job with that as well. I enjoyed the audio description, and having seen this film several times, I felt like it really did a great job of translating the film to a blind audience.

Possibly the only thing negative is that the audio description takes so much opportunity to describe that the score for the film doesn’t soar as much as it plays often under the description. The scores for the Batman films are legendary, and I could listen to just the score without the film.

So it’s not that this film was bad, it’s that Nolan hit a home run, and then followed it with a grand slam. The home run is still great, but the grand slam puts more points on the board. But, a point is still a point.

I probably gave this an A 18 years ago, and I think if there were no sequels, it would still be an A. There is no new grade here. Sometimes, taking a look back adds in stuff from the last 18 years that the original film couldn’t possibly have foreseen.