Batman Begins: Dark Cut
by JMBA more streamlined version of Batman Begins, with fewer cheesy jokes, less un-Batman-like behavior and, most importantly, a more tolerable Katie Holmes.
member ratings: 
(32 votes, average: 8.88 out of 10, rated)
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tagline: It Begins Again.
original film name: Batman Begins, Bourne Ultimatum (insert footage)
new film name :
Batman Begins: Dark Cut
film studio name :
Warner Brothers
edit crew name :
JMB
Date Original Film Was Released: June 15, 2005
Date Edit Was Released: May 31, 2009
Original Runtime :
140 mins
New Runtime :
123 mins
Amount of time Cut/Added :
15 mins
Cuts removed/added/extended :
I’ve worked on this for so long and made so many changes- this is at least Version 6 of this fan edit. Here’s the basic lowdown:
- -Cut out the forced humor and reduced the cheesier dialogue throughout.
- -Batman does not use explosives wantonly (i.e. the mini mines on the prison doors at Arkham or the ones dropped from the back of the Tumbler) nor does he use guns on anyone, even by proxy (helping shoot the thug in the foot)
- -There is a major change to the character of Rachel Dawes.
- -Joe Chill’s assassination plays out differently
- -Removed Batman’s encounter with the kid outside of Crane’s apartment
- -There is no rooftop Tumbler. Batman jumps from the roof to the freeway.
- -Gordon does not drive the Tumbler to Wayne Tower. It navigates itself via onboard GPS and targets the monorail support itself.
- -New end credits
For the full list of changes:
Cut young Bruce waving at young Rachel after the funeral. Way too goofy looking, plus now he seems more isolated.
Big Change: the adult Rachel has a new voice- I digitally pitched down Katie Holmes’ voice throughout the entire film. I was amazed at how much this changed the performance and her “believability factor”. She actually sounds like an adult now. It really was a game changer for this FE.
Cut around Katie Holmes’ preposterous off look while delivering the line “She misses this place”
Cut Joe Chill taking a seat during the trial. In the next shot, he is standing again.
A big one here: Chill’s assassination scene has been re-cut. Now he is shot by an anonymous sniper rather than the blond woman. Even if Falcone is above the law, why risk sending someone to march right up to Chill (in front of the DA and a dozen cops) and implicate himself in the killing (“Falcone says hi!”). I mean, clearly he fears prosecution on some level, otherwise why kill Chill before he testifies? Wouldn’t this simply add more fuel to the fire? Plus it just raises too many questions. Who is the woman, and why would she go to jail for murder on Falcone’s behalf? Of course, there could be a reasonable explanation for this, perhaps he holds something over her powerful enough to make her do it, but we never know. Having him killed by a sharpshooter makes more sense to me. For this I used footage from the Bourne Ultimatum (heavily color corrected), audio from Full Metal Jacket, and added music from the Batman Begins soundtrack.
Cut out some of the meeting between Bruce and Falcone. Falcone does not say “Now that’s power you can’t buy”, “Bang”, and does not mention that Chill told him that his Father “begged, like a dog”. Um, Bruce was there! He knows that’s not true. Also cut Falcone’s bizarre look around the restaurant after Bruce is tossed out.
Cut out the Homeless Guy’s additional “It’s a nice coat” mutterings, as it is an obvious set-up for the lame gag that comes later (and that has also been removed).
Removed Ken Watanabe’s (Ras Al Ghul) eyebrow movement during the delivery of the line “The city has become a breeding ground for suffering and injustice.” It just screamed: “Hello, I’m dastardly!”
Cut Ras Al Ghul’s (over)reaction after smacking Bruce in the face during the swordfight. More dastardliness.
Reworked Lucius Fox’s dialogue in the Tumbler test sequence. Instead of “During combat, two of these would jump over a river towing cables” he says “During combat, SHE would jump over a river towing cables”, indicating a single Tumbler exists. Otherwis/e, where is the other Tumbler? It is not shown or mentioned anywhere in this or the Dark Knight, even after the Tumbler self-destructs. If a second one shows up in the third movie, I’ll stand corrected, but as it is now it seems like an oversight. Maybe that’s why they could never get the damn bridge to work.
Re-cut Batman’s first appearance at the docks. Added a metal banging noise as “Stice” is pulled into the container by Bats. If he pulled him at that velocity to disable him, there would have been some sort of impact noise. Also removed the “Jumpy Thug”. Worst. Thug. Ever. Reduced the amount of time Falcone sits in the limo before Bats yanks him out. Cut out the Homeless guy reappearing just for the “Nice coat” gag. Stupid, stupid, stupid. The same guy, 7 years later, just happens to be there casually eating out of a can while all this goes down. Sure.
Heavily re-ordered Rachel and Batman’s meeting. Added a “Thwack” as she hits the first goon with her purse. Removed “That’s right you better run” line, removed her startled yelp. Also reordered the dialogue between her and Bats.
Cut Batman encountering the kid outside of Crane’s apartment – for obvious reasons. Batman happens to rescue the same kid later? Lame setup, plus I don’t believe Batman would give the kid a piece of his gear. It’s evidence. Plus I hate that kid. Deep down I think we all do really. After my mom watched Batman Begins she said: “I bet that kid grows up to be Robin.” I said: “I don’t know you, lady.”
Cut out Batman attaching his gun and grapple line to his belt as he escapes from Crane’s apartment. The footage re-appears later in the film. Keep reading.
Cut Rachel’s line “You enjoy your party Bruce, some of us have work to do”. Seriously, what does she expect him to do, come with her? Needlessly bitchy. Now she just says “Happy Birthday”, and leaves.
Cut out Earle’s Line to Fox “Didn’t you get the memo?” Too much of a setup for a dated gag.
Took out shot of Rachel’s car approaching Arkham. Unnecessary, except perhaps to show Arkham’s proximity to a bridge, which isn’t that important. Besides, she appears to be in the building 5 seconds later. And it flows better from the previous scene this way. So there.
Altered Katie Holmes’ dialogue with Crane to make her delivery a little less stilted. Also cut out the bits about “in here only the mind can grant you power”, and “I do what I do to keep thugs like Falcone behind bars…whatever, whatever”. We get it. Crane’s a nut. Rachel’s a do-gooder.
Cut Rachel’s scream in the elevator after Crane blasts her with the fear toxin. Well, somewhat. It now blends in with the high-pitched string attack in the soundtrack. Also cut her subsequent scream when Crane yells “Who knows?”
Reworked the thug dialogue. Trimmed the head off the line “You want the cops here” so he doesn’t draw out the “you” so much. Cut out the crap about “can he really fly?” and so forth. The thugs are meant to be a little dim, not retarded.
Batman no longer twists the one thug’s arm to shoot the other in the foot. Batman doesn’t shoot people, even by proxy.
Cut Batman blowing open the cell door to escape Arkham. First of all, he found a way in without blowing anything up, he would have had his escape route planned a little better. Second, he just uses explosives way too much in general in this movie. It would always be his last resort.
OK, this is a big one: the Batmobile chase. There are a few major changes here. The biggest is the rooftop chase. It’s gone. The Tumbler jumps from the roof to the freeway ramp. Also cut a few little things on the way: No “Hold on” line. No smashing through the building. No “What are you doing” “Shortcut” and the stupid parking attendant looking in his stupid Starbucks coffee cup as the Tumbler goes by. It was funny in Superman 2. Not here. Also, Batman does NOT drop explosives to deter the cops. Again, last resort and WAY too dangerous. Cut the “At least tell me what it looks like” and “Never mind.” lines. The “Black tank” gag was funny. This one: not. Plus, that’s the same cop on the rooftop who says “turn off your engines, step away from the car.” Seriously. Check it out. Same guy. Another big change is I tweaked Batman’s voice when you hear it from Rachel’s perspective, so that you feel more like she is freaking out from the toxin. And I added some visual hallucination effects when he turns to her and says “Stay with me”. Everything else looks distorted to her, why not Batman? Lastly, cut the Tumbler smashing through the structure after he ditches the cops, so he seems to leave less of a trail. The edits in this scene (I hope) put more focus on Rachel?s condition and make the chase seem much more urgent.
Cut the shot of the technician at the end of the “must be a compound that has to be absorbed through the lungs” line to eliminate some of the annoying facial expression that makes me want to punch him in the face.
In the Batcave following the chase, I replaced Christian Bale’s “How do you feel” line with a slightly growlier reading to match his next line. He kind of says it in his natural voice, which is odd. He gets less growly as the scene goes on anyway, but now it’s more of a progression. Also altered Rachel’s line from “it was, it was Dr. Crane” to simply “It was Dr. Crane”.
Cut Alfred’s line about his preference for Taiwanese prostitutes. Just seeing if you’re paying attention.
Cut the nebulous explanation of the League of Shadows using “economics” to attack Gotham previously. It was pointed out to me by an economist that there is no real way for one group to run a specific city into the ground using economics. Plus it seems like kind of a cheap way to tie Bruce’s parents back into the story.
Cut Alfred’s line “Master Wayne, Master Wayne” now he just says it once.
Cut Rachel’s “I’m a Gotham District Attorney, let me pass” line. Sure thing, killer!
Put the scene of Batman suiting up a little earlier, so it seems like he has more time to get where he needs to be.
Reordered the interaction between Gordon and Loeb. Cut Loeb’s line “Come on, somebody talk to me. COME ON!”
The Tumbler does not jump across the river and Batman and Gordon do not have their expository conversation. Batman does not let Gordon drive the Batmobile, and the bridge does not come back down.
Trimmed a little off the scene where Crane finds Rachel and the kid. There was too much of a gap between her telling the kid “no one’s going to hurt you” and Crane saying “of course they are” – he would have been out of earshot. This scene plays continuously now as Crane chases them down since the shots of Gordon and the Batmobile have been removed. Same with Batman swooping down and grabbing Rachel and the kid. Added a shot of the rooftops to breakup the shot of them zipping up to the roof and the shot of them on the roof.
Removed Rachel’s line ” you could die”. Also, she does not say “Bruce?” right before he jumps. She purses her lips and you get the idea she is going to say it, but he jumps before she gets it out.
Added dialogue from the Batman Begins videogame as Bats glides to the monorail platform. Now, as he flies, he has the following conversation with Alfred via communicator:
Communicator beeps.
Alfred.
Sir?
I’m going after the microwave emitter.
Of course sir. And the Batmobile?
Shot of the Batmobile roaring to life and zooming offscreen.
The Batmobile’s my failsafe.
Very sensible sir.
Another shot of the Batmobile heading towards Wayne Tower. The Batmobile’s female computer voice says “GPS Online”
The next scene, with Batman fighting the League of Shadows ninjas now plays as a continuous fight scene. Batman does not lose his grapple gun in the fight, instead he drops to the street with the last ninja, the crowd comes at him, he shoots the grapple gun at the departing Monorail, and as the crowd is grabbing at him, he zooms off to safety. (this is where I used the earlier footage of Bats attaching the grapple gun and wire to his belt) From this point on, I cut out any shots of Gordon in the Batmobile, so now it appears as if it drives itself (via its onboard GPS) to Wayne Tower while Batman is fighting Ras in the monorail car.
Removed the dreadlocked guy: “Nice ride!” What. The. Hell.
Batman does not smash through the metal sign or whatever it is.
Reduced some of the Water Board technician’s presence. Sorry Shane Rimmer! I gave you a credit at the end to make up for it.
More of the fight between Ras and Bats is played continuously. When Batman says “Who said anything about stopping it”? Ras looks up at the damaged monorail controls and we hear the Batmobile?s computer voice say “Weapons system activated”, followed by a shot of the Batmobile’s missles engaging. Then I added a new HUD display inside the Batmobile which shows it targeting the monorail support. Then the Batmobile shoots a missile into the Monorail supports, which causes the track to collapse. I also inserted a shot of the minimine activating in Batman’s hand. Thos footage came from the scene where he blows open the cell door at Arkham. Since I cut that, I was free to use it here. I was happy about this, since it wasn’t really too clear that he used one on the back of the monorail car. A tiny change, but one of my favorites.
Added more dialogue from the videogame after the monorail explosion. This was necessary because without the added length of the shots of Gordon getting out of the Tumbler and waving at Batman etc, it felt rushed into the next scene of Earle coming into Wayne Enterprises the next day. Wayne Enterprises being involved and the idea of dealing with the mess “tomorrow” is brought up by Alfred and helps bridge the scenes. As the toxin dissipates, we hear Alfred over Batman’s communicator:
Why do I have the feeling that Wayne Enterprises will be writing a check tomorrow to the Gotham Water Authority for steam damage?
Batman replies as he glides away from the builidng:
Just leave me a blank place to sign.
Cut out Lucius’ “Didn’t you get the memo” retort. It plays well enough with “Right you are, Mr. Wayne” and Earle’s expression.
This final section was interesting. In my first version, as Rachel apologizes to Bruce in the ruins of Wayne Manor, I had originally cut right to their kiss after she delivers the lines “I never stopped thinking about you. And when I heard you were back I started to hope” and cut her lines after that about “this is your mask, blah blah blah”. The look on her face as they ended the kiss I felt was sufficient to show she knew they wouldn’t be together. It worked OK. But when I recut it for widescreen, I started wondering if I couldn’t improve on it. I came up with the concept of taking her line to Bruce at the restaurant “Deep down you may still be that same great kid you used to be” and inserting it into the scene somehow. It ended up syncing over her lip movements better than I could have ever expected, especially given the difference between the new and original lines. So now she says “Deep down you may still be that same great kid you used to be”, they kiss, then she says “Maybe someday when Gotham no longer needs Batman, I’ll see him again.” It works very, very well if I do say so myself. It’s absolutely my favorite cut of the whole thing. It calls back to her earlier line and gives a definite closure.
Added new end credits.
Fanedit details:
1.2GB AVI
NTSC SL DVD: 5.1 ac-3 audio, animated menus with sound.
Your intention for this fanedit:
 To create a more satisfying, streamlined movie by eliminating contrived jokes, removing some un-Batman-like behavior and, most importantly, making Katie Holmes a more tolerable presence.
Your way to achieve your intention: 
Hmmm, let’s see… micro-analyzing every minute detail, driving friends, relatives and strangers to distraction with endless questions, not sleeping for extended periods of time and, finally, editing. Then thinking I’m done. Then re-editing. Thinking I’m done again. Then re-editing again. And again. And so on. Oh, and did I mention the hard drive failures? For the full, ugly story check out the forum topic:
http://www.faneditforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=1397
Or you can wait for the DVD audio commentary.
Hardware and software information (what did you use to create your fanedit): 
iMac G4 Running OSX 10.4, Mac The Ripper, Cinematize Pro, iMovie 6 HD, GarageBand, Bias Peak and Soundsoap, After Effects, Photoshop, Image Ready, Quicktime Pro, Compressor
Additional Comment: Special thanks to Boon, Kolpitz, AvP, Mollo and Throw.
Time needed for the edition: A long time. A really, really, really long time. A very long time indeed.
Persons involved: 
3: JMB- editing, Throw/Boon- DVD menus and authoring
Awards:
winner of the true fanedit competition for May 2009 (monthly FE academy award):
Buy the original DVD and support FANEDIT.ORG by shopping via one of the amazon widgets:
IMAGES:
cover art by JMB (download here):
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Available through Fanedit.info (enter and download at your own risk and responsibility)
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Batman Begins: Dark Cut by JMB
review by boon23
Prologue:
I have been involved in the discussion of this project since it was announced a long time ago. I am also probably the only FE member who has watched the first release of this fanedit as it was sent to me by jmb. It was a fullscreen version, but it blew me away and I was patiently waiting for the final widescreen release with all the cool changes and improvements. JMB is one of the most devoted faneditors I have ever met. On the way to this release he went through so much fault and error, yet he never gave up and I have a huge respect for that.
I consider BATMAN BEGINS a great movie and more consistent and thrilling than DARK KNIGHT. This is not always the best premises for watching a fanedit that is supposed to even improve on the original, but because I knew the first version, I was aware that it was indeed possible.
As for all my reviews: this is just my personal opinion of this fanedit. I cannot tell anybody else, if he or she will experience it in the same way or the opposite. So my review is not objective and does not reflect the opinion of fanedit.org.
!!!!This review contains heavy spoilers!!!
The edit:
There are so many small but important changes to the movie that it is unnecessary to list them all, just that they work marvelously. Just 2 of many examples: Ken Watanabe’s appearance is a lot improved. The dock fight is so much more powerful and the lame one-liners are never missed at all. JMB managed to give a lot more depth to this movie and I enjoyed watching it for the most part.
The idea to not have Gordon drive the Bat mobile was well done and worked well, yet to me the entire final battle scene felt more flat than it was in the original. The panic over Gotham did not get to me so much, I was less thrilled and somehow pulled out of the movie.
The voices from the game did not work too well for me.
Rachel’s deeper voice is a very nice idea, however at some points she sounds artificial and there are several scenes, when an audio change (as if switching from mono to stereo) can be heard.
To me the edit was great for about 105 minutes and lost a lot of its drive in the last 15 minutes. Still it is an awesome job.
editing: 8 of 10 (beautifully edited, but the finale of the original had to me a lot more impact)
entertainment: 7 of 10 (original 9 of 10)(I love the original movie and although this one has many improvements, I will still rather watch the original).
Image and video quality:
The image quality is perfect and there are no hard cuts at all in the movie. The entire editing was done with an incredible amount of care and considering the huge changes a piece of art.
Video quality: 10 of 10
Audio editing and audio quality:
The audio was unfortunately a problem at times as mentioned above. The change of Rachel’s voice did not work perfectly IMO and lead to some occasions that pulled me out of the movie. The game voices did not match the movie voices. There are a few scenes, where an audio channel switch is noticeable. But for 95% of the edit the audio is perfect and it was a great effort to make this possible.
audio editing: 8 of 10
sound quality: 9 of 10
resulting in a 9 of 10 for overall audio
presentation:
It’s an avi and it looks great. Cover art is attached and the info given is very detailled. The DVD will come with a few nice extras and animated menus. The beginning was altered and the end credits were self created, looked great and were perfectly synced with the music.
This results in a 10 of 10 rating from me for presentation.
Final result: 8 of 10 (because I do not rate a fanedit more than 1 point higher or lower than its entertainment to me).
This is hereby approved for fanedit.org.
Thanks, jmb, for creating and releasing it. We have been waiting for this for a long time and it’s a really nice fanedit. Recommended.
Review by boon23 — June 1, 2009 @ 3:42 pm
Kickass Batman Begins fanedit! Got it from demonoid. Thanks for that. Can’t wait for the DVD! Kudos, JMB.
Review by dop — June 1, 2009 @ 8:10 pm
review by blueyoda
Prologue:
Let me begin by saying that I only saw Batman Begins once. I’m one of the few who was annoyed by the movie. Although it was undeniably the best, most faithful adaptation of the comic book ever commited to screen in terms of tone, some things irked me enough that I never felt the need to see it a second time; Kathy Holmes’ atrocious performance and Batman’s cluelessness being two major points.
I am a huge fan of the Batman, mostly because of the comic book; The Dark Knight Returns, Year One and The Killing Joke are the “definitive” comics that left their mark on me when I was younger and shaped my idea of who Batman is and why he does what he does. I was really hoping that movie would capture the essence of what has made Batman such an enduring character for more than 70 years and although it succeeded in many aspects like the music, lighting and overall mood it let me down so hard on other, much more important elements like Bruce Wayne’s whole character arc and the way he becomes Batman that I never went back to it. This edit completely changes that.
The edit:
There are many, many small changes in this movie that completely change our perception of it. Batman is a much leaner, much more focused and dangerous character than in the theatrical version of the movie. I remember not thinking much of the dock fight in the theater but here the scene is incredibly effective, almost playing out like a horror movie. Batman is now a force of vengeance, the symbol Liam Neeson taught him to be, a shadow from which no criminal is safe. Like the best boogeymen in movies he is unseen but terrifying and from then on it is clearly established that this is a man who has become “more than a man”. He has become fear itself.
One of the biggest change in this edit is to Kathy Holmes’ character. JMB, in a stroke of genius, has altered her voice in every single one of her lines of dialog to make her sound deeper and more intelligent. Gone is the giggly cheerleader voice that took me out of the movie and made me cringe at every single one of her appearances; her character now has depth. Saying her character is improved would be a gross understatement; her performance is completely transformed into something that, not only no longer sticks out like a sore thumb, but is actually believable and up to par with the other great performances in the movie. This is truly the essence of fanediting; being able to think outside of the box to create a better viewing experience for the audience.
The other major change is the Batmobile. It now has a life of its own, quite litterally; Gordon no longer drives it at the end, it drives itself. Like Batman, it has become much more dangerous and is now a symbol of fear, becoming more than just a vehicle. It is now a monstruous beast, Batman’s faithful stead born out of the same darkness and who’ll follow him thru hell. I cannot underline how big an effect this change makes to Batman’s character who is now completely in control of the situation. No longuer dependant on other’s collaboration, Batman knows exactly what he’s doing and you better not stand in his way.
Editing: 10 of 10 – Seamless. No lost frames, not hard cuts and a much tighter movie and it is hard to believe this is a firstling effort.
entertainment: 9 of 10 - see below.
Image and video quality:
Perfect image quality. If the avi looks this good, this will simply look stunning on DVD.
Video quality: 10 of 10
Audio editing and audio quality:
I did not notice the other reviewers’ qualms about the videogame audio used; everything flowed beautifully to me. Perhaps a second viewing would make me notice it but in the heat of seeing this new take so masterfully done, it has gone by unnoticed by this reviewer. One part, which only lasted a few seconds, could have been more “rounded” but it came and left so quickly that it didn’t have time to really draw me out of the movie.
audio editing: 9 of 10
sound quality: 9 of 10
Presentation:
The avi is as good as an avi can get. I did not care much for the end credits which to me felt a little too bold and in your face, giving it a TV feel, but by then the movie was over and this is honnestly just nitpicking.
9 of 10
Final result: 9 of 10
This is a replacement disc for me. This movie was enjoyed with someone who is not a fan of superhero movies and who had not seen Batman Begins. Typically she will talk endlessly during any movie that doesn’t draw her in but here she was silent the whole way thru – except during the dock fight when Batman takes out the first thug where she burst out in exitement: “You’re all f*cked!”.
This is the Batman I’ve always wanted to see on screen. The whole story now makes sense and respects its own plan laid out in the first part; for Bruce Wayne to instill fear into the hearts of criminals, he must become more than a man. He must become a symbol. Fear itself. And this is exactly what this edit achieves to make us believe. Batman Begins: The Dark Cut is now a movie worthy of its best source material and along with Donner’s Superman movies, one of the best superhero movies I’ve seen.
Review by blueyoda — June 6, 2009 @ 1:18 am
Just finished watching this and enjoyed it.
Dark Cut is an effort to take out some of the goofier parts of batman Begins and make it a better, tighter movie. JMB succedded in his task. The biggest edits he made were changing katie Holmes voice and the scene with the Tumbler so that Gordon wasn’t driving. Both changes to me, were a success. I enjoyed the more mature voice of the Rachael character in this one and after finishing DC, I popped my BB dvd in to hear what was changed. Now I prefer the voice change in DC to that of the official dvd.
The other big change was taking Gordon out from driving the Tumbler and making it drive itself, which was a success. It gave it a life of its own and made it a more fearsome vehicle.
Aside from the other edits made to tighten up the story and remove the goofier aspects, JMB also inserted a voiceover from the batman Begins video game. To me, I felt it added to the story and didn’t distract me or throw in any useless information to disrupt the scene.
Audio and video were as great as you can find on an avi, perhaps even better. I did find a couple slight video breaks, but nothing major. No hard cuts or jumpy scene changes were found by my eyes either.
The new end credits were good too, though a bit “in your face” as someone previously mentioned.
In all, this is a 9 out of 10 and I anxiously await the dvd edition to put this on my fanedit shelf next to Jorge’s TDK.
Review by kaine23 — June 12, 2009 @ 2:04 pm
I’m not much for a detailed review (I leave that to those who are great at it like the ones above) but I felt I HAD to comment on this fanedit. I will admit, it has been awhile since I watched the regular version, its been on the shelf untouched for some time. I recall enjoying it quite a bit but once TDK came out, Begins kind of became the redheaded stepchild so to speak. So, I saw this edit and I really wanted to see it. I finished it up not ten minutes ago and all I can say is WOW. If I had not have seen the original I never would have known this was edited, it was incredibly professional not once during the movie did I see what could have been an edit, or felt anything was missing or trimmed out. The idea of fixing Rachel’s voice is pure genius, it really made her seem like she had the will to fight against crime, rather than cry over Pacy and Dawson. I see that mentioned above were some concerns about the sound, but since i am relegated to laptop speakers for the time being it all sounded great to me (not to mention I tend to tweak sound with VLC anyhow)
This is one of my all time favorite.. or dare I all time favorite fanedit to date and I cant wait to check out your TDK edit next.
Review by l1zrdking — June 24, 2009 @ 6:37 am
Great edit JMB and to all involved. Batman Begins is, personally, my favorite of the Batman movies. Maybe even my favorite, period. And you guys have made it even better. The cuts are almost flawless, and I do like the altering of Holmes’ voice. I hope the full DVD release comes soon!
Review by darkwingdan — July 16, 2009 @ 5:30 am
awesome job on this. it’s absolutely amazing. i love all the new cuts. it gets a 10/10 for me. is there going to be a TDK edit that will follow this pattern from you? cause all the edits that were changed made the movie sleeker. and Holmes’ voice alteration was awesome. at first i didnt think i was gonna care for it. but it made her character more likeable. cant wait to see the TDK edit.
Review by steelio2006 — August 5, 2009 @ 10:59 pm
A truly awesome job. Was talking with friends a while back that The Dark Knight had shown the holes in this & you have fixed them. I now do not groan through the poorly placed humor because now there is non.
The computer game audio fit in perfect for me & after the first few times I heard Kate Holmes new voice I could not remember her real one (And I found it strangely sexy lol)
Enjoyed it so much It inspired me to finish one I was working on. Cheers JMB look forward to your next effort.
Review by captainsmidlap — August 8, 2009 @ 8:19 pm
Excellent. Thanks a lot. 9/10
Review by spelledaren — October 10, 2009 @ 5:14 pm
Great edit. Most cuts/additions are seamless.
I can’t add more to what’s already been said.
9/10
Review by zeppelinrox — November 15, 2009 @ 10:04 pm
Can’t add naything myself. just wanted to support a great editor and his endeavors. well worth my DL and viewing time.
Review by flyboy707 — December 14, 2009 @ 8:26 pm
This was a pretty awesome edit. The video editing was smooth, with no hard cuts. The cuts themselves are well thought out and improve the movie experience. Not a lot else to say here.
The audio, on the other hand, had some issues. I downloaded the DVD version and burned it on a dvd. When I played it on my plasma tv via blu-ray player (tv speakers only) there was a noticeable dissonance in some of the audio elements; a kind of dual-voice or overdub effect, perhaps resulting from slightly out of sync audio channels. The dissonance seemed to occur mainly in the bass range. Also, some of the voices added from the game seem muffled.
However, when I used handbrake to encode an x264 .mkv of the film, I set it for an AAC stereo mixdown. The stereo mixdown eliminated, or at least severely reduced, the effect. This would also seem to indicate a problem with the 5.1 dvd native soundtrack.
Edit: 4/5
Video: 5/5
Audio: 2/5
Disc Features: 4/5
Overall: 7.5/10
Review by dark4181 — June 28, 2010 @ 3:15 am
^P.S. – an optimized audio track would improve the overall experience
Review by dark4181 — June 28, 2010 @ 3:17 am
Seems like the previous reviewer should optimize his hardware in regards to audio and improve the overall experience of everything he watches on the TV.
Things to consider:
How is the BR player connected to the TV for audio.. red and white wires or digital or hdmi?
The quality of the BR player to downsample 5.1 audio to stereo on the fly is unknown.
A TV’s speaker’s is hardly a selling point on a TV and therefore, probably one of the TV’s weakest links. Why else would the home theatre market be so huge?
It doesn’t seem fair to be so critical of a 5.1 audio release when it was converted to and heard in stereo.
It was not heard the way it was meant to be heard.
After all, this is a very popular fanedit and nobody else has mentioned identical audio problems.
I know that I didn’t have such audio issues on my 5.1 setup so I strongly doubt that it’s a problem with the fanedit itself.
Review by zeppelinrox — June 29, 2010 @ 3:36 am
Yea, turns out that my TV speakers decided to start to go out. Odd that it happened all at once like this. TV is just out of warranty too
In any case, disregard my review above. Played in a pair of high end headphones, the audio track is perfect.
Again, apologies for the invalid review!
Review by dark4181 — July 9, 2010 @ 7:29 am
Three words for you.
Five Point One.
No need for TV speakers that way
It’s great to see you come back and update your review.
Perhaps you can post a revised rating so the staff can make the adjustment.
Review by zeppelinrox — July 11, 2010 @ 1:24 am
Great job! I really enjoyed this.
The cuts were well chosen and produced a film that felt a bit more on par with the tone of The Dark Knight, and overall flowing much better. I was amazed at how dramatically different Katie Holmes’ character seemed here! Gone is the bitchiness, and with the change in her voice’s pitch (jarringly noticeable at first, but so natural that you get used to it quickly) Rachel Dawes became a character I could actually accept as an Assistant DA.
I did notice a couple problems, however. In the scene where Lucius and Bruce first drive the Tumbler, the bits cut from Lucius’ lines kinda stand out. My biggest problem was with the DVD, which had problems loading on my Blu-Ray player (although once it finally got started there were no further issues). Overall, a great experience!
Review by Pkmatrix — July 25, 2010 @ 7:01 pm
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!
Review by Ocarina654 — February 16, 2011 @ 10:32 am
Finally got around to watching this,
When the thread was still going on about the edits I couldn’t wait for it, but for some reason I just downloaded and impatiently skipped to the newly edited things.
But after taking some time to watch it I must agree with everyone else here: this is a tremendous fanedit.
From a technical standpoint there are almost no problem (except at the end the new batmobile lines were a little low and the scene with Rachel at the end had noticeable louder music, but that’s just nitpicking) and the only things that detract from this edit are my personal opinions.
I love Batman Begins, I love extensive driving on the top of roofs, I love the fact that Gordon and Batman work together at the end since Gordon until then never had a shining role in Batman movies
But personal preferences aside: does this edit work?
Yes it does. Not having Gordon is my problem, the new take works as well as the original, it changes the mood of course, but it works nevertheless, same goes for the shortened chase sequence, I’m pretty sure that if you’ve never seen Begins you won’t notice the edits.
Katie Holmes’s voice works in 98% of the cases, only when the original voice tries to talk in a deep voice the new pitch sounds a bit awkward. A lot of cringy Rachel lines are thankfully gone as well and most of the things you don’t even miss.
Will this replace my DVD? No
But it is a very good alternate take on the source material: 8/10
Review by Sunarep — March 9, 2011 @ 2:41 pm
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.
Review by Scorpionac — May 26, 2011 @ 10:23 am
People are fanatical about a lot of things. Star Trek, Star Wars, James Bond, etc. etc. These are people who have watched these movies,read these books, and lived and breathed this stuff for as long as they care to remember. They know about as much about a subject as there is to be known, it’s a legitimate passion for them. Without trying to sound like I have that much of an ego, I consider myself one of these fanatics when it comes to Batman. I practically taught myself to read with the comics. And so that’s the baggage I took in with me when I went to watch Batman Begins for the first time, and now again when turning on this edit of the film.
I walked out of the theater after my first viewing of Batman Begins very, very happy as a fan of the character. IT was the first time the version of the character that I loved most had really been successfully realized on screen, for the most part, in my opinion. However. That doesn’t mean it didn’t have it’s flaws. It does. So when starting this up I was eager to see what JMB would do with the film. And in my opinion he took the ball and ran with it.
First and foremost, the technical aspects of this edit are stellar. The video looked identical to the quality of my DVD, and the sound was perfect as well. The only issues I had were not because of fault with the audio work at all, but rather some problems inherent in the technique used. JMB used some audio clips from the video game by way of explaining some of his editing choices, to make sure that some of his larger changes are understood clearly, while they sound clear and smooth they are also clearly from a different source and do not match the rest of the audio. We’ll get to that later though. There are no hard cutting or other visual or audio editing whiplashes that I could find. As such I give the Video/Audio an 8 or 9 out of 10.
Now on to the movie itself. JMB showed real intelligence and dedication here as he goes. There’s no edit that calls attention to itself at all. Having not read the cutlist I can honestly say that often times I was completely oblivious intellectually to many of the cuts, and that’s coming from somebody that knows Batman Begins backwards and forwards. Rather than consciously acknowledging many of these edits they served more to alter the mood and tone of the film. Providing a more vicious and visceral experience, with a deeper understanding of the psyche of Bruce Wayne. And for a movie that was already pretty deeply psychological that’s saying a lot. Now we’ve a more subtle, tighter, more refined film.
Other edits are of course more noticeable, and many of them are for the better. The removal of the goofy, utterly misplaced and misguided humor is hugely refreshing. In particular the removal of the “nice coat” set up and then pay off was a Godsend. Often times the original Batman Begins feels as though it’s hedging it’s bets, not wanting to go too dark or too serious for fear of alienating an audience that has been primed to expect Batman and Robin when it comes to their Batman films. Now that hemming and hawing is gone, and in it’s place is a more confident movie tonally and stylistically.
Batman himself is changed a great deal by these edits. Now instead of entering wanton destruction mode at the drop of a hat we have a Batman that, yes, is learning to be a hero but is also smart and calculated. Batman does not run around blowing everything in his path to smithereens for seemingly no reason. As a result the character becomes more fascinating and I found myself more easily able to root for him and his cause.
Of course…one of the biggest flaws of the movie has always been Katie Holmes. Something JMB attempted to fix in a truly inspired manner. He re-works all of Holmes dialogue giving her a deeper, more grown, mature adult voice. I was shocked how much just this small tweak, small in terms of the movie though undoubtedly a huge undertaking in terms of the work done to accomplish it, improves her very weak performance. In the original film Holmes seems girlish and outmatched as an actor at every instance. She does not belong on screen with the likes of Gary Oldman, Christian Bale, and Liam Neeson and I don’t think anybody would argue otherwise. Now however…just making her feel more adult helps considerably. I would be lying if I didn’t say that sometimes the audio re-working does not work, however. The voice coming from that character just does not match the fresh faced kid clearly on screen. Nor does it always seem to match the lip movements for some reason. Admittedly the lip movement problem could be caused by Katie Holmes perplexing habit of speaking every line of dialogue through the corner of her mouth as if the other side of her face has suddenly become stricken with paralysis. Over all this is probably the biggest plus of this edit aside from the removal of the goofy humor. Rachel Dawes is finally a believable strong, female character.
Unfortunately I think the biggest failing of this edit in my opinion is the final act, with Batman chasing down the Microwave Emitter. While I understand and respect what JMB did here, my own personal bias and some of the smaller issues with the audio not matching the video quite effectively dragged the Subway chase down making it feel somewhat flat and less interesting. Jim Gordon is and always have been my favorite character in the Batman pantheon, even more so than Batman himself, so for me seeing him driving the Batmobile in a real team up with Batman and seeing him play a true active role in the climax unlike the ineffectual Gordon of the Burton/Schumacher films – though it may have been somewhat goofy here or there – was really exciting and cool for me. The edit works this way, and makes sense, but it just doesn’t play as triumphant and heroic to me as the original climax.
It’s not helped by the video game dialogue overlays that I mentioned earlier. Unfortunately they are a necessity here in order to fully explain what’s happening. But the performances do not carry the right urgency and emotion, and don’t make much logical sense to me. They feel out of place, and that’s because they are. While I don’t fault JMB for using them, and respect what he was doing and do think that he accomplished his goal fairly effectively, my preference is still for the official movie climax with Jim Gordon. There’s more excitement in there for me.
That all said, faults aside, with some minor tweaking I would happily place this on the shelf as a replacement of the original Batman Begins as it is truly a masterful work. This is a highly enjoyable version of the movie, and a wholly new experience for a Batman that was already in love with this movie flaws and all. Thanks to JMB for all his hard work and I look forward to watching this edit of the movie again and again.
9 out of 10 overall rating.
Review by Waslah — July 17, 2011 @ 12:32 am
Defininitely my preferred version of Batman Begins.
Technical quality – 10/10 – Great!
Editing – 10/10 – Sometimes I forgot I was watching a FanEdit, which is, in this case a good thing. I just got into the story and didn’t notice any cuts that took me out of it.
Presentation – 10/10 – No problems here.
Entertainment – 9/10 – I loved the redone scene of Chill’s shooting, the added dialogue, the changes to Katie Holmes’ voice, the trimming of unnecessary humor, the little blond kid, and the changes to the Tumbler chase. Basically, I liked all of your cuts except for one: Gordon not driving the Tumbler. One thing I loved about Batman Begins is the fact that Gordon’s isn’t utterly useless like in the 90’s series. I liked how he was involved in the climax. Now it’s just a GPS and isn’t explained terribly well. I was also hoping you’d keep the “I’ve got to get me one of those” line. So I’m taking one star off the entertainment factor.
Overall – 9/10
Review by QuickCut — December 14, 2011 @ 3:37 am
*I meant that you cut the little blond kid
Review by QuickCut — December 14, 2011 @ 3:38 am