Today marks the 20th anniversary of Christopher Nolan’s “Batman Begins,” a film that may be less talked about than its more famous 2008 follow-up with “The Dark Knight,” but was just as influential in its own right.
Opening June 15th 2005, the first of Nolan’s Batman films became not just a critical success but a commercial one as well – taking in over $371.9 million worldwide, which made it the highest-grossing “Batman” film since Tim Burton’s 1989 one.
Reviews described it as a notable improvement over the previous films, and the movie earned an Oscar nomination for Wally Pfister’s cinematography. Its real impact however came in the years that followed.
Not only did it revitalise the Batman character, who had become a joke on film after 1997’s “Batman & Robin,” it also set a template for superhero origin stories and built the foundation for something much more common these days – the movie reboot, and more specifically the ‘gritty reboot’.
While some have tried to retroactively claim Marvel marketing coined the term ‘reboot’ in a film/TV context when it began promoting “The Incredible Hulk,” use of the word in relation to film/TV franchises has dated back earlier to the late 1990s/early 2000s.
The film’s writer David S. Goyer used the term in an interview back in 2005, comparing it to how the term was already in use in comics and dubbing this film the “cinematic equivalent of a reboot”.
Since this film, the concept of film reboots have become widely known and understood not just in the industry, but across the world. The approach of both this film and the following year’s “Casino Royale” has subsequently been adopted by many franchises – though rarely have they succeeded as well as these two did.
The film also massively impacted its star Christian Bale and director Nolan, launching both into new heights of their career. Of the trio of Batman films, ‘Begins’ remains the most comic book-esque by a long shot. Its use of traditional stunts and miniature effects, with minimal CG imagery, also became a signature of Nolan’s filmmaking style.
Finally, the film was also one of the first to release its trailers online in 1080p high definition. The title and a handful of others were amongst the first to be released on the ‘Movie Trailers’ section of Apple’s website – the trailers were released in QuickTime format and at resolutions up to 1080p. One of the earlier teasers has subsequently been remastered in 4K by Warners and has been included as a refresher below.
“Batman Begins” is on Max and on VOD stores everywhere.
