This review is from the HD-DVD version of the film. Tech specs between the two formats are listed above.
The movie starts out with Bruce Wayne as a child, playing with his best friend, Rachel, in the gardens surrounding Wayne Manor. While hiding, Bruce falls through an abandoned well into a batcave, and started his life-long fear of bats. Later, his parents take him to an opera, and he starts freaking out, so his parents decide to leave. In the alleyway, they get held up, and the man shoots his parents.
Flash ahead about 13 years, and Bruce comes back from Princeton to see the hearing of the man who shot his father. They are trying to let him out in return for which the man will give information. Bruce is there to kill the man, but to his surprise, someone beats him to it. Bruce's anger can now not be fueled, and runs away, and decides to live as part of the underworld for a while. He eventually gets arrested. He is freed by a man who invites him to train at a monastery in the ways of many martial arts. However, they eventually ask Bruce to take justice into his own hands, and he refuses, and escapes.
Bruce returns to Gotham, where he works to fight corruption, and takes over Wayne Enterprises, and specifically starts spending a lot of time in the R&D department. He also has his second life, where he gives the image of a rich billionaire playboy. After he puts the big crime boss behind bars, super-villians start to appear in Gotham. In this movie, its the Scarecrow. And that is where the movie starts
Video quality
The picture quality is next to perfect. Most of the movie is shot in dark locations, and gratefully, this transfer delivers. Blacks are true and deep, picture is sharp, no compression artifacts, etc, etc, etc. There is only one reason this movie did not get a perfect 10, and I will admit that it could be doe to a flaw on my disc, or a flaw in my player, but in some parts of the movie, the video stutters a bit. It is very slight, but what it honestly looks like is that the video is compressed at just a slightly higher bitrate than can be handled by the player in those areas. Or, like I said, it could have just been a piece of dust on my disc as it does not take much to throw off an HD-DVD player.
I am sure that the Blu-Ray presentation of this movie will be perfect, as there is the protective coating to prevent scratching, the players stand up to dust and fingerprints better, and Blu-Ray can handle a higher bitrate than HD-DVD. However, I do not have the Blu-Ray version to review, so the rating will stay at a 9 until I can find out for sure what causes the stuttering.
Sound quality
The Dolby TrueHD track gets a perfect score on this movie. The dialog is crisp and clear (except in places where its not supposed to be), and the music is very involving. Sound effects and the music score make awesome use of the surround field, really drawing the audience into the movie. Your sound-woofer will get a workout, and if you are a guy with a girl, be prepared for them to either jump into your arms or to ask you to turn down the set. I had both happen to me. Unfortunately, the girl was also holding my sleeping cat, who, as I have mentioned in other reviews, hates loud sounds, so the combination resulted in someone getting clawed by the cat. After the cat ran into the other room, I secretly started cranking back up the volume. As I am writing this review, I am fighting off the headache that resulted from it. That is good sound quality there.
Unfortunately, on the HD-DVD version at least, the movie starts playing immediately - with the Dolby Digital Plus track as its default. You have to pop-up the menu, navigate to settings, audio settings, and change it to Dolby TrueHD, which gives you 3-4 seconds of silence while it changes audio tracks.
Bonus features
This movie is absolutely packed with Bonus Features. Unfortunately, all Bonus Features, on both the HD-DVD version and the Blu-Ray version, are at 480i and 480p. I am not a huge fan of Bonus Features (with a few exceptions), so I am just going to list what is on here based on the description given on the package. As far as I know, both the HD-DVD and the Blu-Ray versions include all the same bonus features, including the In-Movie Experience.
Final Word
This movie is a thrill-ride all the way through. As this starts at the begriming of how Batman became Batman, people who are not fa miler with the series can enjoy this film and understand what is going on. The near-perfect video and the perfect sound make this a demo disc for any home theater system. I highly recommend this movie.