Batman Begins Best visuals of the Nolan Trilogy?

[TheFlamingCoco]

I think TDK and TDKR are better movies, but I like the use of giant sets and the tan color grading over the blue filters in the sequels.

Anyone agree?

 

[Brother Jack]

I like the visuals in each for their respective differences. The sepia tone, the rainy claustrophobia of Begins; the metropolitan blue tones of Knight; and the expansive, layered snowy grays in Rises. They are each distinct, but I think when you put them all together you get a holistic view of the entire city as the story progresses and changes it. Nolan's Gotham is said to be massive after all.

 

[JackWhite]

Well said, BrotherJack.

It really is a tossup as far as visuals go. Honestly, I can't choose between the two Knight films. Those IMAX cameras, mang.

 

[BatLobster]

Yeah, Brother Jack is correct as TDKR doesn't really have the dominant blue tones of TDK, but more of the snowy grey thing going on and more contrast with brighter whites. It does also borrow from the previous two films too- as you do get some of that blue from The Bat's lights, and you get the warmer tones too with all the stuff in the pit out in the desert. I would say TDKR has the richest visual palette. It's the best looking Blu-ray of the bunch by far, due to the amount of IMAX footage and the fact that it's a proper transfer. However, a new transfer of TDK might make it a tighter race. But I'm just going on the versions of the movies that my eyes are most used to at this point.

Mind you, I love the visuals of BB and TDK too. Both films need/deserve better transfers than what we've got currently.

Also, I really do wish for future releases they would have an option to have TDK/R maintain the same aspect ratio throughout, like they do on the DVDs.

 

[Tacit Ronin]

TDKR is often lit like a black and white movie. Quite intentionally. I mean, you can sap the color off of the Bane vs Batman showdown and it can still look great because of all the overhead, harsh lighting.

 

[LaughterLives]

I think was one is the best of the trilogy by far and the visuals are one of many reasons why.

 

[80s Bullock]

Yeah. Batman Begins was such an awesome starting point, kinda realistic but still hinting at the classic comic book world lurking out there and waiting to break out like Mount Vesuvius. Instead we got this plain and boring "The Dark Knight" stuff. Actually, BB feels like an entirely different universe to me.

 

[shauner111]

Nothing plain and boring about it. A beautiful and dark city with great cinematography, not unlike "Heat" or something of that nature. People just want gothic, gothic, gothic. I think Burton planted that seed into everyone's head, and animation surely ran with it. Now you have young people who only want to see Gotham looking like that instead of a real city. I agree that Begins had a nice balance, but it didn't exactly show every area of the city. It was also a gloomy and rainy time. I loved how TDK explored the city more and made it feel like it was a city we could live in. It was unique to the genre on film, it was unique to Batman films at the time and it wasn't far off from the comics either. Especially older comics. The whole point of the trilogy was to imagine these characters in OUR world. TDKR just took that further. And there's a reason why the city looks more ordinary with each installment. It serves the story (the city becomes cleaner and cleaner with less crime flooding the streets).

You have to serve the world and the story. Not force a Detroit esque city for every sequel or a gothic aesthetic just because the fans are used to that in recent years while reading their little comics or playing video games. Not that I wouldn't mind seeing that too, in the future...but you have to serve your story and not someone elses.

 

[DeadlyWest]

To be honest, I could never quite put my finger on what 100% made me prefer Batman Begins visuals to TDK and TDKR. Then, I found out.

Nolan based the set designs for Gotham off of Blade Runner.

Blade Runner is my favourite movie of all time.

I literally live in a world where a director made a Batman movie which used Blade Runner as an inspiration for aesthetics.

I HAVE ACHIEVED NIRVANA

 

[Milk Tray Guy]

Yeah. Batman Begins was such an awesome starting point, kinda realistic but still hinting at the classic comic book world lurking out there and waiting to break out like Mount Vesuvius. Instead we got this plain and boring "The Dark Knight" stuff. Actually, BB feels like an entirely different universe to me.

I love all three movies. The conclusion of Batman Begins definitely feels like a fork, where Nolan had the choice of either staying with the more fantasy tone of BB (albeit dialed back from Burton and Schumacher), or moving towards a gritter, more realistic one. I like what we got but would love to see how the trilogy would have progressed if Nolan had taken the other route.

 

[Ryan]

Interesting thread. I remember reading that Nolan was inspired visually by Blade Runner for Batman Begins and Heat for The Dark Knight. Which, as mentioned above, did kind of make it feel like 2 different universes. I initially had thought TDK would have been a bit more 'comic booky' like Begins and it took me awhile to really appreciate Nolan's idea of treating each film uniquely. I think it kind of made each of those 2 films fresh but I do see where some of you are coming from.

 

[Milk Tray Guy]

Interesting thread. I remember reading that Nolan was inspired visually by Blade Runner for Batman Begins and Heat for The Dark Knight. Which, as mentioned above, did kind of make it feel like 2 different universes. I initially had thought TDK would have been a bit more 'comic booky' like Begins and it took me awhile to really appreciate Nolan's idea of treating each film uniquely. I think it kind of made each of those 2 films fresh but I do see where some of you are coming from.

I think I remember Burton saying Blade Runner also inspired his Gotham cityscapes for Batman '89.