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The Art of Batman Begins
The Dark Knight returns - to the big screen! After four blockbuster movies, director Christopher Nolan (Memento) goes back to the origins of Batman in Batman Begins, with a stellar cast including Christian Bale and Michael Caine, joined by Liam Neeson, Gary Oldman, Morgan Freeman and Cillian Murphy! The Art of Batman Begins is the must-have official companion to this highly anticipated re-imagining of the Batman movie mythos, and is simply one of the most in-depth 'art of' books ever produced. It features exclusive interviews and background information accompanying hundreds of photos, sketches, storyboards and pieces of stunning, fully painted production art, chronicling every aspect of the movie's design - from the Bat-suit and Batmobile, to Arkham Asylum and Gotham City!
144 pages, Hardcover
First published May 26, 2005
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About the author
Mark Cotta Vaz
80 books178 followersMark Cotta Vaz is the author of over twenty-one books, including four New York Times bestsellers. His recent works include Mythic Vision: The Making of Eragon, The Spirit: The Movie Visual Companion, and the biography Living Dangerously: The Adventures of Merian C. Cooper, Creator of King Kong, which was a Los Angeles Times bestseller.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
December 5, 2012
(More pictures at parkablogs.com)
This book is also pretty light on content, just like The Dark Knight: Featuring Production Art and Full Shooting Script. It explains very little on the production of the movie. You might probably even get more information on Wikipedia.
There are pretty detailed storyboards in the book, even if they are only a few pages. The paintings and concept art to be lacking in comparison to movie stills. A lot of movie stills were included. Some of these movie stills occupy a whole page, or two by themselves. By themselves, they really served no purpose.
The cinematography for the movie was great. The composition was amazing. But there are too few reference paintings included.
This book is only for the hardcore movie fans. Batman fans won't really miss anything if they stick to their comics.
The probable reason for the lack of depth, I believe, is that not much material was provided to the author, Mark Cotta Vaz. His two other art books which I have, The Art of The Incredibles and The Art of Finding Nemo, were fantastic.
This review was first published on parkablogs.com. There are more pictures and videos on my blog.
January 15, 2019
Pictures were fun! But I didn't care for the way the writer wrote all the descriptions.
March 14, 2015
"The Art of Batman Begins is the must-have official companion to this highly anticipated re-imagining of the Batman movie mythos, and is simply one of the most in-depth 'art of' books ever produced."
Bullshit.
The problem with the behind-the-scenes content for most of Christopher Nolan's films is that, while his team does produce decent documentaries, it's often far too light on content and the material that has been produced is so scattered and haphazard that you literally need to adopt a collector's mentality to see all of it. Nowhere was this more evident than The Dark Knight, which had television-exclusive documentaries and featurettes, tons of art and concepts that were never represented in the tie-in books themselves, and had the mark of a production company that was too busy exploiting its fanbase by innumerable books, tie-ins and videos to keep them paying for more content, most of which wasn't all that great or informative in the first place.
Mark Cotta Vaz's "The Art of Batman Begins" claims to be "one of the most in-depth" tie-in artbooks ever made, but it is surprisingly light on content. Hell, Vaz's book on the making of the first Spider-Man (Raimi) film can't even hold a candle to the Spider-Man 3 Chronicles, a literal tome that takes you in-depth through virtually every day of the production process and overloads the reader with anecdotes, crew accounts and information on unused content.
What's in "Art of Batman Begins" is great, but there's far too little of it. (Perhaps that's why I was able to buy it for dirt-cheap at a Chapters in Toronto not too long after its release.) There are some interesting anecdotes about the making of the Tumbler, shooting in Iceland and the steps needed to built downtown Gotham, but this material is covered better elsewhere, including the Trilogy book that was released after The Dark Knight Rises.
If you can find it for cheap, pick it up, but don't bother at full price.
Bullshit.
The problem with the behind-the-scenes content for most of Christopher Nolan's films is that, while his team does produce decent documentaries, it's often far too light on content and the material that has been produced is so scattered and haphazard that you literally need to adopt a collector's mentality to see all of it. Nowhere was this more evident than The Dark Knight, which had television-exclusive documentaries and featurettes, tons of art and concepts that were never represented in the tie-in books themselves, and had the mark of a production company that was too busy exploiting its fanbase by innumerable books, tie-ins and videos to keep them paying for more content, most of which wasn't all that great or informative in the first place.
Mark Cotta Vaz's "The Art of Batman Begins" claims to be "one of the most in-depth" tie-in artbooks ever made, but it is surprisingly light on content. Hell, Vaz's book on the making of the first Spider-Man (Raimi) film can't even hold a candle to the Spider-Man 3 Chronicles, a literal tome that takes you in-depth through virtually every day of the production process and overloads the reader with anecdotes, crew accounts and information on unused content.
What's in "Art of Batman Begins" is great, but there's far too little of it. (Perhaps that's why I was able to buy it for dirt-cheap at a Chapters in Toronto not too long after its release.) There are some interesting anecdotes about the making of the Tumbler, shooting in Iceland and the steps needed to built downtown Gotham, but this material is covered better elsewhere, including the Trilogy book that was released after The Dark Knight Rises.
If you can find it for cheap, pick it up, but don't bother at full price.
July 17, 2016
Batman Begins is one of my favorite comic book movies of my favorite comic book character.
The only Batman movie that surpasses it was the Dark Knight. I was excited to check out this book. Unfortunately this book is a bit anemic with the art. There is a lot of photographic filler of sets and props. There definitely isn't a ton of meat on this bone. Some cool model bash kits of the Batmobile. Some nice storyboards of a few scenes. Some nice mock-ups of Gotham and the Batcave. I got a bit frustrated when i read on a page about Scarecrow and the many different designs they tried but didn't like. They explain about some of them. But the page only shows a water color of the final design. Where are the other designs? Kind of defeats the purpose of an "Art of" book. I think fans of the movie would still enjoy a look through. But anyone wanting to get a look at concept art, storybook art should probably look somewhere else. I am glad I got this from the library before I bought it. I was happy I read it. But I will not be adding it to my permanent library of "Art of Books"
The only Batman movie that surpasses it was the Dark Knight. I was excited to check out this book. Unfortunately this book is a bit anemic with the art. There is a lot of photographic filler of sets and props. There definitely isn't a ton of meat on this bone. Some cool model bash kits of the Batmobile. Some nice storyboards of a few scenes. Some nice mock-ups of Gotham and the Batcave. I got a bit frustrated when i read on a page about Scarecrow and the many different designs they tried but didn't like. They explain about some of them. But the page only shows a water color of the final design. Where are the other designs? Kind of defeats the purpose of an "Art of" book. I think fans of the movie would still enjoy a look through. But anyone wanting to get a look at concept art, storybook art should probably look somewhere else. I am glad I got this from the library before I bought it. I was happy I read it. But I will not be adding it to my permanent library of "Art of Books"
February 13, 2012
This is an impressive book - for several reasons - the first is that its from the Christopher Nolan batman films - some of the best version i have seen - and yes i will say now i am a fan. Anyway the book is impressive for several reasons - it gives a personal and close up view on how the projected started (we are rapidly approaching the third and final instalment but back when this book was published it was all a new phenomenon), the book contacts both concept art, designs and the real thing and finally it shows aspects of the project which highlight the love for the subject matter, a respect and even a little awe that they are getting to work with the legend of batman (how many films have we seen where directors have admitted they have never seen, read or heard of the subject matter until some studio gives them a blank cheque to do as they wish!!)
June 18, 2014
It took maybe an hour to read through this book (while still admiring the pictures). A heavy drawback, in my mind, is that there were too many images from the movie for an art book. Yes, cinema can be art, but I have oodles of that art available on DVD, I (and I suspect others as well) don't need it in an art book.
There was some interesting commentary from the film's Art Director, and I especially liked the detailed map of Gotham and the technical breakdown of the batsuit and Batmobile, but overall the book didn't deliver anything that the movie didn't already have.
There was some interesting commentary from the film's Art Director, and I especially liked the detailed map of Gotham and the technical breakdown of the batsuit and Batmobile, but overall the book didn't deliver anything that the movie didn't already have.
July 28, 2016
Too little art, too many stills from the movie. If I wanted to see the final movie form, I'd just watch the DVD. I wanted to see more concept art, especially the rough early stuff. There was not much of that here unfortunately. Luckily I just checked out the book from my local library and didn't buy it.
Overall, it's worth a flip through if you love Batman, but keep in mind, there's not much here.
Overall, it's worth a flip through if you love Batman, but keep in mind, there's not much here.
July 22, 2014
Αν ήθελα να δω φώτο από την ταινια θεωρώ ότι θα μπορούσα να τις κατεβάσω και από το διαδίκτυο. Πάραυτα η ιστορία πίσω από το κομιξ άξιζε τον κόπο και τα λεφτά του.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews