In 2005 director Christopher Nolan set out to deliver a different kind of Batman film to the fans who were losing hope after entries like Batman Forever and Batman and Robin with Batman Begins that spawned two sequels in 2008s The Dark Knight and 2012s The Dark Knight Rises.

 

Batman Begins starred Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, Morgan Freeman, Liam Neeson, Katie Holmes and Ken Watanabe and followed billionaire playboy Bruce Wayne who relocates to Asia where he is mentored by Henri Ducard and Ra's Al Ghul in how to fight evil. When learning about the plan to wipe out evil in Gotham City by Ducard, Bruce prevents this plan from getting any further and heads back to his home. Back in his original surroundings, Bruce adopts the image of a bat to strike fear into the criminals and the corrupt as the icon known as 'Batman'. But it doesn't stay quiet for long. This first entry took us on a new journey with Wayne allowing us to get to see how he became Batman as opposed to just the death of his parents that is usually about all we get. I love this direction and everything about this film while admit that I was not all that happy at the time with the Ra’s Al Ghul twist due to my love for Watanabe.

 

With the next chapter The Dark Knight all the main cast returned with Maggie Gyllenhaal stepping in to replace Holmes, Aaron Eckheart as Harvey Dent and an insanely brilliant award winning performance by Heath Ledger as The Joker. This is easily the best of the entire trilogy and took things to the next level. It goes without saying that Heath Ledger was insanely awesome as the Joker. I wasn’t a big fan of his casting, but was clearly completely wrong. The story this time around was bigger, better and felt more like the Batman we all know and love that further expands this new Bat-verse into familiar territory. The twist featuring Two Face was even better making this not only the best Batman of this trilogy, but in my opinion the best Batman film to date.

 

The final chapter of the series, The Dark Knight Rises had all the cast from the Dark Knight returning with the addition of Anne Hathaway, Tom Hardy, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt. I have never been a big fan of the Bane character so wasn’t all that looking forward to it this time around, especially after the last live action version in Batman and Robin. Despite mixed reviews on this chapter I actually love it and Tom Hardy in the role. It finally felt like the character was something more than just a brute and I loved the way Nolan used him. This chapter had its ups and downs, but as a whole alongside The Dark Knight it works great to not only further the story, but also to bring it all to a close.

 

All of these films have already been released on Blu-ray, but now Warner Bros. is bringing them home on 4K Ultra HD with each of them featuring tons of bonus content including trailers, galleries, and a ton of featurettes that take you behind bringing this epic trilogy to life. The 4K transfers are all amazing and offer up a beautiful visual treat to each of them and taking the overall feel and look of the films to an even higher standard. These are a must have for any fans of the series and you can not only bring them home individually, but also a complete box set that is perfect for any collection.