Plus I've heard it's in one of those hinged cases that WB uses that are prone to breaking so it might be safer to buy in store, make sure you get a good copy.

What store?

I just canceled my pre-order after getting a coupon in a mailing from B.J's for $6.00 off the Dark Knight on DVD or Blu-ray. Probably will end up cheaper then Amazon even with tax...

Everywhere. Just look it up online. Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Circuit City, Target...they're all selling it for $22.99.

I'm really hoping WB, er Cinram, ships my copy this week. I'd like to have this one for next weekend.

so If I import the Steelbook, will it play here (U.S) or is it a different region?

Hi. Canadian member here.

IT WILL PLAY ON YOUR AMERICAN BLU-RAY PLAYER, AS WE ARE IN THE SAME REGION (A, DVD Region 1) AND BROADCAST STANDARD (NTSC, though that doesn't seem to apply to BD)

With any luck the steelbook won't have french language shit all over it ruining the artwork.

M'kay?

:)

Sweet, thanks for the info. i think I may just have to import that Steelbook

We ain't that backwards....eh?

(now I must gag because I said 'eh'. Yuck.)

So is the Steelbook 3 discs as well (2 disc plus a digital copy) ?

All the information says it is, but I've never seen a 3-disc steelbook before so there's always the chance of the copy being in some sleeve or something.

Has anyone gotten the $3.00 off Dark Knight coupon at Papa Johns? Is it like the coupon for Indy where it will work on the blu-ray?

It's a $3 off coupon that says "Own It On DVD", with no mention of the Blu-ray anywhere on the materials. There are, however, separate barcodes for the "Widescreen" and "Fullscreen" editions. So, it might take a little talking to get this to work for the Blu-ray release -- but most will probably let it slide since the BD will earn the store more money.

Everywhere? :hscratch:

Care to post a link? Target and Best Buy are both $24.99. Walmart varies by store. I have not seen the Circuit City ad yet.

Me thinks he's confused about the Blu-ray version.

so will best buy not have the collectors edition with the mask like the 300 set
i was looking on superherohype and they said there would be two sets one with
the bankrobber joker mask and one with a batman mask

In English, please.

Best Buy is going to have the Blu-ray collectors edition with mask bust, yes.

I saw the BD version behind the counter at BBV last night. I wanted to reach over, grab it and run but then realized I shouldn't :D

the review has been updated to include screen grabs of the IMAX scenes and they are startling in clarity and pin point sharpness.

I'm confused about the difference btw the regular scenes and the IMAX scenes. How could you see IMAX scenes on a regular TV?

on a widescreen tv/monitor, the image will go fullscreen, the non-IMAX scenes (2.35) will have the slight black bars appear near the top and bottom

Stupid question and a little off topic but why are movies still widescreen on widescreen HDTVs? Isn't that the whole point of getting widescreen tvs so that we could get rid of the black bars and that the widescreen movie can hit the whole screen? Is it because it's 16:9 ratio? I always watch my BD movies on 16:9, i guess i could stretch the picture but i don't think it would be a good idea.
I was always an avid supporter of widescreen dvds over fullscreen (what a waste of plastic FS dvds are!) but i've seen some BD movies (don't remember which ones) use the entire screen and it looked amazing. I'm not saying the black bars make it less pretty to watch but i just don't understand...
Sorry for the offtopic-ness of my post but it kinda applies since the imax scenes in the BD will use the entire screen and plus i'm at work with a really crappy browser so i can't use the search feature to get the right topic on this. :P

Different ratios make up "widescreen." Widescreen TV's are 16:9 aspect ratio, which I think works out to 1:78. 1:85 movies are cropped normally to 16.9, but everything else will have the black bars on the top and bottom.

It depends on the aspect ratio of what you are watching.

If you were really a widescreen supporter you would know that 2.35:1 'scope' movies are WIDER than 16:9 (1.78:1) and require those smaller borders.

1.85:1 movies have tiny borders usually eaten up by overscan on an HDTV.

See here:

Why Don't the Black Bars Go Away?

Josh, that is the best written article explaining widescreen and black bars that I've ever seen. Kudos to you!

And since I set up my budget CIH setup in my home theater, courtesy of my Mitsu HC4900 projector and some paper taped to the sides of my screen (it's just temporary, I swear!), I thought I was done with compromises in regards to letterboxing. Then this damn Dark Knight Imax thing comes up to cramp my style!

Transformers 2 will have the same dual aspect ratios as well.

Those IMAX screencaps are insane.

I just wish that they would give us the option via seamless branching to NOT utilize the full IMAX picture. I mean, since they will be cropping it in theaters for non-IMAX presentations, couldn't they give us both options? But then, I guess this is really only an issue for people with Constant Image Height home theaters and 2.35:1 screens...

I'm still not sure how I'll usually end up watching The Dark Knight, but I'm guessing I will fill my screen and let the IMAX scenes spill over the edges.

Wow, this sounds pretty distracting. What percentage of the movie was shot in IMAX and why wasn't the entire movie shot in IMAX?

I agree that this is pretty annoying. I wish all my movies would just fill my widescreen TV with no black bars. Looks much better that way.

Yes it is! Good job Josh.

Reminds me of the issue where Kubirck argued with the BBC about cutting the aspect ratio of 2001 for broadcast. According to Rob Ager's analysis, it was essential to keep the aspect ratio for 2001...

http://www.collativelearning.com/200...sis%20new.html

Sorry, Ill stay on topic now. So, about Dark Knight....

;)

to have shot the entire movie in IMAX would have been prohibitively expensive. I wonder what the cost would have been if Warner had filmed the entire movie in standard 65mm and not on IMAX stock. I'm terrible at percentages, it was like around less than ten scenes (which includes some very brief establishing long shots) that were shot as such, right?... as memory recollects.

Actually, it's only an issue for people with CIH set-ups who don't understand that when they see letterbox bars on the 'Scope portions of this disc, their picture is set-up correctly and that all they have to do is set their systems to 1.78:1 and they are golden.

I think way too much is being made over this. I've watched the disc twice now, and various scenes on my iPhone, which switches ratios too, and it's not a big deal. If you're engaged in the movie's storyline, it's barely noticeable. If all you're doing is watching for the ratio change, then it looks like the movie is not for you and the storyline didn't work for you. It's really that simple. Just watch it and not worry about what everyone is saying about it being good/not good and make up your own mind. I think the IMAX scenes are fantastic on the home theater.

IMAX Scenes are as follows:

-The entire opening bank robbery and quick night time cityscape shot that followed the sequence

-The city shot closing in on the Wayne Enterprises building

-The seaplane landing close to Bruce's sailboat

-The helicopter flyover of Hong Kong, including Lucius Fox's walk across the helipad and into the L.S.I. Holdings lobby where he surrenders his cellphone

-The establishing shot of Bruce standing atop a building in his new Batsuit, where he fires sticky bomb charges on the L.S.I. windows. He then jumps and glides to the building. (This is intercut with 2.35:1 shots of Lau in his office)

-The explosion of the sticky bombs behind Batman and Lau, leading to the seaplane's flyover and skyhook extraction of the two.

-The short close-up of Wayne's penthouse apartment for the party sequence

-The shot closing in on Batman as he stands on the Sears Tower (if cropped without adjustments, Batman's head would be missing in the 2.35:1 version)

-The very short overhead shot looking down on the Police funeral parade.

-The entire sequence involving Harvey Dent ("the Batman") being escorted by SWAT team convoy to central holding, when Joker lures them underground to destroy the convoy and eventually the Tumbler. This is the longest IMAX sequence in the film and covers everything including the Batpod's reveal and blasting through the subway to the Joker truck flip-over, ending after Joker is captured by Gordon.

-Short cuts of Batman racing on the Batpod to find Rachel after the Joker interrogation.

-The shot of Joker hanging out of the police car like a dog, as well as the aftermath of the building explosion where Rachel was being kept, including Alfred's reading of her letter to Bruce. It lasts up until Bruce is resting in a chair with parts of his Batsuit on the floor.

-The Lamborghini racing down streets to find Gordon and Reese, intercut with 2.35:1 shots of the police barricades and hospital interiors.

-The infamous Joker walking out of the hospital explosion, intercut with 2.35:1 scenes of reporter Mike Engel being pulled into a school bus and screaming patients inside the bus.

-The overhead shot of the explosion aftermath.

-A short shot of Gotham being evacuated.

-Various shots of the SWAT team taking over the Prewitt building where hostages, clowns and Joker are located. This has brief 2.35:1 shots of the same scene, as well as 2.35:1 shots of the ferry scenes.

-More of this sequence, this time with Batman's sonar vision in IMAX, along with Lucius overseeing the action. The IMAX scenes continue right up until Joker is tied up by Batman after throwing him off the building, but all the ferry scenes in between all of this are 2.35:1.

-The closing montage beginning with Gordon's eulogy (at Dent's funeral) and epilogue speech about who and what Batman is, leading up to the on-screen title card.

I don't think I've missed any, but if I did add them to the list so people who haven't seen the IMAX version will know in advance.

those intercut 2.35 AR scenes were very distracting IMO.

Well, I have always been an O.A.R. kind of guy, no matter how small a screen I watch a movie on, I'd always pick a letterboxed widescreen presentation over pan and scan or even open matte. But I think this "partially filmed in IMAX" thing is getting into new territory.

Like I said, I haven't yet decided how I will watch this on my 2.35:1 screen, but I wish I had more than one option. It was shown on normal theaters at a 2.35:1 aspect ratio. I would like to have that as an option, in addition to the switching aspect ratios version that we are getting.

With my new widescreen setup, I have gained approximately 30% screen area for 2.35:1 movies. I hate the thought of not being able to utilize all of that real estate for 80-90% of the movie.

For lengthly scenes like those, absolutely. The nighttime SWAT scenes weren't as big a deal because they were so dark, whereas the daytime scenes emphasized those intercut scenes.

someone shoot me a pm on how to get this early please