As much as I love Tim Burton, I really think he tried to downplay the scariness. Rewatching Batman , The Joker wasn't scary. He was freakish and strange, but he wasn't scary.

I Agree wrt the first movie, but I thought the Pengiun and Catwoman were... well.. OK, maybe not scary, but completely uncompromising. Which is as good as scary in my book.

Just don't make Oswald a flippered freak again. As much as I enjoyed DeVito as Penguin, I'd like a return to villainy for villainy's sake.

How was DeVito not villainous for villainy's sake? He wasn't a mutant or anything. He was just an ugly baby who was raised by penguins and it made him fucked up, yo.

the fight sequences were not shot in the normal action style. I liked it.

I think it was very normal action style -- the fight scenes seem to be getting choppier and blurrier as time goes by. If anything, I give him a pass on being typical, but really I want so much more (and for a large part, got it).

Saw The Batdude this evening and really enjoyed it. Beautifully shot and well-acted (especially Liam Neeson and Gary Oldman). I didn't have the great love for it that most folks do, but thought it was a damn good film.

I'm with ita. My experience has been the blurry, too close, hand-held fight scenes have become pretty much action movie standard these days and it drives me nuts. I agree the ninja ranks fight scene totally rocked the house, though.

That said, I loved the movie. It was totally what a Batman movie should be though I could have done without the huge flying train crash explodey thing. I loved the casting, barring Katie Holmes, who I thought was merely acceptable. Then again, I never watched Dawson's Creek or anything else she's been in, so I've don't have any other performances to compare this one to. I did love how her character took out the Scarecrow though. I laughed and laughed. And they completely got Batman's handling of the criminals pitch perfect. I do hope the next movie actually focuses on the detective aspect of the character, though. thing, though.

My other complaint would be what's up with the women in the Batman movies always figuring out Bruce is Batman ? I mean, it really shouldn't be that easy or else he'd be dead pretty quick.

Kalshane, I think it was easy this time because he told her who he was. Hopefully that's not SOP.

True, I just find it a little ridiculous that in every movie the "love interest" finds out who he is. Hopefully that's the only thing we'll see carry over from the previous movies and they break the pattern with the next one.

Random bit of curiousity, I've gathered that in the comics that Bat-family's costumes are some kind of hand-wavy kevlar-spandex blend, but when did that first get introduced? I know originally the costumes were just cloth (and were in TAS), though the movies have pretty much consistantly said the batsuit is body armor.

True, I just find it a little ridiculous that in every movie the "love interest" (spoiler)

Eh, in the comics these days, every love interest finds out who he is. I mean, it's nice that the Bat's getting laid and all, but the decowling is just SUCH a silly production number...

I've gathered that in the comics that Bat-family's costumes are some kind of hand-wavy kevlar-spandex blend

It's a Kevlar/Nomex blend, which I'm shocked to find is real in addition to being non-Kosher.

I think with the fight scenes, Nolan was trying to put us in the villains' perspective, with Batman's mad ninja deception skillz making him hard to follow. I appreciated the effort, and thought he pulled it off -- I was completely confused, and a little annoyed that I couldn't follow the fight scenes blow for blow.

As much as I love Tim Burton, I really think he tried to downplay the scariness. Rewatching Batman , The Joker wasn't scary. He was freakish and strange, but he wasn't scary.

Scary Joker for me is Arkham Asylum. I want to see him this way all the time.

Kevlar/Nomex

Bullet proof AND fire proof. Very practical.

Today I really do get to see it! I bought tickets for the 12:30 showing yesterday!

By the time I bought them, about 9:20 p.m. before going to see Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants with my sister at the same theater, though not the IMAX screen - movie still good, by the way - the 4 p.m and 7 p.m. were ALREADY sold out. Sisterhood was also quite full by the time the movie started, which surprised me a bit as it's several weeks old: this theater must just be very popular.

I was the only boy in the theater when I walked in. Was joined by a few more by the start of the movie, but not many. Twas funny.