Utter drivel

Rating: 1/10 (5 June 2006)

After reading the numerous good reviews of this film, I was expecting a seriously made, deep movie that explored the batman character in a meaningful way. There are so many things wrong with this film, but basically it just quickly degenerates into the typical brain dead Hollywood teen-pleasing crapola. I think all the A list actors were just collecting fat pay checks. I know Bale was probably looking for a blockbuster movie to propel his face a bit more into the mainstream, but he picked a turkey here. I really think Bale is a brilliant actor (as he showed in American Psycho) but he is wasted in this movie.
The action sequences suffer from the modern Hollywood 'X-box' editing desease, where no shot stays on screen for more than a split second. This simply confuses the viewer as to exactly what he's supposed to be seeing. The score is good, but pervades far too much throughout the film. The plot is pretty ridiculous.
I won't carry on criticising it, but this movie DOES NOT deserve to be anything like #80 in the IMDb list (as it presently is). Is this really a better movie than Midnight Cowboy??!!??!! I think not.
Does absolutely NOTHING to restore my nearly extinguished hope that Hollywood is ever going to make brilliant mainstream movies again, like it used to do in the 70s (Godfather, Deer Hunter, Deliverance, etc. etc. etc.)