BATMAN BEGINS talkback #1

Hey folks, Harry here... I've seen BATMAN BEGINS three times now. Twice in the last 24 hours. Once at a promotional screening, and the other about 3 hours later at an after hours employee screening. Both screenings featured extremely reactive audiences with enthusiastic applause when it was all done. How's it hold up to multiple viewings? Well, I still have to see it a few more times, but I'll say this. I enjoyed MR & MRS SMITH - thought it was fun, but ultimately it was a cotton candy movie with beautiful people being beautiful, charismatic and having a great time. But other than a few moments here and there (Angelina's purse drop down the side of the building and Brad's enthusiastic kicking of her while she was down)... well the film just didn't stick with me the way BATMAN BEGINS has. I've heard some fans nitpicks after these screenings... stuff that usually has to do with the villains getting the short end of the stick in terms of screen time... and questioning the need for Katie at all. Well - first off this isn't a villain-centric piece. This film is about BATMAN. And after 4 Batman movies that focused more on the villains than on Bat-brain... I, for one, love it. After the promotional screening - as I was waiting on ol Father Geek to bring around the car - a gaggle of excited geeks came and surrounded me to enthuse about how much they loved it. And they were literally shaking they were so happy. I said, "Ya know... here's the thing. As much as STAR WARS fans love to bitch about the prequels, at no point did they ever approach the 9th ring of hell that was BATMAN & ROBIN, that's what makes this thing such a fucking miracle!" Here's the thing. As great as I feel this movie is - it's still just touching the potential that a Batman film could be. There's a particular image in the DC logo at the beginning from THE KILLING JOKE, a story that Warners will never have the balls to make. But it serves as a reminder of just how great a BATMAN film could be. Thinking about a great Clayface or Joker or ManBat story just gets me excited. Hell, a full on Scarcrow film... or bring back Ghul at some point and do a Talia story. It's 7am and I'm still not asleep. I've got a busy day today, but I wanted to give y'all a place to talk about Batman and your hopes and dreams for how Warners handles the bat from here on out. Here ya go...