He will steal this movie much as Jack Nicholson did the first Batman movie, except now for all the right reasons.

I will say though, not seeing why Ledger's performance is giving people multiple orgasms; I don't think it is bad by any stretch of the imagination, just not spectacular. Still better than Jack Nicholson's Joker though..

Everything about this "re-imagined" franchise is misconceived. Batman isn't Jason Bourne and I wish they'd stop trying to force him to be. Creating individual backstories for Batman's high-tech machinery is like Lucas explaining away The Force by way of midi-chlorians. Stupid, stupid.

Michael Caine's Mockney portrayal of Alfred is insulting and incongruous.

As for the Joker: it's a tragedy that Heath Ledger died - but that doesn't suddenly make him a good actor: his performance in this movie looks self-conscious, hammy, and could be done by just about any actor his age.

If DARK KNIGHT looks like fun to you, you might be a masochist.

"Hold on criminals! I'll be right there as soon as my butler pastes on these 200 molded, plastic, muscle-shaped applique-thingies!"

Can't see what's so good about Ledger's performance. Based on this trailer, I'd say it looks slightly below average.

Heath Ledger was exceptional in one whole movie (BROKEBACK) and five minutes of another (MONSTERS BALL). He was entirely forgettable in everything else.

Even if his "Joker" ends up being a good performance, it will be one of four good performances of that character. OK, if you're too fucking cool to count Caesar Romero - THREE good performances.

That barely counts as originality, let alone earth-shattering.

He may have come from London a long time ago - but now his accent is no more true Cockney than Heath Ledger's is true Australian. Caine has been a MOVIE STAR for almost half a century - and has been trading on his pretend-Cockney accent during that time. Alfred is supposed to be a posh, stiff-upper-lip British butler. Caine's ridiculous half-eel pie, half-Hollywood accent is just pure laziness. He's been running on autopilot for a couple of decades. So, Wookie, get on the Dog-and-Bone: call up a real Cockney and tell me they sound anything like Caine's slurring.

So you've been anticipating the Heath Ledger backlash? Well why didn't you say something? We could've got it going sooner. Anyway, from the trailers, he looks all wrong for the role.

Dead End has a fair few stupid things in it - overacting Joker, aliens, switchblades etc. But they get the LOOK of the costume and the lighting right - at least better than any of the big-budget movies have. But I still contend that they should set a Batman movie in the 1930s. Doesn't mean they have to make it cheesy like the comics from that period.

DC needs to do a period version of Justice Society of America. That would be the perfect property for a period superhero flick.

You didn't hear it here first, but not without such pissant indignation. See you on the red carpet.

Wookie, Batman Unmasked really changed my view of the Adam West TV show. Like everyone else I used to look down on it, but when you go back and watch it, you realize it was doing two things at once. It was giving action and adventure to a younger crowd and it was a campy comedy to the parents. On a lark some friends of mine in high school rented the Adam West Batman movie and nearly died laughing. It was genuinely funny and there are moments where they signal that you're supposed to laugh at the movie.

Sin City worked as a comic book. Less well as a movie, in my opinion - though it was an interesting experiment. I agree that they should do a retro Batman. If it was set in the thirties, than that would increase the impact of his gadgets. Nowadays, we are surrounded by technological gadgets anyway - so Batman's toys just make us go,"meh".

I understand that he wanted Gotham to be less gothic (regardless that the city's name is "Gotham"), and I can defend his creative choice for doing that in this movie (the "new" architecture of the city evolves from gothic and neo-classical towards '70s modern, skyscrapers, tall, lots of lines, etc.). But the "old parts" of Gotham still look recognizable as the streets and buildings of London, and the "new parts" are the Windy City. We would laugh if an aspiring filmmaker shot a film short on video, shooting at landmark locations in San Francisco and Seattle and had his cast pretend the movie is set in a fictitious "New Hippy-tropolis" or something.

And WTF is with leaving all the modern-day corporate logos? (And I don't think they are paid product placements, as they are not prominently seen, but the are still apparent -- they were just left there, and Nolan and his cinematographer didn't bother staging camera angles to block out corporate signs.) I wonder if this has anything to do with the fact that Nolan absolutely adores Blade Runner (I do, too) and felt that leaving in the corporate logos was similar to the way corporate logos in the Blade Runner cityscape added "grit" to the environment. Well, based on these trailers for TDK, it doesn't work. And, besides, those corporate logos in Blade Runner were intentionally put in and staged for that movie itself.

joker dropping rachel (all leaks point to her dying)

an oopsie with some of the chicago locations

harvey's really lazy CG scarring.

check them out here if you have a flickr account.remove spaces, if any.

http://flickr.com/photos/zom-b ot/

(MORIARTY - the march/theme is incredible. It's definitely a piece of music that creeps up on you and pulls you in. Glad to see more love for it here.)

Friday night, I saw IRON MAN and the other TDK trailer played beforehand. Judging by the audience's response, the anticipation for this film is primed to explode. Bring it on.

A Thirties setting is just what's needed for this franchise. A low-budget, intriguing detective story please, with Batman creeping around the shadows of Gotham's seedy and imaginative underworld, thank you very much.

I am Batman = Bitter loser.

The Riddler -- maybe he could be a guy who's a computer expert who attacks the city's infrastructure. But would this be interesting enough as a major villain?

The Penguin -- a shady businessman, who is referred to by his real name only. I liked how in The Batman cartoon, they established a backstory where the Cobblepot and Wayne families were rivals. They could have Oswald lead a hostile takeover of Wayne Industries. However, Oswald would work better as a secondary villain; somebody who is attacking Bruce in the board room but isn't directly involved in the street combat stuff.

Harley Quinn -- no explanation needed. She could work pretty much as is. But she's a side-kick, follower of Joker.

Catwoman -- Selina Kyle wouldn't need to be changed much, but I wonder if they'd drop the whip from her arsenal. Plus, she's not entirely bad.

The Ventriloquist -- not a major enough villain to carry a movie, but he could work in a small role.

So is there any major villain left who could fit in the Nolan-Batman world? Clayface, Bane, Manbat, Poison Ivy, Killer Croc, Mr. Freeze... none of these characters would fit.

bat-tank on old roofs downtown? no collapse? it crushes cars, but only spits off a few shingles. bullshit.

batman running recklessly over police. not ALLLLL the gotham cops were bad and certainly none of them deserved the bat-judgement of either death or crippling by bats running them over. instead those moments were the 'comic relief'because no one died, they just shit their pants.stupid.

the battank turns off its lights and slows down...and disappears! wtf? there was a helicopter on it. if it didn't go forward or cut to the side, no one thought to check behind about 20 feet?

i liked batman begins more than i probably should, mostly for the joker card at the end....but all the bat-tank physics ruin it. i can't wait to see that turd get blowed up real good in this one.i chalk up everything bad in BB to Goyer.

poison ivy- extreme eco terrorist, like she used to be. we've seen how some greenpeace hippy freaks will go to any end to save a freaking owl even if they have to burn down a house to prove a point. it would be cool to at least hear of some ecoterrorist hijinks led by a woman in the background news of one of these flicks, destroying an SUV dealership, or somehow costing wayne industries alot of grief and money.

Killer croc- toughy loner criminal thug with a skin condition. easily done. just drop him in a gang or prison scene. there's a guy named 'Gator' in TDK, is it really killer croc?

penguin- seemingly honorable and socially active businessman who deals in some pretty dirty shit. not good enough to carry his own movie, but would be a good foil to bruce and wayne industries to show how bad and immoral business can be. i'm sure there are more, give me a bit....

but now he can just fly or float whenever. so is it mental, or some sort of energy-levitation thing?

It seems to happen a lot to the talkbackers here. The whole film is just pissed down the drain by that ONE FUCKING SCENE that you just can't get out of your head.

Am waiting for Clock King and Killer Moth. Make it happen guys. Bonus points if you give Mirror man a cameo. Word.

It looks like the best candidate for a major villain would be a "realistical" Riddler.