Matt Cable mentioned: '"Midgets in a fantasy world have to hide piece of jewelry from an evil wizard demon or the world will end? Phfft!")'

They can't 'hide' it from the Dark Lord, that does them no good whatsoever. They have to destroy the piece of jewelry.

Otherwise, excellent points, Matt.

And yes, I have no life...

You failed to realize that I was making the same point that you did in your post. It's easy to make these things sound stupid by taking them out of context. That was my point. Someone who goes to a Batman film and then claims it was for people who need to "grow up" fails to realize that a sense of wonder is required for something that is essentially a fantasy. If you look at it from the outside in a man dressing up in a bat suit is the height of buffoonery.

I love everything about Batman Begins and have about thirty long boxes of comic books sitting in my closet.

So... going by the responses to this review, I take it that everyone here who read SZ's very positive review of "Iron Man" vowed not to see it purely on the strength of knowing that whatever SZ writes, they should do the opposite?

... Of course not. That would be silly. People only make that vow when they feel stung by a reviewer disagreeing with them. "If you say it's bad, I know it must be good!" never seems to be balanced out by "If you say it's good, then I know I won't like it!" As long as SZ agrees with you, life is roses... and then you quickly forget that she EVER agreed with you.

I'd have more respect for the people wailing about her negative review of this movie if they would *acknowledge* that she doesn't routinely pan comic-book adaptations or action flicks; especially when the evidence that she doesn't is so recent.

Other than pointing that out, though, I have no opinion about this review. I never saw "Batman Begins", I admit that the only thing I'm curious about in this movie is Ledger's Joker, and that's not enough to get me into the theatres. Not denigrating anyone who does like either of those films. I've simply never liked Batman all that much (and that's speaking as a comics geek who likes plenty of other properties and the movies made about them).

Thanks, mattcable, for saying it better than I could. Other titles I'd add to the serious/became a movie list:

V for Vendetta

28 Days Later

Wanted (although I'd recommend the trashy movie over the insipid comic any day of the week)

Other titles that have no movie but are otherwise cultural watersheds:

Maus (Go ahead and read Speigelman's masterpiece and see if you ever trash the medium again)

Any wartime tome by Joe Sacco: his "Palestine" should be required reading for anyone trying to make sense of the current state of the Middle East.

Anything by Peter Bagge: (I'm still waiting for the "Buddy"/"Hate" movie!!!)

The Cowboy Wally Show (Kyle Baker): the children's television host as drunken bastard theme has never been funnier or more scary...

These are just off the top of my head. Anyone else got some?

I understand what people are saying about the action scenes in "Batman Begins," but frankly (and though I'm a big fan of Hong Kong cinema) I love the idea that Batman actually fights realistically. When I mean realistically is, yes, watching Jackie Chan kick buckets and adversaries a couple of times, and then they go flying, or trading blows back and forth is very entertaining, but is very showy. A good fighter can take out another in two, three hits, in a matter of seconds. They also try to group their adversaries, instead of standing in the middle of a huge group of villians and having the villians run at them one by one.

So I LOVED that Batman was fast and efficient. It also says a lot more about his character; he doesn't waste time. He doesn't show mercy. You're in his way; you're done. It's also going to be interesting to see if they change some of his fighting style in this movie as he becomes more morally ambigious; do his long, drawn-out fights with the Joker reflect the inner turmoil, that the Joker will never stop until he's dead, and the only one who can kill him is Batman.

And for the record... I'm a 23 year old female. And Miller runs hot and cold for me.

PS: I can't seem to find Steph's review of "Iron Man," another comic book character movie I loved. Was it negative, as well?

So... going by the responses to this review, I take it that everyone here who read SZ's very positive review of "Iron Man" vowed not to see it purely on the strength of knowing that whatever SZ writes, they should do the opposite?

Actually I was working off her statement that she disliked and in turn was unmoved and bored by Batman Begins. I really enjoyed Batman Begins.

I would say that in general Stephanie is a bit more negative than positive overall in her reviews, but then again there is a lot of crap out there.

. . . over a movie review. This isn't a condemnation of a country, an administration, a culture or a people. It's a not-so-positive movie review. I'd like to see more of those, personally. I think an actor's untimely death and a mass hysteria have made for a slew of shallow, cheerleader positive reviews for a movie I must admit I'm not looking forward to seeing.

I saw "Batman Begins." It came out while I lived in Japan . . . and a friend had bought a pirated DVD copy while on a trip to Thailand. My roommate and I had the same reaction: We thought the pirate DVD was flawed. We thought it was missing scenes from the actual movie.

It wasn't until an international flight featuring that same film sat me through it a second time that I discovered it wasn't a flawed DVD, it was a flawed movie. I, too, found it boring in its shallow, silly, surface "darkness." I found it poorly edited, confusing, with bad casting choices (Katie Holmes was silly, Christian Bale was a piece of wood). I was amazed that so many people found it so, so amazing . . .when the 1987 Michael Keaton "Batman" far outranks it in intelligence, humor, style and, yes, even substance. (It's the same thing I tell the Goth kids: TELLING me you're "dark" and "deep" doesn't make is so, sugar.)

So, personally, I'm happy to see a review that isn't a part of the pack mentality that most favor these days.