Poor Joel Schumacher. Imagine being responsible for driving Batman into excile for nearly 10 years. Don't be fooled: this movie is awful. Flat out bad. I say poor Joel because he has made it know that it's not the movie he wanted to make. It was rushed, forced out to capitalize on "Forever"'s momentum and designed to sell toys. Too many characters, too much neon (did Freeze need that mouthpiece?), and just badness. If you can bring yourself to watch the first bit, listen to the museum fight. There are *boinks* and other '60s TV Batman sound effects that should have stayed in the '60s.

Also, Bane is the Venom of Batman comics. He is the ultmiate opponent: physically stronger, mentally equal if not better, and a personal vendetta with no limits. Unfortunately, Bane, like Venom, gets thrown into an overloaded movie and is demonted to a mindless brute tat is easily defeated. Tragic. At least Uma is good, relishing her role as Poison Ivy. George Clooney was a great Bruce Wayne, but didn't really work as Batman.