Well, being a long-time Batman fan (since age 3) and none too keen on the Marvel side of things (I've never forgiven them for giving Rob Liefeld his big break) I for one hope it's better than the earlier film (Bats Begins ... Yet Again). I seem to be one of the minority that loathes the work of David Goyer post Blade, and am sick of people playing fast and loose with the established continuity of my favourite chatracter.

Surely even you, tweety, must be sick of the massive amounts of ret-conning that permeate Marvel's titles (no more bleedin' Gwen Stacey stories, please!!) Leave the continuity well alone and write NEW stories, for gawd's sake!

As for the choice of Christian Bale to play Bruce Wayne, I just felt there wasn't enough seperation between the Wayne/Batman characters. Gary Oldman as Jim Gordon, however, was excellent (remarkably close to Jim Gordon in Year 1). But it pleases the masses, I suppose.

We can always play 'Who does Wayne reveal his identity to this time' - my money is on someone related to the Joker. Sigh.

Oh, just for those who don't know the Batman character - Henri Ducard taught a young Bruce Wayne deductive reasoning and detection skills, and is in no way related to Ras Al Ghul.