The same problem that plagued Bryan Singer's overblown, under-thought Superman Returns plagues Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins: no character. Richard Donner's Superman has character. Tim Burton's Batman has character. Even the original Superman and Batman television series had character.

Like Superman Returns, Batman Begins is a great-looking tour-de-force of visual effects, stunt work and moody production design. But when the movie isn't concentrating on one or more of those aspects, it lumbers along at a lethargic pace as we're forced to listen to bored actors playing characters we don't care about recite lines that sound like they were written using a "screenwriting for dummies" handbook.

Once again, Hollywood delivers a mega-production with lots of sound and fury but no soul. Every worn out action movie cliché is here: the tormented hero, the strained romantic relationship, the good cop in a town full of corruption, post-Blade Runner "let's-use-rain-and-monochromatic-scenery-to-create-atmosphere" production design, editing that looks like it was performed automatically by a computer, a Hans Zimmer knock-off score, etc, etc. Sometimes, these things can work. A cliché is a cliché because it works. Unfortunately, this time nothing works.

The dialog rarely meshes with the acting. The screenwriter throws in the usual one-liners, but they're delivered with such deadpan witlessness that they just come off as awkward (e.g. Gary Oldman's monotone "I gotta get me one of those" aside at the sight of the Batmobile).

The amount of wasted talent on display here makes it all the more disappointing. Oldman is given almost nothing to do as "the last honest cop," Rutger Hauer barely shows up as a shifty CEO and Morgan Freeman has little more than a cameo as Batman's tech supplier. Michael Caine makes a perfectly good Alfred, even if the character itself is completely unbelievable. The gifted Christian Bale, however, plays both Bruce Wayne and Batman with the same monotone dullness as Val Kilmer did in Batman Forever.

The worst, though, is Katie Holmes as Bruce's childhood friend/adult love interest. Her performance is easily one of the most embarrassingly awful to ever appear in a major studio production. When one thinks of the possible casting choices that could have filled this role, the mind as well as the stomach reels.

There's certainly enough action to hold one's interest during the two-plus hour running time. But anyone who still feels that what makes DC and Marvel comic book characters stand the test of time are the rich characterizations will be sorely disappointed. There's none of that on display here. Batman Begins is yet another big budget extravaganza that's little more than a feature length music video. It just goes to show, give a critically acclaimed indie director like Nolan $100 Million and he'll be too scared to deliver anything except the same homogenized eye candy Hollywood has churned out for years.