First of all, I'm not against this movie. I found it entertaining, it wasn't boring (and that's rare nowadays), but... I can't understand why critics celebrate this so much. It's not gonna be cinema history as Tim Burton's first film, it's not as dark as the first film, and even the plot is not as good as the first films. There are lots of events in this movie copying Batman 1989's scenes. The escape of Rachel, Batman and Rachel in the Batmobile, then in the Batcave, the dialog is almost the same as the first Batman's. Remember Batman and Vicki Vale in those scenes. The music is not so characteristic, like Danny Elfman's was, and the image of Gotham City is not what a fan imagines. Even the actors: Bale is OK, Caine is good, Liam Neeson is the same as the jedi master, but KAtie Holmes is less than a Batman-girl... first of all, blond looks better in dark Gotham, and after beauties like Kim, Michelle or Nicole she looks more like a mouse. I don't like rewriting the story (The Joker is gonna show up again) and summarizing: it's not what we except from a Batman movie. There are no great stars with charisma like Nicholson, Basinger, de Vito, Pfeiffer or good characters like Christopher Walken was, there's no comic feeling, not dark enough, no cool Gotham or Arkham sets, no Cool Bat-music, no blonde beauties, no good villains... Next time, make the movie more BATMANISH!!!