I saw Batman Begins.

Katie Holmes was pointless, but then she is the romantic interest in a Batman movie. Although amusingly, she was only the romantic interest because she was the only girl in the movie. At the inevitable break-up scene at the end, I kept waiting for Bruce to say, "Er, were we even interested in each other? I thought we had a Platonic relationship." The good news was that she wasn't even in the movie that much, but she was in it more than she needed to be. Because she didn't need to be there at all. Really. i don't know why they always have to have a romantic figure in a Batman movie. I assume they think, "There has to be a hint of romance, so that women will see the movie." Note to Warner Bros.: keep putting pretty boys like Cillian Murphy in the movies, and women will be happy.

I really liked the concepts in the movie. Possibly more than the actual movie, where they were driven home five or six too many times. But I liked everyone talking about fear. I liked the idea that Batman was actually the moderate voice compared to the League of Shadows. I liked the prison-break-plus-fear-toxin explaining why Gotham is full of maniacs. There are some beautiful images. I really liked the lack-of-opening-title shot, with the bats, because I was sitting there thinking, "Hey, it'd be cool if they... oh, look, they did! Pretty."

Things I was less keen on:

• having some of those ideas beaten to a pulp. I got it the first five times, really.

• The movie's kind of... obsessive. Like, we see Bruce get this high tech armor, and we understand that he's going to use it to make a Batsuit. And then we see him painting it black. And then we see him in it. And then after that there's this bit where he opens the wardrobe to reveal (dun dun DUNNN) the Batsuit, and it's odd, because.... we know, already. We saw it just a few minutes ago. We understand. There's a lot of stuff like that, where I really think the audience could make the leap from point A to point B without showing us every tiny in-between stage.

• The big chase scene with the Batmobile did not need to be three hours long. Jesus. If you're giving me time to wonder why the roofs in Gotham are built to support the weight of a half-ton vehicle dropping onto them, your action scene is too long. And the fight scenes were mostly incomprehensible, but that's sort of traditional for Batman movies. I really wish it wasn't, though. Grump.

• I missed the Danny Elfman theme. I didn't need a whole Elfman soundtrack, with the "Aaah-uuuh, aaah-uuuh"ing and all, even though I enjoy it, but I had no idea how strongly I associated his theme with Batman until I kept being disappointed when they didn't use it.

• The quipping. I understand why it was there, particularly since most of the quips were in the trailers and ads. Bruce testing the prototype Batmobile and saying, "Does it come in black?" and stuff like that. I know people expect that, but those lines are so jarring when you see them in context because this particular Bruce Wayne does not seem like a guy who makes self-conscious jokes. Alfred and the other sidekicks can joke, but oh, it was irritating when Bruce did it.

I did enjoy it, but I guess I'd give it a B and wish I could have given it an A. Oh, and my favorite unintentionally (?) funny line was "Don't be frightened. [beat] You've been poisoned." Yeah, that's a calming sentence. Good job, Bruce.

Jacob was able to reassure me that I'm not the only one who's creeped out by the ads for The Fantastic Four. Reading Planetary really puts that movie in a different light.

On Mugga's recommendation, I have finally seen the first series of The League of Gentlemen. Good lord, that's odd. I'd seen it compared to Twin Peaks a few times, and that's not a great comparison but now I understand why people make it, because that's the closest thing I can find to the deep weirdness. I mean, saying, "If Twin Peaks was a sketch comedy show written by H.P. Lovecraft, it'd be like this," doesn't tell you much, but it is accurate. It's really just a bunch of sketches about recurring bizarre characters, but the genius of the show is that all of the characters live in the same small town, which makes it feel oddly more real, like you've dropped into an alternate world. There's a semblance of a soap-opera premise connecting the characters to each other, and it's amazing how quickly people will latch onto a story, even if there isn't one, really. In the commentaries, the performers talk about how the audience got very involved in what-would-happen-next and turned what was really just a framing device into a story. Which is neat.

I find that I am kind of tired of Neil Gaiman. I feel a little bit bad about that, because I don't know why I'm tired of him. I haven't even read anything by him in quite a while. I'm just tired of hearing about him. And yet I read his journal. I should probably stop doing that, and then I could miss him and actually find him interesting again. Also, Kevin Smith. I rented the director's cut of Donnie Darko, and I was originally contemplating buying it but the reason I didn't is, I have to say, Kevin Smith. Like I said, I rented the DVD, and I will listen to the new commentary he did with Kelly, and it will probably be entertaining. Again, it's not like I'm running across him all over the place, and so there's no real reason for me to feel weary when I see his name. And yet, I do.