Batman Blows

I just saw "Batman Begins" and it was terrible. I am sick and tired of the marketing departments selling the latest Batman installment as "darker" or "grimmer". This has not been a revelation since the Dark Knight Returns comic by Frank Miller in 1985. It worked (very well) then...but how often can you go back to the same well?

I'm not hating but is it too much to ask for two simple things? A touch of originality and a basic respect for the art of unfolding a story and developing the characters in a respectful and intelligent way. For instance, why was the panic gas in Batman injected into the water if it requires a secret liquid-ionizer to turn it back into gas so the city could be infected? As far as I can see, all that achieves is writes in an extra plot twist about the theft of the ionizer from Wayne enterprises...and an extra 20 minutes of non-essential screen time.

Thank God I saw this on pay-per-view. I'm only out $3.95.