I can think of no better example of the destructive power of advertising than the Batman series of films. Each time one is released, I tell myself in advance I won't go see it. Each time, the hype penetrates to some place in my skull that makes me powerless to resist seeing it. I wind up sitting in the movie theater looking around like an amnesiac wondering "How did I get here?" Then I leave the theater at the end of the film filled with self-hate.

It remind me of that drug they supposedly give to women about to give birth. It doesn't keep you from experiencing pain, it makes you forget the pain once you've been through it. Could I have been exposed to a time-release version in the movie theater? I just don't know how to explain it.

So I am wary of Batman Begins. I am also resigned to seeing it. I hold onto a glimmer of hope that it won't completely suck, based on Roger Ebert's positive review. I generally trust Roger in otaku matters, even though I've never really gotten over his thumbs-up review of The Passion of the Christ.