from bat to worse

So, Hollywood's having a sucky summer?
After going to the movies Friday night, I can see why.
I convinced the BF to see Batman Begins, although he was quick to tell me that he hated the first Batman movie. (I tried in vain to explain that this one should be different because it's an effort to jumpstart the franchise after abysmal entries like Batman Forever or Batman and Robin. But after he admitted that he never knew those films existed, I decided to just shut up and eat my popcorn.)

We've learned the hard way that you have to arrive early to get a good seat at our favorite movie house, the Regal Cinemas with stadium seating at Union Square, which means we were seated long before the previews, or even the commercials, started. Except they're not packaged as commercials nowadays — it's "The 2wenty," which is supposed to make me, Mr. Unsuspecting Movie Dope, think I'm watching an Access Hollywood knock-off instead of sitting through a series of advertisements before the film begins.
On "The 2wenty" (god, I hate that name), we saw a pathetic and cloying "making of" short for a movie called The 40-Year-Old Virgin, a segment that stayed true to its subject matter with a blatant cry for compassion. Is there such a thing as a Cineplex Pity Fuck?
Next was a preview of "Sky High", another stellar piece of pre-adolescent pabulum from Disney. The premise: A high-school kid whose parents are super heroes struggles to discover his own powers. Except, wasn't that called The Incredibles when it was released last year? (And wasn't The Incredibles itself a fairly obvious rip-off of "The Fantastic Four" — a once proud comic team that just may be the saviors of Summer Blockbuster Hell. I haven't seen the new movie yet, but The Thing looks like a doo-doo brown Michelin Man and the other special effects appear equally appalling. I can't wait.)
Our journey through Coming Attractions Disasters continued with a trio of remakes: The Dukes of Hazzard, The Bad News Bears and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. (I know, I know: Charlie is not technically a remake of Willy Wonka, but bear with me.)
Do you not see where I'm going with this? Hollywood has completely forgotten how to make anything new.
Look at this summer's line-up: Bewitched. Star Wars. Even War of the Freakin' Worlds. All retreads.
What's left? Aren't we rapidly reaching the point where every single forgettable TV show, every minor comic book character, every second- and third-tier Baby Boomer classic, has been recycled?

As for Batman Begins, well, I didn't like it. I thought Christian Bale did a bang-up job as Bruce Wayne, but the film was far too rooted in reality to make the Batman mythos work. (Oddly enough, the BF thought it was pretty cool.)
Not to give anything away, the final scene of the film makes it pretty clear who the villain is going to be in the sequel. Gordon hands Batman a playing card left at a crime scene — a Joker.
Great. Here we go again.