As a geek and a die-hard Batman fan, I'm conflicted over Christian Bale. I grew up with Adam West as the groovy Caped Crusader. Michael Keaton was pretty cool as "The Dark Knight", but his Bruce Wayne was weak. It was like watching Mr. Mom, Night Shift, or one of his other comedies, and then watching him pull the cowl over that. Val Kilmer was the Transitional-Batman...Like George Lazenby was the Transitional-Bond between Sean Connery and Roger Moore. George Clooney was the Franchise-Killer Batman - even he admits that! Batman Begins was incredible - up until the point where Batman scares a little kid and has black tar dripping out of his mouth due to the Scarecrow's fear gas. I took my nephew to see it, and paid for a couple therapy sessions for him to get over the experience. My boys won't see any of the Bale Batman films until they're married with kids of their own. That's probably when I'll feel comfortable about it. Don't get me wrong, Christopher Nolan is a great director and the stories are awesome and pretty true to the comic books; I just don't think they are very kid- friendly, or appropriate for a couple eleven-year-olds. Bale's Bruce Wayne is awesome, I just think his Batman is very, very scary. You can disagree with me if you like. Bale turns 39 today; Phil Collins is 62; Former Vice President Dick Cheney is 72, and one-time Lex Luthor, Gene Hackman is 83!