Batman Begins to sizzle, X3 smells a rat

Ain't It Cool has published the first set of test-screening reviews for Batman Begins, which seem to confirm my suspicions that it will indeed kick ass. Meanwhile, their no. 2 man is strongly suggesting that the third X-Men film will be sacrificed to the God of Dreck, in this case - Brett Ratner.

Ratner is clearly a horrendous choice, but for those unaware, let me quickly reiterate three reasons why this is so:

• Rush Hour 2
• Rush Hour
• After the Sunset

The Rush Hour films were occassionally amusing in a very trivial way, but this was primarily due to some fun supporting actors and the overhwhelming goodwill generated by international charmer, Jackie Chan. Admittedly Chris Tucker's insipid hystrionics were less irritating than they should have been, considering past work, but that's like saying "prison wasn't as bad the second time through." Ratner's action scenes were perfunctory at best, muting the innate cleverness of Chan's astounding physicality with boring angles and unsteady rhythm.

Last fall's After the Sunset, on other hand, was a load of miscast, rottenly scripted cinematic feces that actually managed to make the serially-brilliant Don Cheadle look bad. Whoever decided homosexual confusion between the saggy, hairy-chested, shirtless bodies of Pierce Brosnan and Woody Harrelson would make for good comedy ought to have their brains replaced with grits - whatever this person has there now clearly isn't doing him any good. I've seen segments of "Newlyweds" cleverer than anything in After the Sunset.

Ratner has somehow curried favor with some of the profit-obsessed Fox execs, but the bad buzz he'll generate for this series is undoubtedly the sort of press that mutants of all stripes want to avoid.