Sam Raimi should've directed it

This wasn't a terrible film per say, but it lacked the heart and cohesion needed to make it anything other than an exercise in style. It virtually has no plot or narrative urgency of any sort, nor any particularly meaningful character arcs or emotional center (okay, there's the relationship between Tracy and Trueheart but that's hardly gripping stuff).

Had if Sam Raimi directed it, he could've imbued it with a real sense of heart and emotional gravitas that was sorely lacking under Beatty's direction. Beatty may have nailed the look and aesthetic of the original comics perfectly, but he lacked the ability to make any of it worthwhile to your average moviegoer.

What the film needed was a good, simple story that audiences could follow and connect with through its innocent, good-natured portrayal of good vs evil. It needed to have a good sense of old-timey morality and righteousness to it that Sam would've knocked out in spades, as evidenced by his work on the Spider-Man trilogy. He would've made the audience care in a way Beatty couldn't, as well as possibly giving the film something of a horror edge with its portrayal of its villains. Getting a younger, better leading man and getting rid of Madonna would've also been good.

Who's with me?