Main Titles

sigh, I don't know what it is with these young kids today. back in the day, Main Titles were sooo important to a film. sure, back in my parent's day, not so much. they nearly always had the big bad dramatic brass crashing happening, and maybe some lighting bolt or somfin', and then the peoples names but not much else.
not sure when the first snazzy retro main titles appeared, but the one's that had an affect on me as a kid were The Pink Panther movies (animator Richard Williams did a couple), the James Bond movies (Maurice Binder did most of them until his death in 1991) and Hitchcock (graphic designer Saul Bass did most of Hitch's most famous ones, like Psycho, Vertigo and North By Northwest). Opening titles were nearly always classy (the Bond movies, while very cool and appropriate for the films, were kinda cheesy), and most importantly, telegraphed, without giving away anything, what it was you were about to watch. Nowadays, its quite rare to see a movie with a Main Title sequence, that isn't simply a cool font over the film already beginning. I though Joss Whedon kinda sorta mighta done something with Serenity, but the almost final cut I saw had just that, a basic font over the actors talking.
David Fincher is someone who has kinda kept the tradition going, with fabuloso title sequences to most of his films, esp. Fight Club, Se7en and Panic Room. Kyle Cooper did these and as I look on IMDB I notice that I guess there are still a lot of sequences being done (Cooper did Bewitched, Spider-Man 2, Dawn Of The Dead remake and Zoolander amongst others). Oh well, maybe it's just because there has been so much water under the bridge since the early days, that nothing seems original anymore. Me, I kinda liked it when the Se7en credits ran backwards.