Who Saw Benjamin Button?

Both of your bloggers did, so I thought I'd post about it. I thought the film was great, but I have two comments. First: Is it not a better version of Forrest Gump--the same magical Southern epic storyline, with an everyman main character who goes to war, goes to sea, and loves his momma, but thankfully in this case is not also a glorification of anti-intellectualism? And second: Was not the whole Katrina angle sort of extraneous and even cheapening? What did that have to do with the story? And if they were in New Orleans in the 1960s, how did they miss Hurricane Besty, Katrina's mini-me? I give it an A-. Discuss.