The Adventures of Captain Otter

Captain Otter carries an unabashed, beyond fanboy-ish obsession to Batman.  And today we have two crazy ideas from both Marvel and DC about the Caped Crusader.

Let’s look at Marvel’s latest project.  Okay, so this isn’t “Batman”, but it’s as close to plagiarism as I can imagine.  Mark Millar, who I have mixed feelings about, is asking us “what if Batman was the Joker?”  First of all, this is a horrendously stupid question.  The two are polar opposites, the alpha and the omega, the yin and the yang.  All that junk.  Bruce Wayne can’t be the Joker, and if he is then he loses every element that makes him Batman.  The comic will be published by Marvel, but will be driven by Mark Millar and Icon, just like Kick Ass.   The comic imagines Bruce Wayne as an anarchist who enjoys messing with cops, and we see “Nemesis” now toying with this world’s Comissioner Gordon.  It’s a reversal of Batman’s story in every way.

A better way of framing this would be, what if the Joker was a rich billionaire?  No elements of Bruce Wayne seem to be left, and we’ll have to see what the take on his origin is.  Also, it feels weird that Marvel is handling this project.  They’re taking concepts directly from DC and using them for themselves.  I would feel much more comfortable  if DC was publishing this in one of their various multiverses.

 Speaking of which, we have more crazy stories from DC’s multiverses.  Geoff Johns, DC’s newest golden boy and J. Michael Stracynski are working on a new Batman and Superman project.  The stories will take place on Earth-1, and will be new takes on the two characters.  Havn’t we seen this before?  Telling stories about the characters that are not part of continuity?  Isn’t that All-star Batman and Superman?  The writers will be picking and choosing elements of the characters origins to create more modern takes on the characters.  Seems a bit like Marvel;s Ultimate universe.  But while the Ultimate universe felt like an attempt to create something entirely new and original, this feels like a way to escape the tedious backstories and continuity.  Which is strange, because the DC universe continues to be filled with retcons.  It’s my least favorite part of the company, really.  Still, I’m not going to complain at the prospect of two great writes handling two great heroes with an incredible writer on board.  I know I’m going to pick this up, and think it could be something special.

♭Hey la, day la, my Batman’s back! ♭

We have alot of crazy upcoming Batman stories.  I was writing an article on that when I discovered this much more important piece of information.  Bruce Wayne is back.

Wait, that’s not enough for you?  The glorious return of arguably the greatest hero, and you want more?  Shame on you.  Luckily, DC is delivering.  See, Batman was never dead.  Even though I wasn’t thrilled with the story of Batman’s passing, they did establish that he wasn’t dead, just lost in time after being hit by Darkseid’s Omega Sanction.  Pretty much the exact same thing as Captain America.  But instead of reliving the events of his own life like Cap, Bats is going to cause havoc in a bunch of other eras.  So we get to see Batman as a caveman, witchhunter, cowboy, detective, and A PIRATE.  That’s right, pirate Batman.  Pirate Batman made this entire ordeal worthwhile.

So, somehow, Batman is going to figure out how to get back to this point in time.  The other question is what happens to Dick Grayson.  He’s been doing a great job as Batman, and I really like how he’s become so high profile.  Sure, he’s cool as Nightwing, but as Batman the former side-kick takes center stage.  Even though I think that he can never truly be Batman (only Bruce can), he is still a great character.  And he hasn’t even had the job for a full year yet and they’re already giving him the boot.  It feels way too brief, and there are tons of storytelling opportuntities left. 

I’m a tiny bit skeptical about how they’re going to handle Dick Grayson, but this still sounds like a great story.  I’m really looking forward to this, and you should too.  The first issue hits stands in April.  And once that issue comes out, we can start the debate of who makes a better pirate: Deadpool or Batman.

A whiles back, I mentioned how I was trying to go out and read more DC titles.  With a new Batman in town, I thought it might be a good place to jump on.  There are tons of books in the Bat family.  One of the titles I checked out was Batman and Robin, written by DC legends Grant Morrison.  I can assure you, this is the weirdest damn comic I’ve ever read.

First of all, what do you think of when you think of Batman?  Dark, ominous, brooding heroes beating criminals into submission.  Batman and Robin keeps things dark, but throws around lots of vibrant colors as well.  Trust me, this is the most normal part.  The villains so far have been more than a bit off kilter.  Sure, you can expect crazy from Batman villains, but these guys are truly disturbed.  We saw some guy named Profesor Pyg, who created “dolltrons” by grafting doll masks onto living victims and turning them into mindless slaves.  That’s the normal part.  He also tried to turn Robin into one of these things, basically strip teasing while ranting about how he wants to be sick in front of everyone.  It was the strangest three pages I’ve ever read, and I really wonder what was going through Grant Morrison’s head sometimes.

We then have Jason Todd, the second Robin, appearing as the Red Hood.  Jason has gone bonkers since he revival, and takes an unhealthy interest into one of the freed dolltrons, turning her into his side kick.  He also launches an online campaign and becomes some kind of an advertising guru.  All about trying to keep up with the times.  Again, just strange, and quite trippy.  And Jason Todd is by far the most normal character Batman fights.

The last villain of the first six issues is the Pink Flamingo.  The Pink Flamingo.  The mighty Batman almost gets taken down by a villain called the Pink Flamingo.  If you have any sense of dignity, you should be upset right now.  Other than his understandably unusual attire, P Flam also enjoys defiling the bodies of his victims.  In one case, I think he tore off their faces and sprayed the walls with blood, or something.  His family was butchered by the mob, so now the psycho works for them as an assassin.  Which makes perfect sense.  And somehow, he has the combat training to nearly take down Batman, Robin, and the Red Hood.  Because by becoming a hitman for the mob and dressing up in a costume, you automatically gain the ability to go toe to toe with trained professionals.

So, Batman and Robin is one giant acid trip.  I’m all for trying out different comics with unique visions, but this is just weird, almost for the sake of being weird.  Grant Morisson is an incredibly intelligent writer, and certainly knows how to tell a compressed story like no other.  It’s just that the style of this specific title isn’t for me.  I think I’m gonna wind up dropping this title, since my pull list is big enough as it is.

Third times a charm.  After two less than stellar directors, WB decided to model a story after Batman: Year One.  They snagged Christopher Nolan as the director, who was a somewhat unconventional choice at the time.  More than a billion dollars later, most people feel that Nolan is the only man for the job.  Creating a dark, realistic, and mature take on the character, Nolan has brought Batman back to the top.

It all started with Batman Begins.  Christian Bale was a great choice of Batman, and certainly the most believable.  He portrays a character who is consumed by his quest for jutice, which is something truly bizarre when you think about it.  But he makes it happen.  I still don’t think he’s a perfect Batman, and his voice can be a distraction at some times.  And he does over act every once in a while.  Despite this, he still delivers an amazing performance that shows just how cool Bruce Wayne is.  And then we have Michael Caine as Alfred.  Amazing.  Finally, a movie that shows how much of a badass Alfred actually is.  Morgan Freeman does a great Lucius Fox, mostly because his voice brings a sense of dignity to the character.  And then we have Gary Oldman, who completely nails his performance as the future Commissioner Gordon.  I can’t say enough how flawless these three actors were.  Katie Holmes is just alright as the love interest, and I appreciate how the writers tried to give her a substantial part rather than simpel damsel in distress.  She is Bruce’s moral compass, and plays a serious role in the creation of Batman as we know him.  She’s the one that teaches Bruce the difference between justice and revenge, and we start to understand how Batman obtained this strong moral foundation.  The villains were fantastic as well.  Cillian Murphy is a fun, and haunting, Scarecrow.  He has that chilling glare, and the hallucination sequences captured the spirit of the character in a way only movies can.  He didn’t have a massive role, but then again he wasn’t the main villain.  That would be Liam Neeson as Henri Ducard/Ra’s Al Ghul.  I for one, loved how they approached the immortality issue.  They couldn’t actually make him immortal, or the movie wouldn’t feel real anymore.  Instead Ra’s uses imposters, so that you can think he is dead when the real villain is still alive.  That was downright clever, and was a great plot device as well.  They might have changed alot about the character and his origins, but the heart and essence of who Ra’s is and what he wants remain solid.  Liam Neeson is a great actor, and while his performance isn’t as memorable as some of the more exotic and wild supervillains, is certainly delivered with all the charm and strength of an experienced actor.

Before I talk about the plot, I want to mention the sense of realism that the movie had.  Sure, the X-men movies tried to be realistic, but Batman Begins felt completely believable.  The technology, the style, the fact that it was shot in an actual city.  Everything felt like it really could happen.  The Batmobile isn’t some crazy car.  It’s a modified TANK.  Yeah, if you were going to fight crime, wouldn’t you use a vehicle like that?  Gotham isn’t some neon concrete jungle, it’s a part of our world.  There are no superpowers, and everything is possible.  Sure, some spoilsport physics major could probably prove otherwise, but they can go straight to hell.  While this isn’t the “truest” take on the character and loses a few of the more fantastical elements, it keeps the heart of the character and works much better in movies.  There is a problem with this take though.  It makes it easier to believe you actually can be Batman.  Trust me, that can be a serious problem for someone like me, who will consider following through with those dreams.The greatest strength of this movie is that it focuses on Batman, not the villains.  We get to see Bruce’s struggle, and the villains are just a part of that.  The villains are well done, but a good comic book hero needs to focus on it’s protagonist.  I also love how father figures are used.  After the death of his parents, Bruce finds guidance in Alfred and Ra’s Al Ghul.  While Ra’s is instrumental in turning Bruce into Batman, it’s Alfred that emerges as Bruce’s true mentor.  I liked this angle, and maybe could have been emphasized a bit more.  Like why did Bruce completely forget about Ra’s (or Ducard, in his POV), after he destroys the temple?  This guy did share Ra’s beliefs, and he kind of let it go.  There was also the theme of fear, which is a timely issue.  There were some comparisons to the War on Terror, and whether or not we should use fear to combat those who prey on the innocent.  For the most part, these are underplayed, and the emphasis is on Batman’s world, not politics.And now we have the Dark Knight, one of the most successful movies of all time.  It’s complex, and I could analyze it forever.  I’ll try and condense it a little bit.  TDK maintains the realism and maturity of it’s predecessor, and throws in a overwhelming intensity to the movie.  You can’t relax for a second.  It captures your attention and never lets go.  Part of this is the excellent writing, which continuously builds tension until everything explodes, both literally and metaphorically.  The other part is the Joker.  The Joker isn’t just one of the best comic book portrayals.  Nor is it one of the best performances of the decade.  It’s one of the best performances of all time.  Just try not to watch him when he’s on screen.  He’s unbelievable.  And they didn’t make him pure evil either.  They turned him into an agent of chaos, a force of nature.  The decision not reveal his true origin was definitely the right thing to do.  Knowing how the Joker came to be makes him less elemental.  The Joker always existed.  Nothing created him, he’s part of the chaos of our world.  Some of what he says is hauntingly true, and he raises some serious questions about human nature.  And then we have Batman, a force of order who staunchly opposes the chaos and disorder that the Joker brings.  While Harvey Dent doesn’t have the willpower or strength to resist the horrors of the world, Batman’s strength of purpose shows that humanity can overcome their dark side.  The boat scene highlights this conflict, and even forces the audience to decide what they would do in that situation.  Is Batman right, and would we refuse to press the button?  Or is the Joker right about humanity, and will we save ourselves and the cost of others?  Or will we do something else entirely?  The Batman/Joker conflict is the greatest dichotomy in comics, and TDK captures this perfectly.  And it blatantly shows that the two will fight until the end of time.  “You won’t kill me out of some misplaced sense of self-righteousness. And I won’t kill you because you’re just too much fun. I think you and I are destined to do this forever.”  And they will.  Comics never end, and the two will battle until they disappear from our culture.  And there is a reason this fight will never end.  The two are polar opposites, and believe in entirely different things.  The Joker has no rules, Batman has one.  Chaos vs. Order.  And yet they are so similar.  They are both completely committed to their cause, and they both work outside of society.  Batman uses fear, but the Joker’s war paint and general reign of terror does to.  They complete each other.  Alone, they’re awesome characters.  But together, they’re legendary. 

Oh wow, that went on for a while.  Well, if you’re still reading, I guess we should talk about Harvey Dent.  The movie removed alot of Dent’s pre-transformation insanity.  Dent was never perfect in the head, and this movie glosses over that a bit.  Instead, the character experiences a greater fall from grace.  We see a few outbreaks that allude to his corruption.  He “can’t imagine” losing Rachel, and when he thinks she’s in danger, he starts showing a sense of ruthlessness.  When he finally does lose Rachel, he can’t accept it.  Dent can’t make sense of the chaos in the world, and why he was the only one who suffered.  He can only understand this as chance, pure probability.  No bias, and entirely fair.  He finds that order has failed, and gives into chaos.  A very different kind of chaos compared to the Joker, but still chaos.  I think we should have seen a bit more reason for Harvey to transform though.  The Long Halloween, a big inspiration on the movie, implied that Dent had done some questionable things in his pursuit of justice.  This movie alludes to a shady past in Internal Affairs, where he first got his nickname, but this should have been touched on.  The first time you watch the movie, you don’t care at all.  After the second time, you have to look harder to find the signs that Dent will go bad.

Okay, so I could talk about this movie forever.  Is it perfect?  No.  It has a few flaws, but contains some of the best performances of all time.  I’ll never forget the first time I saw it, and how even after the midnight showing I wanted to go back the next day.   TDK shows us that comic book movies can be mature, and can have real themes.  I’m still angry with the academy for not nominating it for best picture.  I’m not saying it should have won, but it should have been nominated at the very least.  I think the academy realized that people are getting upset at the fact that only artsy movies get nominated, so they bumped up the number of nominations to 10.  A year too late though.  Still, the movie made over a billion dollars in theaters.  It was huge.  Beyond huge.  Chris Nolan created something special.  In the wake of all this Twilight nonsense, at least we still know that moody half-vampires and 1-dimensional mary sues can’t break the single weekend record of Batman.  And hopefully, we have one more outing from Nolan to look forward to.  Trilogies always work for me, and I’m a big fan on things that come in threes.  Give us one more movie to finish it all of, and explore all the aftermath of The Dark Knight.  Rumor has it that by January, Warners and Nolan will announce what’s going on.  Could someone replace Nolan?  Maybe.  All they have to do is follow the groundwork he established.  But I think all of us want to see the director finish up his trilogy.  No matter what else happens to Batman in movies, we’ll always have this shining moment to look back to.  Let’s hope we get it.

We continue our look on the Batman movie franchise with Joel Schumacher’s Batman Forever and Batman and Robin.  If I could summarize these movies, I would do so in two words: rubber nipples.  Just check out the costumes….

I should stop my article right there and allow us to forget the experience.  But hey, you’ve been scarred enough already.

So….Batman Forever.  Not an awful movie by any means.  Val Kilmer comes off as cold and aloof, which is a bit fitting for Bruce Wayne.  It’s a shame he comes off as too cold.  There’s not enough personality and I never find myself caring about him.  Chris O’donnell makes a pretty decent Robin, which is saying alot considering how much I don’t care for the character as a sidekick.  Nicole Kidman’s character is a simple damsel in distress, and felt kind of pointless.  She was almost a love interest for the sake of having a love interest.  The biggest problem of the movie though, is the same as Batman Returns; it’s all about the villains.  Now Jim Carrey does make for a fun Riddler.  He’s not at his best, but he still pretty damn funny to watch.  Too bad they missed what makes the character unique and compelling.  The Riddler isn’t some Joker rip off.  He’s clever, witty, and has a crippling case of OCD.  In the movie, he was crazy, but his love of riddles was more of a hobby than a compulsion.  It’s his inability to resist making these puzzles that makes him crazy, and they failed to illustrate that.  They did even worse with Two-Face.  Two-Face is one of Batman’s greatest foes, and there is a great element of tragedy in the character.  Instead, he’s some crazy mob boss.  He’s reduced to a raving lunatic, and I’m surprised they didn’t give him a mustache to twirl.  The movie missed out on the elements that make these two unique and interesting villains.  Instead, we get two simple nut jobs.  Frequently entertaining nut jobs, but nut jobs nonetheless.

The story itself wasn’t much better.  The writers tried to throw in a theme about the duality of Bruce Wayne and Batman.  Not a bad theme.  Too bad they didn’t actally explore it.  They tell us that Bruce has this struggle.  Then at the end, they tell us he’s resolved it.  They never actually try to understand why he has this problem or how it affects him.  The plot isn’t too entertaining other.  There’s no suspense, and it feels like the movie is running on autopilot.  Edward Nigma goes bad.  Two Face kills Robin’s parents.  Heroes learn to team up and defeat the bad guys.  That’s the movie in a nutshell.  It’s not a bad movie, and could have been much worse.  It’s just that it could have been SO much better.

And then we have Batman and Robin, the movie that every comic book fan loves to rip into.  And who can blame them?  The movie took away all the things that made Batman cool and sent him back to the Adam West days.  I mean, they even brought back the Bat family.  All they were missing was Batmite and Ace the Bathound (although that dog was awesome in Batman Beyond).  Gone is the tormented Bruce Wayne, and the dark, realistic, or noir tones.  Batman became just another crime fighter, and Clooney was horribly miscast.  That’s just not Bruce Wayne.  Clooney comes off as too light hearted, and not nearly driven enough.  Batman isn’t interesting just because he fights criminals.  He’s a hero with the highest goals and the strongest moral code, yet he acts almost like a villain.  Batman should be f@#” terrifying to the criminal underworld.  Instead he’s like Superman, and feels comfortable going out and hosting fashion shows in his costume (or whatever that was).  The rest of the cast wasn’t better.  Poison Ivy was awful, Batgirl was annoying, and Bane was reduced to drooling henchman.  Then we have Arnold as Mr. Freeze.  The current governor of California is the king of one liners (see: Commando), but even he didn’t have the ability to make the character work.  And wait, since when was Mr. Freeze big enough to crush Batman in his giant armored gauntlet?

I’m sorry, I just can’t do this anymore.  Batman and Robin ruined the franchise.  At least Clooney had the decency to admit it.  Instead of realistic or noir Gotham, we got a neon concrete jungle.  That just doesn’t work.  I haven’t been able to force myself to watch the whole thing for some time now, but it’s too painful.  I’m going to end this review by reminding you that Schumacher did want to do another Batman movie after this one.  Yet Batman and Robin was so bad, so mind numbingly cheesy, it actually ended the run of one of the most successful characters of all time.  It took a complete overhaul to bring him back.  Luckily, we’re going to talk all about that tomorrow.

After my previous article, I’ve decided to write some stuff on Batman’s history on film.  I won’t cover the way, way early stuff.  I’ve talked before about how ridiculous the Adam West days were.  Nah, we’re going to write about each of the three directors who have worked on Batman.  Each of the three have had two chances to explore the tormented soul of Bruce Wayne, and each will get a post.  Today we look at Tim Burton and his first two movies, Batman and Batman Returns.  First of all, you have to give up to Burton for making a darker, more serious take on Batman in his first film.  It was something different, and you have to respect him for revitalizing the character and giving him a sense of purpose again.

But does the movie still hold up?  Sort of.  I think Michael Keaton gave a great performance, but just doesn’t look like Batman.  It felt like the guy didn’t even work out the part.  For superheroes, you need to find a guy who can both act and look the part.  If you go for only one, it will come up short.  Keaton is a great actor, but I never believed that this guy could beat me up.  I think I could take him.  Nicholson, on the other hand, did a great Joker.  If there’s one thing that man can do, it’s play a crazy person.  My problem with the choice though, is that he feels a bit too much like an old school gangster.  From his laugh to his general way of talking, he felt like a mobster.  This isn’t a bad interpretation of the character, but it’s not my view of him.  I think the Mark Hamill’s voicework is the quintessential Joker that captures his lunacy and viscousness perfectly.  Also, I always felt like Nicholson could have knocked out Micheal Keaton in one punch.  Nicholson was kind of bulky for the Joker, and I always wondered why he didn’t physically fight back more.  The Joker really should be more lithe and agile, in comparison to the stronger Batman.  You don’t need a ridiculous disparity between the two, but there has to be some physical difference.

Then there’s the story.  The plot was alright.  It wasn’t bad or stupid or anything unforgiveable.  It’s just that compared to modern superhero movies (like The Dark Knight), it’s very basic.  It was interesting how Burton explored the idea that Bruce Wayne is just as crazy as the villains he fights, and the whole concept that the Joker and Batman created each other.  On this topic, I never liked the idea of revealing the Joker’s origin.  He’s elemental, a force of nature.  It was always more terrifying when you never knew where he came from.

So the movie had some fantastic acting.  The actors didn’t always look the part, but they gave it their all.  The movie loses me on the story and structure, and a lack of good action.  Still, it brought Batman back.

Then there’s Batman Returns which is…..different.  The movie had one the best intepretations of Catwoman we’ve seen yet.  There have been alot of different takes on the character, and this is one of the better ones.  But I have no idea why they tried to make the Penguin… well….. an actual penguin.  That’s never been an aspect of the character as far as I know, and I’m certain that Danny DeVito scared more than a few younger viewers.  I really want to know what writer decided to turn the classy businessman/crime lord into an monstrous abomination of a man and a general affront to god.  Then again, considering how bizzare the rest of the movie was, it kind of makes sense.

Returns, even more than the first showing, focuses on the villains.  Batman is almost a goon who fights people and little else.  And for some reason he brutally murders thungs, and blows them up at times.  This just isn’t Batman.  Batman never kills.  He never even lets people die.  The plot never gets any real momentum, and there is little suspense.  There is no good action in the movie, and I never found myself caring.  The movie decides to focus on the emotional journey of the villains, and even creates this comparison to Moses for the Penguin.  The movie mishandled Batman completely, and just didn’t make enough of an impact on me.  Burton proved that he has a wild imagination, but just because you can come up with these lofty concepts doesn’t mean that they are right for the movie and the characters.

 So Tim Burton deserves credit for bringing in a solid adaptation of Batman, and bringing him back to his darker roots.  Still, the movies havn’t aged too well.  The villains manage to steal every scene they’re in, with special nods to Jack Nicholson and Christopher Walken.  The first movie raises some interesting questions about the nature of Batman, but compared to the newer films they just appear to ask the questions rather than explore them.  The movies just arn’t suspenseful or interesting enough to keep me watching them, and certainly light on action. 

Do you know who Michael Uslan is?  Well, you should.  If it weren’t for this brave visionary, we wouldn’t have comic book movies and Batman would be stuck in the 60’s.  I had the extraordinary honor is getting to listen to this guy speak, and even got to shake his hand.  He was a speaker at my college and told us students a few things about comics, movies, and following your dreams.  So, take a second to listen about why this man should be your hero.

Michael Ulsan started as a comic book fanatic.  A pretty big one.  He owned over 30,000 comics by the time he went to college and had a lifelong dream of being Batman.  Ever since he was young, he wanted a dark, serious portrayal of Batman to grace the big screens.  As a college student, he proposed a course on comic books.  Despite staunch resistance, he succesfully convinced the big guys at Indiana University to let him teach the course.  How did he do this?  Uslan established the comic books are the new mythology, and capable of serious merit.  After gaining mass media attention, editors at Marvel and DC offered him early jobs.  As a college student, Uslan managed to write several comics for DC, including his personal favorite, Batman. 

What follows is amazing story of Uslan attempts to break into the movie biz.  I won’t go into too much detail, but Uslan worked his way through the entertainment biz.  He tried becoming a lawyer, and sneaking his way into the industry.  After several projects, Uslan got his hands on the rights to Batman.  No one in Hollywood believed you could make a movie about Batman.  Eventually, he managed to find a studio and a director named Tim Burton.  Ulsan was thrilled with the casting of Jack Nicholson as the Joker, who he considers the ultimate comic book version of the character.  He wasn’t thrilled with Michael Keaton though.  He was furious.  Keaton had been a comedic actor, and nothing about him screamed action star.  Yet Tim Burton managed to convince him that Keaton was the only man for the job.  Burton could make an actor look taller or physically more intimidating, but he couldn’t make an actor look driven or crazy enough to dress up like a giant bat.  Keaton was the only actor who could bring that drive to the character.  Burton created a movie that could explore the dark depths of Bruce Wayne’s tormented soul, and a massive box office success.  Uslan almost purposefully ignored Batman and Robin, but also praised Christopher Nolan for having an extraordinary vision on how to make Batman seem real.  The three problems were making Bruce Wayne’s journey feel real, to make Gotham look real, and to make the technology plausible.  They solved the first problem by casting Christian Bale, who could portray Bruce Wayne as someone who could bring the intensity and commitment needed to fight crime.  Gotham was made real by filming it in Chicago, and rooting the movie in our world.  And how do you make the tech feel real?  You hire Morgan Freeman to tell you it’s real.

Uslan generally praised all the actors for their portrayals of Batman, all of whom made Batman a force to be reckoned with.  He did, however, find that each actor had a different take on Bruce Wayne.  Keaton was driven and crazy, Kilmer was cold and chilling, and Bale brought a balance of everything.  And then Clooney was the boy next door.  I managed to get so many great insights into the creative process and the spirit of who Batman is.  And of course, after Batman we saw the revitalization of the comic book movie.  First the original movie brought the genre back, and then the Dark Knight showed us a comic book moive could be smart and mature.  Uslan also strongly believes in the quality of graphic novels and comics as a never ending source of material for movies.  There are no good or bad years for comic book movies.  Studios will always look to them for stories.  I also got to ask him why they decided to reboot the franchise with Begins, which has seemingly created a new trend in Hollywood.  His response was basically that they had to move as far away from Batman and Robin as possible, and this was the best way to do it.

Ulsan got to where he is by following his dreams and working as hard as humanly possible.  I’m usually not the kind of guy who falls for this stuff, but is was fascinating to see a guy with a vision and the commitment to make it happen. 

Sorry for the lack of recent posts.  I’ve been busy playing Arkham Asylum and finding every last riddle, so my time has been taken up (that, and I’ve been ridiculously sick for the past week.  mainly the sick part).  But, I have beaten Arkham Asylum, and I know I’m not the only one who wants more.  With a character like Batman, you have a never ending source of stories and settings.  So where do we want to see Batman go to next?  The game did set up possible tangos with Two-Face, the Riddler, and Ra’s Al Ghul.  And we still have Bane, Scarecrow and Killer Croc roaming around.  Here are a few possibilities.

Gotham City

-Stick Bruce right in the middle of Gotham.  They could change up the gameplay, incoropating more of the Batmobile and less sneaking.  Still, I think they can easily create a game environment with the same chances for the invisible predator mode.  A big part of the game would be infiltrating enemy buildings from the outside, taking out sentries and getting rid of security and power.  I think a GTA sandbox style game would be too much, but a big environment with lots of opportunities sounds like a good Batman game.

They could use the Joker again as the villain, since he always works.  They could decide to use Two Face, who is a huge Batman villain that wasn’t featured in the last game.  The ending of Arkham Asylum included Two Face robbing a bank, so they could directly jump off from there.  They could also throw in other criminals like the Penguin or Black Mask for other new villains, or even Catwoman.

Batman could fight the mob, with some good old fashion Long Haloween or Batman Year one style escapades.  I expect Al Pacino as a boss if this is the case. 

Ra’s Al Ghul and Mass Destruction

-This would make for a very different game, but a game against Ra’s Al Ghul could be for alot of fun.  Chase Ra’s across the globe as he unleashes a plot to cleanse humanity.  Ra’s is one of Batman’s greatest foes, and they share a personal connection to boot.  The occasional castle of fortress is always interesting, and this would allow the designed to incorporate a wide variety of enivorments and enemies.  Not to mention ninjas.  Lots and lots of ninjas.

More Arkham Asylum?

-Another option would be to keep the game set in Arkham.  It did serve as an amazing location, and we can expect plenty more secrets inside the nefarious establishment.  Although I’m sure they could make another great game in Arkham, I think they should try to explore the rest of the city.  Now that they have the core mechanics down, they can work on making the game itself bigger.  There are still plenty of villains that they could throw in, and they can easily pick and choose the most appropriate of the bunch.  No matter what, I demand another game.  The designers can’t give us such a gorgeous, perfect game and not give us a sequel.  It doesn’t work that way.  That’s economics.

After months of waiting, I finally got my hands on Batman: Arkham Asylum.  And damn, was it worth the wait.  It’s probably the best game I’ve played this year, and the fact that it has Batman in it is simply icing on the cake.  Most games we see based of comic book characters are tied to movies, and that usually doesn’t work out so well.  Arkham Asylum was given all the resources of a normal video game, and not one thrown together before a movie.  Combined with flawless voice acting and a top notch story written by frequent Batman scribe Paul Dini, you have a gaming experience that shouldn’t be missed.

The gameplay itself was close to perfect.  There are three ways of proving you can be the Dark Knight: the freeflow combat system, invisible predator mode, and detective mode.  The detective part of the game is probably the weakest.  You get to use alot of fancy tech, but you don’t “solve” to many problems.  It’s still fun, and it definitely gives a full Batman experience.  And of course you can’t have a Batman game without lots of beatings.  The combat system is tons of fun, and certainly looks gorgeous.  It’s worth getting the game just to watch Batman in action.  And then there is my favorite aspect the of the game, the invisible predator mode.  Here, you get to prey on a group of unsuspecting psychopaths, and use all your gadgets and cunning to take them down one by one.  Only a Batman game can combine all these styles into one experience.  Think Metal Gear Solid meets Bioshock meets God of War.

The story itself is solid.  For a videogame, it’s one of the best, but leaves a tiny bit to be desired.  The beginning of the game has a great sense of mystery, and by the final boss battles the game has devolved into “go here, do this, done”.  It felt like I was just going through the motions from one fight to another, rather than working my way through the story like in the first half.  The game does explore Batman’s psyche and inner torment, but if you’ve read comics or seen The Dark Knight you’ll know that they could have done a bit more.

As for the voice acting, you couldn’t ask for more.  Mark Hamill (yes, that Mark Hamill) and Kevin Conroy reprise their roles from the animated series, and have only refined their talents.  Half the fun of the game is listening to the Joker’s taunts.  He’s just that good.  The general design of the game is amazing, and you certainly feel like you’re in Arkham Asylum.  If you like video games, then you should buy this game because it’s just so much fun.  If you don’t play too many games, but love Batman, check it out just for experience.  Crank the difficulty down to easy, enjoy solving the Riddler’s clues, and live out your dream of being the Dark Knight.  If you’re reading this blog, you have no excuse not to play.

I remember last summer when rumors about Batman 3 were just flying around.  It’s kind of disheartening to realize that those meant nothing at all, but I’m still coming back for more.  Today we have a new rumor, and I’m pretty confident that this is completely bogus.  A British tabloid is telling us that Megan Fox will be playing Catwoman in Batman 3.

Shenanigans.  That’s right, you heard me.  Shenanigans.  This rumor is only slightly more believable than the news that Eddie Murphy would be playing the Riddler.  This just doesn’t make sense.  First of all, the script isn’t even close to done.  I’m almost certain they havn’t started working on it, and are hopefully putting together the ideas right now.  The studio isn’t going to cast one of the main characters at this stage, when the entire plot is uncertain.  Even if they were in a position to start casting, I still don’t believe the rumor.  If you look at the kind of talent Nolan recruits, Megan Fox just doesn’t fit in.  I’m not saying she’s a bad actress, it’s just that I’ve never seen her in a movie where acting was actually required.  She just doesn’t fit in, and also seems a bit young for Catwoman.  She’s only 23, and I always saw the character as someone a bit more mature in a villainous way.

All this talk about Batman villains just reminds me more of Arkham Asylum.  The video game came out yesterday and I CANT PLAY IT.  I’m up at college right now and am going to have to wait till October before I starting mauling any villain who crosses my path.  I know this doesn’t have anything to do with the rest of the article, but I’ve been waiting for this game ever since I heard about it last year.  And I want my Batarang!