Batman (Part 4)

So the Dark Knight Rises has been seen and verified as awesome! No matter where the Batman film franchise goes from here, it's safe to say there are 3 more cracking films to go with the 80s/90s ones. Tom Hardy was as good a Bane as he was a Shinzon (cracking) and bar a few suspensions in belief and one cheesy bit, the film was really good, but you know that as by now you would have seen it too. You haven't? What's wrong with you, get down the cinema. Don't make me come over there...

Anyway, as I said this final post in a stupidly over long series of posts is to do with the aspect of the Batman stuff I've probably spent the most time with, games!

I can only comment on the ones I've owned/played obviously so here we go, I'll start on... SNES!

Batman Returns: It's 1993 and 16 bits rule the gaming world! Movie tie ins were frequent and shitty, but this film was great, could the game be? They took Final Fight (a classic) gave it a Batman skin and a driving stage and voila, awesome game! Good work guys!

It controlled well, looked and sounded good and was fun to play. Can't ask for much more than that! Quite fancy getting it again for my SNES now...

Batman Forever: OK, the film wasn't as good, but use essentially an updated of the game and it'll be ok, surely! Well not quite, this game was more based graphically and by the way it controls on Mortal Kombat and could be a dark, cryptic pain in the arse at times. Still looked ok, but didn't play anywhere near as well.

You'd not quite know where you could walk, enemies would seemingly take a week to put down. Not good at all, a waste after the last game. There was a Batman & Robin game, but I can only imagine the shit that was, I never had a ps1 so never played it.

I had a bit of a gap then, I did play the PS2 Batman Begins briefly and it didn't seem great although not a total write off, nut I never got going on it. Then the games and film went their own ways and we were presented with:

Batman: Arkham Asylum: Mark Hamill is an awesome Joker voice isn't he? And this is an awesome game! Giving Batman an almost open world set up to roam and complete missions in, good, giving him loads of gadgets, doing well, big selection of enemies (Ivy, Joker, Scarecrow, Croc, Bane, Riddler etc) outstanding, the Scarecrow levels being possibly the best thing I've ever played, bonza! I could carry on, for days!

Graphics were good, sound was good, voice acting was superb, the hidden puzzles hard but achievable, that's what I'm talking about! There's something quite satisfying about silently clearing a room of armed 'goons' so they never knew what hit them. 

If you wanted to pick holes, the difficulty wasn't always steady, Croc was a piece of piss for example, and the combat could be got by on through a bit of button mashing, as opposed to learning the various tricks that are available, but some would say in that way the game is what you make it.

Not played this? For shame, get on with it, and get the 3d version. Bound to be cheap by now.

Then there was:

Batman: Arkham City: I know, lets take Arkham Asylum, work of art as it is and ramp it up so it's bigger, more headline bad guys, more puzzles, more gadgets etc... ummmm ok then!

Arkham City is essentially the same as Asylum only bigger and better. The plot is superbly written, there's so much to do (maybe too much with the riddler trophies). I'm sure I've gone on about it before so I won't overly extend this blog.

Some of the same moans exist, the fighting is similar in particular. You get variable characters, this time you get to play as Bruce Wayne (yes I know), Batman, Catwoman and (in an expansion) Robin in the main story. This then becomes the exception that proves the rule that Robin spoils everything.

Going forward? There are cliffhangers in Arkham City so a 3rd game is inevitable, I for one welcome it as it'll be awesome. Just hope it's not next gen though, I'm not keen on shelling out for new hardware. 

Anyway, lets leave it there, no more Batman I promise!

Batman! (Part 3)

Part 1: http://andrewdrisc.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/batman-part-1.html

Part 2: http://andrewdrisc.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/batman-part-2.html

Time for the modern films!

It's Batman eve, for me, I'm not seeing The Dark Knight Rises until Sunday, but there have been people in midnight showings, early ones tomorrow, Saturday etc and if any one of you gives me even the slightest hint of a spoiler I promise I'll go postal. (This has since happened)

So anyway back to the point I started making about 2 days ago...

Batman Begins: Reboot! Turn it off and back on again time! Batman Begun some time ago I hear you (me) cry, well the name refers to the plot more than anything which essentially is a origin story for the Bat. It was touched on in Batman how he got pissed off to the point where he donned a rubber suit, spent gazillions on gadgets and kicked ass, but this film is far more detailed, including his training, trying to give us more of an idea of Waynes past. Fair enough. Then he kicks some behind and it all goes well... ish.

Dark themed Batman is definitely back, and thank science for that. Sadly it appears new Batman, Christian Bale:

Had some kind of throat infection before filming his suited up scenes, giving him a kind of gravelly, almost John Connor-y sound to his voice...(The woeful Terminator Salvation was much later, I'm being nasty and that was still better than Batman and Robin).

As part of my Dark Knight Rises prep, I of course revisited this and it stands up as a good film easily, and fixed the... issues caused by BnR. To be a worthwhile franchise it needed a reboot and the style on display here is plentiful., Nolans direction is good and while not my favourite (we've been through this) Bale is a good Batman, if a smarmy and not always comfortable Bruce Wayne.

Liam Neeson is a good, if miss-pronounced Ra's Al Ghul and he'll be back in the finalé. The other choice of enemy is both random and genius, Scarecrow is one of my favourites and works well here (works even better in one of the games, but that's for later on). Victor Zsasz (mis-spelt Zsaz, honestly the continuity checker was the weakest person on the film) is on screen but only plays a brief part of the film, maybe he needed to... 'sit down' (5 bonus points if you get that).

Good start to a new series, trilogy if you will. If only the first films had been a trilogy hey!

The Dark Knight: First up, a great viral marketing campaign, the use of the Joker was outstanding and sadly cut short for reasons I don't need to go into.

Who wouldn't want to see a film advertised by that??

Heath Ledger was outstanding as Joker, and while the Oscar was pushed by circumstance, you'd struggle to justify a reason why he didn't deserve it. Two face is also used, but quite clumsily. The Dent character is well developed, but the CG a bit stupid (how does he talk exactly), but lets face against, against Tommy Lee Jones' effort, it's outstanding. Scarecrow is also back very briefly.

The film itself is once again well written and directed and the ending was wonderfully set up for a further film. It makes the claim that they were dubious about making a third hard to believe.

I have to be upgrading to blu rays of these, my Batman Begins doesn't even work...

Going on then...

The Dark Knight Rises: I'm not as oblivious to detail as I'd like, thanks to people who will be unfollowed, blocked and preferably kicked in person etc on twitter as soon as I've seen the film and I log in next. But tomorrow (well today now) I will see the film and conclude the trilogy, it's going to be awesome.

There is a part 4, nothing on TDKR, only dick give spoilers, it'll cover games!

Batman! (Part 2)

And so I go on, and on, and on....


Following me covering the 60's, 80's and first 90's film in part 1 (which can be found http://andrewdrisc.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/batman-part-1.html <--- there) let's move on and cover the rest of the 90s!


Batman Forever: No Michael Keaton? This isn't a good start is it? As I said previously Keaton is my favourite, so you should have worked out I see this as a negative. So who took over...

Val Kilmer... looking good Val!!


The villains were a very mixed bag, in the shit corner we had two-face, Tommy Lee Jones, giving one of the most over the top and uncomfortable performances of his career. In previous instalments Harvey Dent had been played by Billy Dee Williams, but they paid him off to cast a bigger name (Calrissian is a pretty big name), I think they should have left him do it.


In the awesome corner Jim Carrey as the Riddler, giving one of the most over the top and somehow just right performances of his career. To a point it's maybe a little true he was just essentially playing himself dressed as the Riddler, but it worked in the generally over the top setting Joel Schumacher had chosen to take the franchise.

The plot is further 'out there'than the previous too films, which plays into Carrey well, but doesn't sit well with Tommy at all. Val Kilmer is... ok, and obviously not as... porky... as above and then film introduces Robin (Dick Grayson version)! Rule of thumb with many things, Robin spoils them and he doesn't go well here, but he goes a damn site better than in the next film.


Overall, it's a step down from the first 2 'modern' films, but it's still fun to watch, I'd have rather they stuck to the dark Batman films, kept Keaton and Burton, but key ho. It could get worse.


And it did...


Batman and Robin: What the mother fuck is this shit?


Who thought this was a good idea? Who was at the script writers/casting meeting and OK'd the ideas:

• Arnie plays Mr Freeze and delivers 80% of his dialogue via the medium of cheesy pun.

• George Clooney is Batman??!?!?!?

• Robin worked so well, let's make him even more moody and annoying, and wait, let's introduce Batgirl as well... that'll alloy Alicia Silverstone to give possibly the worst performance by anyone... in anything... ever. But not the normal Batgirl/Oracle, well change the name and back story a bit so it fits better.

• Bane? We'll just turn him into a almost mute moron who just follows an overacting Uma Thurman, who's making Tommy Lee Jones effort look like an oscar winner, round like a puppy. Let's be thankful The Dark Knight Rises hasn't taken that approach to one of the best recently created DC villains.

• A Bat Credit Card?? Yeah I love product placement, it really enhances my viewing experience... 

It's like people only do these things because they can get paid. And that's just really sad. 

• A Robin signal?????

Look at them, what the fuck is that supposed to be, and what's Robin wearing? Why do the men have nipples but not the woman? Who designed this shite?

I made myself sit through this as part of watching Batman to prepare for Batman. My tweets during were more like a cry for help.

The film killed the Batman franchise in this form, it took the best part of a decade and a reboot to save it. But luckily that reboot was pretty damn good, but I wanna go bed now so I'll do them tomorrow. 

Batman! (Part 1)

Of all the superheroes created by graphic artists/geeks/propaganda campaigns over the years, I can honestly say Batman is my favourite and by some distance.

So, with The Dark Knight Rises due out on Friday and my IMAX tickets booked for Sunday (baby permitting) I thought I'd share my thoughts on stuff he's been in, today... films!

He had been represented on screen many times over the years with a varying degree of success. I'm ignoring the 1940s serials, as I've not seen them, and I'm ignoring animated stuff as there's bastard loads of them and I can't be arsed.

Anyway to the 60's!

Batman: The 60s TV series is a thing of legend, its was good fun and spawned a 1966 feature length version, which wasn't great quality, but is fun to watch and contains some very funny scenes, particularly the 'Some days you just can't get rid of a bomb!' line

Genius!!

Adam West was... special as Batman and will always have that kind of funny/campy interpretation to himself, it fitted the tone of the series and the time perfectly. The series itself is still very watchable and will remain so, the film struggled quite a bit and is relatively poor, feeling like an episode stretched out for twice the length.

The film just had a blu-ray release, £8 on amazon. It is tempting... Very tempting...

Batman (1989): Enough of fun Batman, this was the birth of 'dark' Batman, and good it was too! Michael Keaton was and will always be my favourite Batman, he plays off the bit of a rich cock Bruce Wayne and the moody Batman superbly and Jack as the Joker isn't bad either!

The plot is good, the casting and acting bang on. Tim Burton does a fine job directing, as to be fair he usually does. The film came out when I was a massive 7 and it was one of the films I grew up watching, that may make me slightly biased towards it (and it's sequel, but patience), but everything here felt right

Some would moan that Batman kills in this film, where in the comics he doesn't. Well he used too, so maybe that's hankering back to old comics. Yeah that'll do. And the fact the joker has a name? Shouldn't really happen, but hey, minor points.

So... have you ever danced with the devil in the pale moonlight?

Batman Returns: 3 years later and Keaton was back for the sequel, and in my opinion the best of all the Batman films. I'm not entirely sure where Batman was returning from, but he did indeed return!

Penguin and Catwoman provide the enemies, but hats off to a stand out performance from Christopher Walken as Max Shreck, the man's awesome.

Look at him, he even looks deranged!

The plot is darker than the first film and was considered more mature at the time, but it's still good comic book action. Having 2 (well 3 with Max) super villains working together made it a bit more frantic. It had some memorable scenes, my favourite being the, 'It could be worse, my nose could be gushing blood' line!

Go on Danny, take a bite!

Once again under Burton's direction everything about the film works and feel right, the dark tone suits Keaton perfectly. All of the positives of the first film carry over, and while neither De Vito or Pfeiffer play it as well as Jack, combined they work just as well.

This is my favourite and while Friday's release has the potential to take over, it's a tall order. Who knows!

The 4 Blu-Ray boxset of the first 4 films is justified by these 2 alone, they are superb films and the standard all superhero films that followed has to live up too.

Anyway that's all I can be arsed with for today, part 2 tomorrow (or Thursday) and there will be swearing as I venture into Kilmer/Clooney territory...

Games

Now I have a fairly decent size xbox games collection. By no means is it huge but there's a good few titles in there, maybe 40 or so? However of late I find myself struggling to really find anything I can be arsed playing. I mean I have driving games, sports games, kinect games, sandbox games, role playing games and shooting games (oh so many bastard shooting games).

I have games that are considered amazing, for example I've been trying to play Skyrim, which I'm assured by everyone is amazing and immersive and one of the best there is. Personally I have just killed a giant spider and then continually die on the next bit, doing the same section over and over again isn't interesting and I didn't want to play it any more.

Yes, this is down to me being shit at it I accept, but I enjoy other things I'm shit at, football, playing the piano lack of ability is no boundary there, Skyrim (like Fallout before it until I had some kind of epiphany and suddenly loved it) not happening mate, someone else can save your kingdom, or whatever else the fuck is going on.

But not just picking on Skyrim, games as a rule are very generic, there's so many FPS games, all produced just because Call of Duty sells, I'm sure they make up 60% of the software base. I just someone would release something new and good. Deadly Premonition would've been ideal but it's a bitch to control and looks like hell.

Minecraft is my salvation at the moment, I enjoy a bit of minecraft, maybe I'll do a blog just about minecraft soon. Maybe.