Video Game Review: Batman: Arkham Asylum

Batman: Arkham Asylum
Developer: Rocksteady Studios
Publisher: Eidos Interactive Ltd.
Systems: Xbox 360, Playstation 3, PC
Release Date: August 25, 2009

Astute movie and video game fans may remember hearing Gary Oldman (Jim Gordon in Batman Begins and The Dark Knight) "confirm" a Dark Knight video game to G4 last year about three days after the movie's release. I was very skeptical, since most movie video games are released around the date of the movie upon which they are based, simply for publicity's sake.

Needless to say, the game never saw a release date, and details later surfaced regarding the reasons. Chalk it up to development problems on the part of Pandemic Brisbane, the studio hired to create the game.

Jump ahead to August 25, 2009. Rocksteady Studios releases Batman: Arkham Asylum to retailers. The result is most assuredly better than anything we could've hoped for in a game based on a movie. Actually, the result is quite jaw-dropping for a video game in general.

Conceptually (and very loosely) based on the graphic novel "Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth" by Grant Morrison and Dave McKean, Arkham Asylum the video game begins with Batman driving the Joker to Arkham in the Batmobile. Predictably enough, the Joker eventually takes over the asylum, and Batman jumps to the task at hand: liberating Arkham from the Joker and his thugs.

This game is a Batman fan's dream, through and through. The attention to detail exhibited by Rocksteady Studios is utterly astounding. Setting the game in Arkham allows them to veritably run wild with references and throwbacks to a wide range of villains from Batman's entire Rogues Gallery. I discovered several new villains I never even knew existed in the Bat-universe while playing through Arkham.

As far as gameplay is concerned, Arkham is appropriately varied throughout, with good helpings of brawling, stealth and puzzles. The fighting does get a little repetitive, but taking down bad guys never loses its appeal. This repetition does become a hindrance in boss battles, however. Throughout the game, the same mini-boss battle is repeated multiple times without much variation. Batman waits for the baddie to charge, tosses a Batarang, dodges, and goes to town on the disoriented thug. This isn't a huge problem, but a little more creativity would've been appreciated.

Beyond this flaw, the game shines throughout. The Joker's henchmen aren't too intelligent, but I will argue that this makes the game more fun to play. They have enough intelligent moments to make the game semi-believable, but they're also dumb enough to allow for some remarkably cool sneaking moves and takedowns. The stealth feels too easy sometimes, but it's always satisfying. Think of it like Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell, only Batman has a much easier time beating the baddies if he's caught. There are usually many vantage points, and many ways to approach each room as well.

Batman's gadgets are a very welcome feature as well. The remote control Batarang never gets old, and the gadgets Batman acquires later in the game will make you want to explore the island even more before completion, just to put them to use. If only I could have Batman's zipline in real life.

Graphically, Arkham is a powerhouse, with beautifully detailed character models, impressive water effects and no noticeable dips in framerate. Arkham is a very gothic place, and Rocksteady has captured this motif brilliantly without overdoing it. The environments are impressively detailed, even though you'll be too busy battling through them to take much notice. There are a few graphical glitches here and there, but they are by no means game-breaking and certainly not always noticeable in the midst of the action.

At the end of the day, it's the production values that make Arkham Asylum a must-buy. This is a complete video game package if I've ever seen one. The voice actors all give solid performances, including Mark Hamill and Kevin Conroy, reprising their iconic Animated Series roles as the Joker and Batman, respectively. Once the main quest is done and over with, the Riddler challenges and trophies should be next on any gamer's list. Finding all the collectibles and playing through the welcome Challenge Mode only further lengthen the time you'll be spending at Arkham.

We may not have gotten a Dark Knight game, but maybe that was for the better, because Batman: Arkham Asylum surpasses anything a movie-game could've achieved. Rocksteady had the entire Batman library at its fingertips, and chose not to skimp on any facet, making it a complete masterpiece of a game that shouldn't be missed.

If you somehow aren't a Batman fan after The Dark Knight, maybe Arkham Asylum will make one out of you. Give it a try.

My Score: 9.4 out of 10

All images from the Batman: Arkham Asylum official site.

Early Film Preview: Inception

A lot of directors undoubtedly envy Christopher Nolan right now. His 2008 summer blockbuster The Dark Knight grossed more than $533 million at the box office, making it the second highest-grossing film of all time, following James Cameron’s Titanic. For this reason, Warner Bros. was more or less required to let the guy do whatever he wanted to do next. He didn’t choose to do another Batman movie.

He chose to do Inception instead.

Warner Bros. has described Inception as “a contemporary sci-fi actioner set within the architecture of the mind.” The film, which reportedly has a $200 million budget, has a cast that includes Leonardo DiCaprio, Ellen Page, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Marion Cotillard, Cillian Murphy, Ken Watanabe, Tom Hardy and Tom Berenger. Not a bad group, and some interesting choices from the indie film realm (Page and Gordon-Levitt). These are all proven actors, some with Oscar credibility to boot.

The big news of the minute, however, is the teaser currently attached to prints of Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds, released this past Friday. It’ll be almost a year before Inception actually hits theaters, and we already have a teaser. It went online this past Monday; check it out here.

The teaser begins with a spinning top, the same one that we see at the intriguingly sparse official Web site for Inception. As the top wobbles and falls, the shot switches to an overhead view of a city, and then to DiCaprio’s face as he watches two men dragging another man away. It looks like he may be looking out a car or helicopter window.

Then, it gets even more interesting.

We see a glass of water. The angle of the water’s surface changes, and the water begins to bubble. We see DiCaprio’s face again, as onscreen words tell us “your mind is the scene of the crime.” We see two men battling in a hallway, defying gravity as they walk on the walls and eventually “fall” to the ceiling and then down the hall. There’s a quick shot of a guy (DiCaprio?) emerging from water, and a clock ticking. Then it’s a shot of DiCaprio’s face once again, and the logo at the top of this note is revealed.

Confusing stuff, but ridiculously cool nonetheless. The film obviously deals with the ability to defy gravity, perhaps only within an alternate (mental?) reality. The glass and the fight demonstrate this. The mind as the “scene of the crime” stuff reminds me immediately of Steven Spielberg’s Minority Report, but I doubt it’ll be anything close to that.

Conjecture aside, I think it’s safe to say that Inception somehow deals with the complexity of the mind. Throughout the teaser, between the shots described previously, we have a camera zooming through what looks to be a mazelike city. There’s also the obvious fact that the above logo is set within a maze. It looks like we may have a complex film on our hands next summer.

Another interesting point to make is the fact that a book exists titled “The Architecture of the Mind,” written by mental philosopher Peter Carruthers. I’m no psychologist, but I gather the book deals with the idea of mental modularity. Translation: the human mind is made up of many modules, each dealing with different aspects of, well, the mind. It sounds overly complicated for a big-budget Hollywood film like this, but considering how little we know about Inception, I’d argue it’s not out of the realm of possibilities.

Nolan’s Inception doesn’t hit theaters until July 16 of next year, but it’s already shaping up to be an interesting film. The teaser does exactly what a teaser should: intrigue us, without giving away too much or showing too little. Inception is a long ways off, but it’s safe to say that after that 58-second teaser, it has climbed to the top of my list of future anticipated films.

Let me know what you think.

Summer 2009 Movie Recap (now with mini review action!)

This summer has not been a good one for movies. With a few good films and precious few truly amazing ones to speak of, summer 2009 makes last year look like a dream come true (ever see The Dark Knight?). I got lazy and failed to write reviews for many of the movies I saw this summer, so I decided to write some mini reviews for them. Here they are, a whopping 16 of them...let me know what you think.

Bruno was no Borat. Once the initial shock wears off, all we have here is a joke recycled over and over again throughout an unfunny and ultimately disappointing attempt at raunchy comedy. See the trailer, and you've seen the film.
1.5/5

District 9 showed us what rookie director Neill Blomkamp could do with a small budget, an unknown cast, and a big vision. This film is an original, action-packed, deep, and completely engrossing science fiction masterpiece. Watch it as a commentary on apartheid-esque racism, or just enjoy the action. You won't be disappointed in either case.
5/5

Drag Me To Hell saw Spider-Man director Sam Raimi return to his Evil Dead and Army of Darkness horror-comedy roots. Although it may not have been his most memorable or long-lasting work, Drag Me To Hell was a refreshing return to form for Raimi, offering scares and laughs in equal measure. If you haven't seen the Evil Dead series, take note: Raimi's horror films like this brought about the amazing Otto Octavius hospital scene in Spider-Man 2.
3.5/5

Funny People made me lose a lot of faith in Judd Apatow. At an inexcusable two hours and 26 minutes, Apatow's latest opus shows us that even the current king of comedy can make mistakes. Big ones. Long ones. The running time is ridiculous, the characters and plot are convoluted, and the movie isn't funny. Maybe calling his most unfunny film "Funny People" was supposed to be ironic, but that doesn't make it good.
1.5/5

The Hangover proved that star power isn't required to make an amazing comedy. Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms and Zach Galifinakis (and Mike Tyson) helped this movie to the record for highest grossing R-rated comedy of all time. It's hilarious, epic, random, and the new benchmark for road trip comedies (and probably comedies in general).
4.5/5

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince wasn't the best in the series, but it allowed the three stars to give their best performances yet, giving the film a unique focus: characters. This makes it a bit uneven, however, since the focus shifts drastically away from the story at hand, so much so that we forget about the titular Half-Blood Prince until he is revealed in a frank and unoriginal plot twist near the end. A good film, just not a great one.
3.5/5

The Hurt Locker was the most intense film I saw this summer. As it follows a U.S. Army bomb squad through Baghdad, The Hurt Locker seemingly never stops to take a breath, and manages to throw in likable characters we actually care about. Even the best war films sometimes fail to do this. Aside from a strangely abrupt ending, The Hurt Locker doesn't really fail at much of anything.
4.5/5

Inglourious Basterds was my favorite film of the summer. Though not as action-packed as the trailers and TV spots might lead one to believe, Inglourious Basterds is altogether funny, intense, frightening and cool. Quentin Tarantino makes no attempt at historical accuracy, and this allows him to fill this graphic novel-style reimagining of World War II with wit, femme fatales and a whole lot of killin' Nazis. Don't miss this one (but don't take the kids).
5/5

Night at the Museum: Battle for the Smithsonian wasn't very memorable. It had its funny moments, but in the end, I think it's safe to say that movies like Pixar's Up have shown us that studios can expertly craft movies that work on both kid and adult levels. Battle for the Smithsonian is not one of them. This sequel wasn't awful, but it dragged on, and in a typical summer filled to the brim with movies, if you can afford to miss a movie in favor of a better one, then it's probably a good idea to miss it.
1.5/5

The Proposal was a typical date movie, and worked very well in that capacity. It was very predictable, but let's be honest, aren't almost all romantic comedies that way? I'm a sucker for Ryan Reynolds' comedic delivery, too. I do have a question: when will Sandra Bullock start playing characters who aren't half her age?
3/5

Public Enemies was another entry in the series of long movies this summer. It helps that this one is actually a good film, however. This isn't Michael Mann's best work, but it does feature yet another Oscar-worthy performance by Johnny Depp. Marion Cotillard and Christian Bale deliver incredible turns as well.
3.5/5

Star Trek renewed my faith in reboots. After so many failed reboots in the horror genre, the creator of my favorite television show demonstrated the art of taking a beloved show of the past and turning it into a wonderful movie of the present. The plot is a little far-out, relying on a lot of coincidence and such, but the movie is fun all the way through, and a great setup for a hopefully-great film series in the future.
4/5

Terminator: Salvation was the worst movie I saw this summer. I could go on and on about its many flaws, but suffice to say giving McG the benefit of the doubt certainly backfired on a lot of people. There is no story. The plot isn't advanced whatsoever. Christian Bale is just plain bad as John Connor, and when I don't care about John Connor in a Terminator movie, you know something's up. Like I said, the list goes on, but I don't feel like taking time out of my night to write any more sad facts about Terminator: Salvation.
0.5/5

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen ended up being yet another blockbuster that failed to live up to expectations. There are improvements over the first movie, like slicker fight scenes, but the inexplicable length and ultra-cheesy robots (much worse than the first Transformers) pushed this one into the realm of bad movies. Oh, and it's over two and a half hours. Sorry, Mr. Bay, but you can't justify a crappy plot by saying "it's just Transformers" when you spend that much time weaving your crappy plot together.
2/5

The Ugly Truth was another good date movie, with a bit of a hard edge provided by its R rating. In a predictable storyline, Gerard Butler and Katherine Heigl do their best, but what results is a cookie-cutter romantic comedy that is as predictable as any other. But, it serves its purpose as a date movie, and I was pleasantly surprised by the depth shown in Butler's character. I laughed more in this movie than in Funny People, and that goes a long way.
3/5

Up provided the mandatorily amazing Pixar movie for the summer. Funny, original, heartwarming, action-packed and filled with wonderful characters, Up marks yet another fantastic entry into Pixar's filmography of hits. I saw it in 3D, which didn't add too much, but hopefully it's a precursor to some amazing 3D stuff to come (Avatar?).
4.5/5

Film Review: The Hurt Locker

Even if you hate movies, please go see The Hurt Locker.

Katherine Bigelow's new Iraq War film has essentially everything I want to find when I go to the movies. There's action, drama, good characters, some humor, and perhaps most of all, balls-out intensity.

Set in Baghdad in 2004, The Hurt Locker stars Jeremy Renner as "reckless" Staff Sergeant Will James, a bomb technician who has just joined Bravo Company, an outfit with 39 days left in its current deployment. Bravo is led by the by-the-books Sergeant JT Sanborn, played by Anthony Mackie. Brian Geraghty plays the company's traumatized Specialist, Eldridge.

I've always said that a movie is never as good as it could've been when the audience walks out knowing what happened, but not remembering the characters' names. It's safe to say that I knew a lot more than names when leaving the movie theater today. Somehow, between the gut-wrenchingly intense scenes on the streets of Baghdad, Bigelow and journalist-turned-screenwriter Mark Boal have managed to do what even renowned war films like Black Hawk Down sometimes fail to. We get to know these characters, we care about them, and we want to know if they'll live to see the next scene.

The impressive character development is well-complemented by a hefty bag of intensity that never seems to let up throughout the two hours and 10 minutes that comprise The Hurt Locker. I would imagine defusing bombs in real life is quite the intense process, and The Hurt Locker seems to capture it expertly, with an appropriately hushed soundtrack and camerawork that makes the audience feel like a pack of embedded journalists.

All this is made into a complete package by the storytelling. This is a movie about characters, not politics. Think what you will about the two big 9/11 movies that came uncomfortably soon after that terrible day (Paul Greengrass' United 93 and Oliver Stone's World Trade Center), but they rightly shifted their respective focuses away from politics. The Hurt Locker does the same, allowing the audience to glean its own conclusions about the war and concentrate on the characters and the action.

The Hurt Locker is the only film I've seen this summer that has done pretty much everything right. An intense film is made all the more so by the fact that the characters within that intensity are ones we care about. It's a movie that knocks you off your feet and makes you hurry to get back on them, because you won't want to miss a second of The Hurt Locker.

Very Late Film Review: Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is not a very good movie. I think we can establish that right away. After the enormous popularity of the first film made a sequel essentially inevitable, I was extremely excited to see what Michael Bay and company could come up with for a second go-round with Optimus Prime, Sam Witwicky and the rest. Sadly, the flaws in Fallen are too big to ignore, and even though the movie is sometimes fun, it's safe to say that it could've been a lot better.

It's tough to describe the plot of Fallen, but suffice to say that most of the main characters are back from the first film, though most of them are in slightly different situations. Sam Witwicky is off to college, his parents are taking him, and Megan Fox's character Mikaela isn't going with him. Optimus Prime and the Autobots are fighting alongside Josh Duhamel's Lennox and Tyrese Gibson's Epps in a new joint operation between human and machine forces. Oh, and Megatron is at the bottom of the ocean. Throw in some stuff about ancient robots on Earth, and there's the story.

Hopefully everyone can realize that Transformers isn't about story. However, that fact makes the film's length, a hefty 150 minutes, a bit inexcusable. That's a long time to sit through a movie. I understand that the two highest-grossing movies of all time are lengthy ones, but The Dark Knight this ain't. It's not Titanic either.

I would list the plot holes, but I'm getting over a cold, and I need to get some sleep eventually. I'll just say that the movie is full of them. There are plenty of lists online, read them if you'd like to have a laugh.

Plot holes aside, the film's biggest flaw is so overt and ridiculously obvious that I cannot believe it made it past all the people who must've seen the early cuts of Fallen before its release. Skids and Mudflap, two Transformers who Michael Bay claims in an AP interview were "for the kids," are, in a word, racist. They talk like gangsters, have gold teeth and bling, and even sport monkey ears to top it all off. One question for Michael Bay and the rest of the film's crew: WTF?

Those glaring flaws are enough to bring Fallen down quite a few notches. However, I'd be lying if I didn't say I had a good time. Several reviewers have claimed that Fallen was a complete bomb, and I'll respectfully disagree. One of my biggest problems with the first film, the shaky fight cam, has been fixed this time around. Seeing Optimus Prime fight the Decepticons is an absolute joy, no matter what other flaws Fallen possesses.

Like I said before, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is not a very good movie. It's way too long, the plot holes are endless (yes, even for a movie based on 80's action figures), and the blatant stereotypes are not only offensive, they're distracting too. If all that turns you off, and it should, then don't go see Fallen. I'll admit that I was a bit of a sucker for the amazing fight scenes in the film, and I'd love to see those again. I had a blast despite the lack of quality, but that doesn't mean you will too. If the critics' consensus is any indicator, you probably won't.

The Wedding...

So I went to my ex-girlfriend's wedding the other day, acting against the advice of several friends and against my own comfort level as well. She cheated on me the day before I came back for the summer of 2008, and we broke up a month and a half later (don't ask why it took so long). I've only talked to her once in person since then.

My current girlfriend was asked to be a bridesmaid in this wedding right around when we started dating. She received an invitation, however, that did not specify she could bring a guest, while the other bridesmaids were allowed to do so. I volunteered to go, because sitting at a wedding like that sucks when there's nobody with you. My ex obliged, and after we all sat down for dinner at Mama Stortini's in Kent Station a week before the wedding, I was set to go.

Here's the thing: that part of my life doesn't really affect me anymore. It happened over a year ago, and I now have a wonderful girlfriend who I can't seem to get enough of. Here's the other thing: parts of this experience were awkward as hell.

Driving down to Bothell wasn't so bad. I was resigned to the fact that it would be awkward, even though my girlfriend and I had dinner with my ex and her fiance a week before. As I drove up to the church, I became a bit more nervous when I started to recognize people. I had met a good chunk of the people who would be there, and 13 months isn't quite enough for people to completely forget my place.

The first person I saw when I walked up to the church door was my ex's mother. She looked at me and recognized me after a bit of a double take. We shook hands awkwardly and made some small talk before I walked in. I'm sure she talked to her husband soon after to tell him the news: Brent was there.

I walked into the church and found myself surrounded by a crowd of people, some of whom I knew and some of whom I did not. I saw a friend of the bride's hanging around in the corner. His wife was a bridesmaid also, so I figured I could sit with him. He was nice about it, and I did.

The ceremony was quick, with a few awkward silences caused by the pastor for good measure I suppose. I wandered out of the sanctuary and began to do the one thing I had looked forward to that night: finding my girlfriend. At first when I walked out, I couldn't see her. I can't lie, I freaked out a bit. But then, I saw her beckoning from a side room.

I was so incredibly happy to see her, all awkwardness went out the window. I passed by my ex's father on the way over to my girlfriend and didn't even blink. She looked at me with tired eyes, wearing an interestingly-colored mermaid dress, and gave me the hug and kiss that I had needed for a long time.

Seeing her made everything better, but more awkwardness was definitely to come.

At the reception, the fare was normal. Cheese and crackers and snacks and cake. Meets and greets with the family. And sitting with my girlfriend, something I had wanted to do for a long time. She still says she looked ugly, but I know the truth.

The most awkward point of my night was the receiving line. In the middle of the reception, the wedding party and others connected to it formed a line, and we got to go through and say hello. Why not, I said. I shook hands with various people, and was referred to as "'ol Brent" by my ex's parents. Everybody was perfectly nice to me, until I reached my ex's father.

He was created to be the most awkward person on the planet, living or dead. He shook my hand loosely and nodded his head. His wife, who I have met multiple times, shook my hand and said, "hi, I'm Nancy, I'm the mother." I said hello, and left out the part about her conveniently forgetting who I was.

When I reached my ex and her new husband, I didn't know what to expect. I got a hug from her, and a hug from him. They thanked me for coming, and that was that. I got a piece of cake from my girlfriend who was serving, and returned to my seat. We stayed after, helped clean up, and were on our way.

In the end, this experience taught me a lot about the kind of person you should be looking for. I was so freaking eager to see my girlfriend that I couldn't believe it. In my eyes, this shows me how right things are. To be able to take all that awkwardness away would be an impossible feat for anybody else, but a hug from her made literally everything better.

It amazes me how well the entire experience actually went. Between the crazy dress shopping issues, the ridiculous heat and the awkward silences, who knows how this would've gone. But my girlfriend was there, keeping me company and finding me a seat. Even on her busy night, she made me feel special, and that's the type of person everyone should look for.

So, next time you're on a date, ask yourself: could I possibly stay with this person without wanting to cut their head off? I know what my answer is, but it'd be good to consider yours before looking for anything serious. Take it from me, when you get it right, it's the most amazing thing in the entire world.