Netflix Review: Batman: Year One (2011)

Should have been called Jim Gordon: Year One.

Batman: Year One is a 64-minute animated movie adaption of a four issue comic story arc published under the same name in 1987. I didn't read that arc, so I cannot comment on the movie's faithfulness to it. What I can say, however, is that I was not impressed. So much of the plot lacked plausibility and logic that the problems ultimately distracted me from whatever merits the film did have. Most of these had to do with situations facing Lt. Jim Gordon, who seems to be a much more central character to the story than Bruce Wayne or Batman. Gordon is transferred from the Chicago Police Department and joins the Gotham PD. What didn't make sense to me here is that if Gotham is such a corrupt police department, why would they hire an outsider at his rank? Ethically challenged police departments typically try to promote internally so as to maintain the status quo.

In one scene, a crime boss laments that he had such high hopes for Gordon after being upset at one of Gordon's subordinates for stepping down at a hostage situation when Gordon ordered him to do so. This made no sense at all to me. Why did he care what happened in this hostage situation? What did he have to gain or lose? It's obvious that the writers wanted to express the point that Gordon was undermining the corruption of the police to the chagrin of the commissioner and the cronies, but the actual events that they cite as Gordon's faults don't make any sense. Likewise, at one point cops shoot a disguised Bruce Wayne, who goes unconscious, and they put him in the back of their police cruiser. Stopping here, this could make sense: they shot someone who was unarmed and not threatening them; there were scores of witnesses, but they were mostly in the prostitution industry and did not want to lose their favored position with the police; standard procedure would have been to call an ambulance, but since they put a man who is bleeding out in their own cruiser, I figured they were going to dump his body. But then the writers screw it up by having the cops say, "He might not make it. Oh well, one less mouth for the soup kitchen to feed." So they are trying to save him, but don't call an ambulance? What?



Interestingly, there are no traditional Batman villains in this movie. The enemy, it seems, is the Gotham PD itself (which, to be frank, is more powerful than any other of Batman's enemies). But I can't even talk about this without running into logical problems with the story. The specific people Batman fights are drug traffickers, pimps, and the paid-off police profiting from it. But these (with the exception of the latter) are technically victimless crimes; most of the violence associated with them results from their being conducted in a black market setting. However, if the police are totally in on it, what are the incentives for violence? It becomes more of gray market, as it were. Hence, it doesn't make any sense that street crime is reduced, as is reported on the TV in one scene, when Batman starts to enforce victimless crime laws.


Frustratingly, the real crimes occur near the beginning with the full acceptance of Lt. Gordon. On his first day at work, he meets a GPD detective who commits felony assault against a monk soliciting Gordon (who voices not a peep of displeasure) and then proceeds to batter a teenager and throw him in a dumpster for no reason at all. It is not until Gordon himself is assaulted that he takes any action at all against this detective and therefore spoils any sense of heroism surrounding him (which is too bad since he is voiced by Bryan Cranston. Sorry, but the B.A.-ness of Walter White does not show through here). One could say that this isn't any different from the Jim Gordon of Batman Begins. He said, "I'm no rat." However, one got the sense that Gary Oldman's Jim Gordon would probably meet his end in trying to combat corruption on his own, and therefore kept quiet out of desire for self-preservation. That made sense. However, Bryan Cranston's Jim Gordon was a martial arts practitioner who literally beat up a Green Beret. Thus, the sense we get from Gordon here is that he has the power to help people but chooses not to.

The action scenes also leave much to be desired. An example is when Batman is cornered in a building by a trigger-happy SWAT team that shoots at anything that moves. When they find Batman, they do all they can to light him up. He is able to pick off a few but they eventually get him out in the open and only then do they hold him at gunpoint and approach him. Of course, it is at this time that he summons bats and is able to escape, but it only seems that he does so at the inexplicable mercy of a team of mercenaries that only seconds before shot hundreds of rounds at him. Other scenes seem to try to remind you that you are watching a cartoon, such as when Bruce Wayne is able to climb up to a high roof top by first jumping on a truck, then jumping to a low roof, then working his way to standing on a flag pole by swinging on it like a gymnast, and then finally getting to the top of the building by making a vertical leap that is nearly twice his height. Not to be left at that, he then jumps directly from a city building rooftop to the top of a moving truck. Really?

And, as is the reputation of cartoons, it felt like it was a kids' movie, based on the lack of coherence and physical plausibility. Don't listen to the IGN reviewer who called it "serious, adult entertainment." Sorry, but putting in some hookers and dropping some F-bombs does not an "adult" movie make. Speaking of hookers, did you know Selina Kyle is one? Again, it does not make sense to me that someone who has the physical and martial arts abilities to square off with Bruce Wayne would choose such an occupation.

It is almost amazing that so many problems could be fit into such a short film. This is really too bad because as far as animated movies and series about superheroes go, Batman has usually had some of the better ones. Batman: Year One is not one of them.

PS3 Review: Injustice: Gods Among Us (2013)

Injustice: Gods Among Us has a really neat concept: Superman, tricked into killing Lois Lane and all of Metropolis by the Joker, goes crazy and establishes himself as a despot. That's how it seems at first, anyway. Unfortunately, things get messy pretty quick as the plot devolves into the incomprehensible clone/double/alternative universe babble all too common in superhero comics. I've never understood why the whole alternate universe idea in comic books has to be justified so literally, that is, within the narrative, but nonetheless, it gets all the good guys and bad guys to fight each other, so who cares.

Despite its disorganized storyline, however, Injustice is a fine game. Returning for a moment to the story, I can say that however much I dislike the conceit, it's told in an excellent manner, and by that I primarily mean the animation and voice-over. There's a nice balance struck between comedy and hammy drama so that things never get too cheesy or easygoing. This is buoyed by the well-written dialogue and delivery of the actors, a quality which certainly carries over from the cinematics to the gameplay. Injustice is a smooth fighting game in the vein of Mortal Kombat. Button combos require some skill to memorize and master, but they aren't so intricate that you have to frequently pause the game to remember moves. And Injustice is right about where it should be in terms of depth: not intimidating for newbies, but deep enough for the hardcore fighting fans. True, the main story mode is fairly short, but it's involving and has plenty of variety. Unlike other fighting games, where you are often locked into playing as a particular character for the duration of the quest, Injustice keeps things nimble: one minute you're playing as Batman, the next Green Arrow, the next Joker, the next Wonder Woman, the next Deathstroke. You spend just enough time with any of them to learn their attributes and moves before moving on, and more specifically you get to try out their super finishing moves, all of which are beautifully complicated and unnecessarily over-the-top. Same goes for the interactive environments. Most arenas in the game consist of multiple levels for combat, and transitioning between the upper and lower floors of the Batcave, for instance, only requires the proper positioning and timing, and it deals out a considerable amount of damage to your opponent. There's also ample opportunity to use the environment to your advantage in other ways: swinging from chandeliers, throwing cars, and so on. Once the main story is finished, though, you can take all these skills and find plenty of other things to do: besides Battles, in which you take any hero/villain in the game through a ladder of increasingly difficult adversaries, there's also a bevy of S.T.A.R. Labs missions to complicate (similar in many ways to TimeSplitters' Challenge modes), not to mention the on- and offline multiplayer options. I imagine this game is going to have some shelf life, especially for DC fans. As a result, Injustice is definitely the best fighting game I've played in a while, one worth picking up.

PS2 Review: Spider-Man 2 (2004)

"Ya get out of the club!"

PS1 Spider-Man was wonderful. Spider-Man 2, though, is everything that game couldn't be on lesser technology. Spider-Man, even more so than Batman in the recent Arkham City, was made for free roam, and SM2 is a rare instance when the unashamed appropriation of a popular and contemporary style (in this case of Grand Theft Auto and its loose approach to video game narrative) works so very well. You have free reign over a virtual, amazingly detailed, faithful NYC. Getting around the boroughs, by slinging webs from rooftop to rooftop, has never been any better. Instead of the nonsensical aerial travel of past games, in which your webs were seemingly attached to invisible buildings, here your webswinging needs to be carefully planned. Whereas before you simply pressed the appropriate button and off you went, SM2 requires you to scale a tall building, for instance, so your webbing has an anchor. From there you can swing from the next building, provided there's one around, building momentum all the while as you gleefully skim the skyscrapers. There's an art in such webswinging, surely, but it's never frustrating, only addicting. Combat is similarly revolutionized. Combos are streamlined, varied, and contextual, and you can earn increasingly complex and spectacular moves as you progress (including our favorite, the spinning grapple piledriver, which can be delivered from the top of the Empire State Building if you're willing to work for it). Obviously, the main storyline of the game follows that of the movie, but it deviates to allow for more villains and more challenges, and when you're not directly engaged in these events (and the game rarely forces you to be), you can pursue a variety of jobs on the side, like delivering pizzas, taking photos for the Daily Bugle, and stopping petty crimes on the street. They're fun diversions for a while, but once you run through the main story, it quickly becomes busywork. Because of the scale of the game, I presume, the graphics suffer for it, and criticism should also be extended to the voice-overs, which range from decent at best, to downright horrible at worst. Toby Maguire sounds particularly unenthusiastic to be there. Still, though, SM2 is the premiere Spider-Man experience on any console, and little touches, like your ability to hang defeated thugs from street lights, indicate the kind of complete world you're dealing with here.

The Amazing Spider-Man and The Dark Knight Rises

In lieu of more formal reviews of these two summer blockbusters, Thrasher and Chicken Man got together for a little podcast to discuss the past and present movie versions of Batman and Spider-Man.

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For Your Viewing Pleasure, Chickenman's Top Ten Video Games (Part Six)

Rehash of Games So Far:
The Sims (PC)
Star Wars: Battlefront (PS2)
Hitman: Blood Money (PS2)
Everything or Nothing (PS2)
Rise to Honor (PS2)

The only way I can think of how to improve Arkham Asylum is to have an unlockable, playable Michael Keaton version of Batman. It is so well done. I admire the decision to produce a game with a unique storyline instead of trying to replicate The Dark Knight movie. Even more pleasing is the fact that it makes a great effort to stay consistent with the Batman canon and tradition, such as including many of the voices from Batman: The Animated Series, showing the developer's ability to both pay homage to long-time fans, as well as being totally accessible to those who might not know who Killer Croc is. This is in deep contrast to the Tobey Maguire Spider-Man movies, which I feel does the double task of disappointing Spidey fans as well as insulting its viewers by being consistent with neither the comic series or its own movies (Eddie Brock is mentioned by name in the first movie, but is treated as a new employee to the Daily Bugle in the third)! However, one of today's honorable mentions is Spider-Man 2 game based on the movie, as it included the long dreamed-of feature of the ability to freely roam Manhattan, therefore being, in my view, the first Spider-Man game that let the player actually feel like Spider-Man (in the sense of being a masked vigilante who stops random street crimes). It actually would have my vote for best super hero-themed game prior to the release of Arkham Asylum (which itself is topped by Arkham City, but we'll conveniently ignore that for the sake of this post). But to make this about Batman and not Spider-Man, I would like to finish off by mentioning the things that make Arkham Asylum so great: its ability to capture the overall Batman theme of fear and darkness, faithfulness to the character, a fun and challenging fighting system, and stealth levels that don't suck (I didn't mention that yesterday for Rise to Honor, but it is a prime example of this problem). It sets the bar for what a comic book hero game should be.

Honorable Mentions:
Spider-Man 2 (PS2), Spider-Man (DC), Comix Zone (Genesis)

Code Redd Net Awards: ChickenMan's Choice (Movie)

In the category of ChickenMan's Choice (Movie), the winner is...

The Dark Knight (2008)

PS2 Review: Batman Vengeance (2001)

While the world at large is lost in Arkham City, I get left behind by the video game curve, as always. Someday I'll get around to playing that one, I'm sure, but until then I'll simply muse about the one quality Bat title for the PS2, Batman Vengeance. This directs me to one of the things which turns me off a bit about Arkham Asylum/City: I prefer my superheros to be in cartoon form. Any attempts to flip on the realist switch just rub me the wrong way. I think the inherently ridiculous qualities of the superhero genre lend themselves far better to the off-worlds of animation than to realistic motivation and mise-en-scene, hence my preference for Mask of the Phantasm (1993) over Batman Begins (2005), for instance. It's no coincidence, then, that I enjoy Vengeance as much as I do. Set in the rich cartoon universe of The New Batman Adventures TV show, Vengeance begins with the apparent death of the Joker, and subsequent levels/battles with the rogues' gallery unravel a complicated conspiracy against Batman. The third-person gameplay is solid, and the inclusion of a first-person view (for firing those signature Batarangs, grapple wires, and other gadgets) is a nice twist on the normal beat-'em-up formula. Unfortunately, driving the Bat-vehicles (on the ground and in the air) is tedious at best, and these excursions are mostly exercises in trial-and-error frustration, rather than a suitable relief from the more combat-heavy portions of the game. And Vengeance is a bit on the short side, with no really enticing reasons to play through it again. However, the story is generally well-paced and interesting, and the music/voice work are fantastic, featuring the cast of the aforementioned animated series reprising their roles. Bat-fans will love the chance afforded by this game to inhabit and interact with the wonderfully noir world of the show, and more general audiences will find a completely competent action game, that is, if they can forgive its lack of shiny next-gen graphics.

Book Review: Batman and Philosophy ed. by Mark D. White and Robert Arp (2008)

Batman and Philosophy is part of a series of books that bring philosophical considerations to pop culture (other books in the series include The Simpsons and Metallica), and is a much more interesting way to study philosophy than reading the original works of Heidegger, Kant, or most other philosophers (it seems that being able to write and philosophize are mutually exclusive). What beats the combination of entertainment and education? As I checked out this book, the librarian told me that I would never see Batman the same. He was right. My favorite essay in it was the first, which asked the question of why doesn’t Batman just kill the Joker? The simple answer is because Batman doesn’t kill anyone intentionally, but is this morally best considering all the death and destruction he could prevent by ending the Joker? Another question is if it is moral to take in orphan boys, put them in tights, and teach them how to be crime-fighters. Many of these are questions I hadn’t considered about Bruce Wayne, Batman, and other comic book heroes. However, there were several things that made me feel like some of the writers were intellectual lightweights, particularly many of them having naïve views of the state. While considering Batman’s vigilantism, one author said that his punishment was illegitimate. Is it really not legitimate since he doesn’t carry a badge? Isn’t one of the problems of Gotham City its police corruption? Another statement that I found silly was that “we don’t want everyone to have police powers.” On the face of it, I totally agree with this statement, but not its implication: that we want some to have police powers. Police are allowed to do things that if done by anyone else would land them in jail. We have to depend on the police to police themselves, which is obviously not the case in Gotham. The contention that Batman’s real enemy is anarchy (if we use its proper definition of no state or “no ruler”) is also ridiculous. Being that Gotham is not an anarchic city with a market for police protection, but an ineffective and corrupt statist system for which Gothamites are forced to pay by taxation, Batman’s real enemy might be the government that reinforces the status quo. This surely leaves Batman favorable in my mind to Superman, who “because of his love for his adopted country, Superman recognizes the authority of the state,” and had tried to assassinate Batman because the state told him to do so. It is because of these statements that I discount many philosophers who think they question everything, but neglect to question the authority of the state. Beyond that, this book contains some interesting and profound insights, and I would suggest it if you maintain both an interest in philosophy and Batman.