Batman: The Dark Knight Rises Breakdown (Spoilers)

Right I don’t often tail off from Video Games but today I’m going to discuss the finale of Nolan’s Batman saga and as such those who have not watched the film should probably stop reading now – unless you want the whole thing ruined.

I’ve been looking forward to this ever since Heath Ledger stole the show during the Dark Knight and had been interested to see exactly how the Bruce Wayne and Batman stories would tie up. The movie actually does tie up most of the plot threads but has received a generally mixed reaction online.

The ending of course shows the Batman sacrificing himself to save the citizens of Gotham from certain death by flying off into the sunset with the giant nuclear bomb. The nice hints come at the end where we get to see Bruce Wayne living happily ever after with Selina Kyle aka Catwoman (although she’s referred to at the burglar during the whole film). You do also get the twist that he has actually been pronounced legally dead and leaves John Blake (or Robin if you can believe that piece of shit) the directions to the Batcave signalling that he wants Blake to take over as the saviour of Gotham.

Unfortunately this ending brought out the sensible elements in me and introduced our first major plot hole – how does anyone escape a nuclear bomb explosion? I don’t give a damn if you’re Batman; if you don’t have Kryptonian skin you aren’t getting out alive. Also what’s the fallout of a nuclear bomb going off not 1 mile from shore? No tidal wave? No mutated fish? The worst bit was that Bruce fixing the autopilot was mentioned maybe once during the whole film so blink and you missed how the hell he survived.

What really annoyed me was the John Blake becoming Batman tie in. I hate it! He’s not Dick Grayson and he’s not Tim Drake so why bother. I don’t understand why Nolan would be so loyal to the core Batman universe yet not use the right characters to take over from Bruce. There won’t be a spin off and he won’t become Nightwing or the Batman as he’d inevitably die somehow very early in his new career. You don’t have to believe me but remember Bruce completed all manner of exceptional training for years of his life whereas Blake has 6 months of being a beat cop under his belt and therefore is horribly unprepared. He also has no wealth in comparison to the successful Bruce Wayne and therefore can’t be the globe trotting vigilante that is supposed to be the Dark Knight.

By now, The Dark Knight Rises has garnered the biggest 2D release retures for a first weekend ever. But the plot holes continued. When cop John Blake was a child he apparently saw that Bruce Wayne was Batman ‘in his face’. Correct me if I’m wrong but isn’t that Nolan’s biggest fob off yet? He worked this out at the orphanage when he was young and then when he gets older, Blake wanders out to Wayne Manor and says, ‘Hey Bruce, I knew you were Batman all along’. If one small time cop worked it out why didn’t anyone else…

Another of my grievances came from the gargling groans of the beast Bane. His voice slowly grew on my but I didn’t really understand what he was saying half the time and even his little speech reading Gordon’s confession started sounding like a butch child. I found he lowered the stakes and stopped me from investing in anything he did. Actually speaking of the speech itself I feel like I was the only person who thought ‘he could have wrote that himself to make the commissioner look bad’. He just decked a football stadium after all.

Although you probably feel like I’m slating the movie I actually did enjoy it; not as much as The Dark Knight but enough to watch it again. The storyline was great but it didn’t feel much like Batman. The effects were good and it rounded off the trilogy in a satisfactory way; if not in a brilliant one. There were a few wonderful moments like the strobe-like gun approach in the sewers and some nice duel fist fights with Catwoman standing by. The things that bothered me were the emphasis on explosions and vehicles rather than Batmans hand to hand battles and nothing psychological to keep us guessing. The major twist doesn’t have enough involvement and therefore lacks the impact it deserves.

I loved the throw backs to the comic lore though in the form of Killer Croc jokes, storyline elements ripped from the best graphic novels out there and the fact that scarecrow crops up everywhere (welcome back Cillian Murphy). Bane breaking Batman was good but it didn’t have the same impact as it did in Knightfall.

Finally the biggest annoyance for me was how quickly Bruce healed from a broken back (4 months approx). And any doctor out where can tell you that punching a vertebrae does not heal a broken back - no matter who you are – that is unless your doctor is one of those balloon boob-job wannabees.

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Borderlands 2 - Gun Looting

The one thing we all loved about Borderlands was it’s rich adult humour, it’s gallons of blood and it’s one-wheel foul mouthed robots. It looks like all those things are going to be coming back in hordes when the second instalment in the franchise hits in a few months time.

Pandora has received a welcome new colour pallet and looks set to keep us enthralled for months to come. The roasting sun doesn’t seem to have helped any of the local’s personalities either with the likes of Tiny Tina and Princess Fluffybutt being some of the names already mentioned.

The former actually looks like a rip of the Jokers old missus Harley Quinn with her Batcave like location and strange circus like attire. She actually one of the quest gives during the massive loot based quests so this shows that you can pick up extra adventures on your journey around Pandora this time.

The main town this time around is called Sanctuary where you’ll be able to fulfil everybody’s needs and desires. Your main type of quest follows the similar routine as before; killing specific characters, a certain volume of creatures or fetching items for the NPC’s. Although this sounds repetitive the co-operative elements seem to stop these games from feeling boring as you complete each mission in different ways.

The biggest draw for the Borderland franchises though as the bazzilion guns on offer – some fire plastma, others normal bullets with different speeds, accuracy and power. It’s a Diablo style loot grinder that give you the ‘5 more minutes’ feeling.

Borderlands 2 inches even closer to Blizzard’s dungeon-crawler in ways that make a ton of sense for its role-playing shooter format. Firstly, you’ve got a Stash that lets you drop items into a shared Dumpster that any character on your profile can access. So if you play as the Gunzerker and your new Sniper Rifle isn’t suitable drop it in for your Zero playthrough,

This cross-character sharing also applies to your challenges which allow you to increase your character in interesting new ways (most of which are completely outrageous). Another addition sees a new bank feature included which lets you hand onto items you aren’t currently using but might want to come back to later. The only thing missing from Borderlands 2 is the ability to upgrade weapons but I suppose that is what patches and updates are for.

Heading out into the vast areas of Pandora allows for some brilliantly fast paced gunplay that really can’t be described until you see it for yourself. Each enemy has it’s own set of weaknesses or easy kills a’la Batman Arkham City – one might require shots to the mouth while others require shooting in the back. It’s a good element to include into the co-op gameplay and means you must mix up your tactics depending on what you are up against.

Provided I don’t need a constant internet connection to play this I’ll be on it all day following its release. Being a fan of the original I’m certainly looking forward to looting my way through an FPS again and for those unfamiliar with the franchise there will not be a better time to get involved than when Borderlands 2 hits the stores.

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Missing out on Comic-con 2012

Once again this year’s comic-con seems to have gone down a treat. People bared witness to the biggest blockbuster movies of the year, their favourite TV series gossip and also the best comics on offer which is partly in the name of course. It no secret that this years E3 conference was terrible compared to the usual offerings but Comic-con was expected to be a success again.

I have to say there were many fine moments I’ve read about like the infamous Bulk and Skull moment at the Power Ranges panel but I have to say that the expo itself had some truly fantastic announcements.

It’s no secret that DC has struggled to successfully launch live-action adaptation of any of their characters over the last few years – with the one exception being Smallville – so the announcement of Arrow early this year made many fanboy’s ears prick up. The successful 10 year stint of the Superman series was always going to produce some attempted spin off but this actually looks like a vision that might succeed.

The new take on Green Arrow is set to focus on Oliver Queen and his exploits into actually becoming a full-fledged superhero. The story picks up after Oliver is stranded on an island for a few years where he apparently hones his archery skills, physical ability and his personal mentality.

Being a big fan of Green Arrow I am more than a little excited about the whole thing and actually expect it to do quite well. The ‘adult’ themes that the story looks to be taking on board will hopefully mean that fans of similar adaptations (Nolan’s Batman for example) will also love this new spin off.

SPOILER ALERT - Deathstoke appears to be the bad guy too.

Then of course Room 6A held the now yearly Walking Dead panel which showed everything from their clever TV adaptation to the 100 comic issue due out this month (it might already be out actually). It’s crazy to think that the independent black and white comic about zombies is set for such a milestone and the TV show has only escalated it’s popularity three-fold.

First and probably the big news is that season three will start in October and pick off directly after the closure of season two. If the comics are anything to go by (and the casting news) we are in for another cracking stream of episodes featuring a prison, the perfect zombie killing action and a governor.

An interesting move was noted by the panel monitor, Chris Hardwick, who said that we could be seeing more special effects in the new series as the undead ghouls are slowly deteriorating due to their lack of food. It’s also interesting to hear from a fans point of view that they are going for a very fast paced series to keep in line with the end of series two and also the 100 mph style of the comics.

If you haven’t seen the trailer then now is the time to check it out but for the moment just think how great this section is in the comics and whether you believe the show will live up to the hype. Also if you haven’t had a chance the book ‘Rise of the Governor’ is a great time filler and explains the motives of the newest character coming into the show.

Normally I wouldn’t say that a reunion panel was one of the big things I missed not going this year but then again Firefly is a little bigger to the norm. The fan-base across the globe is intense and regularly asks for the series to continue. Surprisingly this was the 10^th anniversary of the series that started the chants and the whole cast appeared on the panel. Of course the usual questions were asked but as a massive fan myself I would have just loved to experience the sheer love for the characters and the actors as they each got heavily involved with the fans.

Of course Joss Whedon is returning to comic-con a hero following his massive Avengers outing, in fact creating the third biggest movie of all time.

Unfortunately no news of a new series yet – we can continue to shout from the rafters though and cross our fingers in the hope of some live-action outing in the future.

You can’t really speak about comic-con without some sort of Tolkien works being completed and this year marked the year of The Hobbit. For those like me with a jealous nature you better just skip over the next paragraph.

Yes, a little over 12 minutes of footage was shown from The Hobbit to the rabid fans in Hall H, and director Peter Jackson was also on hand with co-producer and co-screenwriter Philippa Boyens as well as several cast members to set the show on the road. It was also a nice touch that Elijah Wood showed up and Serkis spoke to the crowd as Gollum and even dropped in a few naughty words. The footage shown had been downgraded from the controversial 48 fps that Jackson showed last time – obviously this went down extremely well with the fans too. There are no signs that this won’t be as big or bigger than the Lord of the Rings Trilogy.

Finally Superman returned to San Diego where Warner Bros. gave the Hall H crowd their first look at Man of Steel. This reboot is directed by Zack Snyder with some executive producer assistance being offered by Christopher Nolan. The case were all on hand to speak to the fans with Henry Cavil, Kevin Cosner and Russell Crowe getting involved.

As a comic fan I loved the fact that it has been heavily publicised that Cavill said he looked at to the likes of Death of Superman, the Return of Superman and Red Son for his inspiration. Oddly enough, no mention was made of Birthright, which seems to be the biggest influence on the movie so far. Of course Snyder was asked if he thought that a successful Man of Steel film could lead to a JLA or Batman vs. Superman movie and he replied that once Superman is back in the frame anything could happen.

Comic-con as I’m sure you can see did not disappoint except for the fact that the majority of us only got to read about it and watch the footage at home. Next year guys and girls we will all make more of an effort.

Suddenly I need a pay-rise!

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