UPDATE: While the video has been updated, none of the commentary below (from 2016) has! Please consider this a re-post!
Circumstances conspired so that Magic: the Gathering took over from Batman as the secondary focus of this blog last weekend. But now I'm back to business as usual, with a place for you to view Episode 2 of my Batman: Arkham Knight Let's Play project somewhere other than my YouTube channel.
Here's a couple of highlights to keep an eye out for. First is a cool mashup of "Invasion," one of Nick Arundel and David Buckley's most memorable tracks from the Arkham Knight soundtrack, with popular progressive rock anthem "Tom Sawyer" by Rush, which starts at the 00:55 second mark. The idea came to me because both songs are in the unusual 7/8 time signature, which I explain in a little more detail in a previously published sneak peek of this project. The next bit of personalization comes in at right around 05:18, where I inserted a montage of various images (including promotional clips and some bonus content you get as a reward for completing the game) to act as a visual accompaniment to one of Scarecrow's chilling speeches that he broadcasts throughout the city. I wanted to include this audio at this point, because it reintroduces the main villain and is expertly performed by voice actor John Noble, and I happen to think it's much more interesting to watch a homemade cinematic sequence as we listen, rather than just looking at the Batmobile parked on the side of the road.
The next scene shows the first in-game meeting between Batman and Oracle, an extremely important character who only made auditory appearances in the last two games in the series. Oracle is voiced in the game by Ashley Greene, from the Twilight movies, and while she does a great job in the game, my one gripe is that she's just simply too young to play the part in this "Batman's Last Night" scenario, where all the characters should be in their twilight years. That and she's not a natural redhead, as is Barbara Gordon in the comics. Thus in my hypothetical live-action movie version of this game, I would offer this role to Jessica Chastain. She's got the right look, she's done some big budget effects-driven fare, and she even has horror experience, which would be useful given the Scarecrow/Halloween-themed subject matter of the game.
After this meeting, we need to pick up the first upgrade for the Batmobile: a device called the Power Winch, which lets us reenact a memorable scene from 1995's Batman Forever, where the Batmobile drives up the side of a building. I don't know if this is a testament to the quality of computer graphics now or the campiness of movies back then, but I find it strange that a video game shows a much more believable version of this scene than a big budget studio movie. I also find it strange that the Batwing, Batman's supersonic jet with near perfect maneuverability, is only used in this sequence to drop off and install the Power Winch, rather than to just lift the Batmobile up and place it on the roof where it needed to be. Seems like an underutilization of one of Batman's most powerful toys.
The last and most impactful event in this episode is when we meet the game's title character face-to-face for the first time. The Arkham Knight, voiced by the extremely prolific Troy Baker, quickly proves to be one of Batman's most formidable enemies, not just because of the massive army of lethal drones and well-trained henchmen he was able to assemble, but also because of his intimate knowledge of Batman's methods and equipment. But rather than open this up to conjecture about the Arkham Knight's identity, let's talk about who I would like to play the role in my movie: Chris Pratt. Some might be uncomfortable with such a likable guy playing a villain, but I think it's the perfect opportunity for him to show his range. And maybe this is just based on his public persona, but he also seems like one of Hollywood's few leading men whose ego wouldn't object to spending the majority of the movie hidden behind a mask and voice modulator.
That's all for now. Tune in Thursday morning for an all new episode of Batman: Arkham Knight!
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