Why Batman: Arkham City is better than Dark Knight Rises

Metro: I didn’t really like The Dark Knight Rises. Since Rotten Tomatoes has already had to shut down its comments system, after death threats against reviewers criticising the film, perhaps I’m being braver than I think by saying that. But I found its premise silly, its characters two-dimensional, and its tone drab and listless.

[Them_Bones]

Never seen the dark knight rises yet but my idiot friend spoiled the ending for me by accident.

[archemides518]

then how to do you it is the actual ending lol

[Them_Bones]

Dafuq?

[WeskerChildReborned]

What did you just say? O.o

[archemides518]

LOL I meant how do you know

[ABizzel1]

@Them_Bones

If you know anything about Batman, then you would know that the story wasn't right, and there was going to be a plot twist or an outcry from angry fans.

Not to mention we knew Batman was going to save the day. There's really no way to spoil a superhero movie, because you know they're going to save the day.

As far as the article I agree I enjoy AC, better than DKR, but it doesn't make DKR a bad movie. It was really good, but the focus was too much on Bruce overcoming challenges rather than Batman overcoming villains which made it 90% story and 10% action. And for a nearly 3 hour long movie, that's not a good balance. It's still a good movie through.

[MaxXAttaxX]

@author
I could also argue about the villains/boss in Arkham City as a point against it....

[Biggest]

I wonder why articles like this never address the more pressing question.

Why does it matter which one is better?

Ask your guys to answer that, Pozzle.

[antz1104]

Wow, complete fail of an article.

I really don't agree with any of his points, especially since you can't make an honest comparison if the first sentence is "I really didn't like TDKR."

[Nimblest-Assassin]

Its an inception ending... there are 2 ways you can look at it

I completely disagree with this guys arguement though... AC comes no where close to rises

Simply due to the plot, and the fact that many characters in the game were ridiculously underused, and were not fleshed out very well

[dead_eye]

?? There was only 1 way to look at the ending. it was pretty straight forward. You can try and look harder but there's nothing else there.

[LtSkittles]

No it's not. Inception's ending was ambugious, TDKR's was straightforward.

[morganfell]

****************************** ***********
YOU WERE WARNED
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Nolan wanted to have his cake and eat it too. He found a way.

Nolan was being smart with his ending and he chose it for personal reasons. On one hand Nolan and Bale can say they are finished, done, and walk away clean. If people pester them they can always say the trilogy is the endpoint.

Remember, Selina always wears black, not blue (prison excepted). It's amazing what an old man can imagine.

On the other hand, Bale said if the script were right and Nolan directed he would be willing to do a fourth film. The ending also allows for this.

After all there is the autopilot patch and why would Alfred pick Selina. How much contact with her did he have?

[Tokyo_reject]

POSSIBLE SPOILERS FOR THE DARK KNIGHT RISES BELOW
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YOU WERE WARNED
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@morganfell There is talk that Dark Knight Rises wasnt actually a Sequel....but actually a prequel to a possible Nightwing movie lol!!!! That would be siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiick. ...screw a Robbin movie lol!!!

[Akiba96]

i only agree in regards to what nolan made batman isnt true to batman. arkham city is what batman is and therefore better imo. arkham city is not the over realistic version nolan made. although that did help it become more accepted. dont get me wrong, i enjoyed nolans batman (except one). i just feel like its not true to comics batman

[shysun]

SpoilerspoilerSpoiler!!!!' ''''''& #39;'''''&# 39;''''' 9;'''''' ;'''''' ''''''& #39;'''''&# 39;''''' 9;'''''' ;'''''' ''''''& #39;'''''&# 39;''''' 9;'''''' ;'''''' ''''''& #39;'''''&# 39;''''' 9;'''''' ;'''''' ''''''& #39;'''''&# 39;'' Spoiler!!!!!!

A mechanic tells Fox that the update for the Bat's Autopilot was fix 6 months ago by Bruce Wayne! Dont you guys listen!!

[goldwyncq]

No it's not, there aren't any totems this time.

[acemonkey]

did u smack him?

[Them_Bones]

It was over facebook lol.

[WeskerChildReborned]

Wow that sucks bro, i haven't seen it either but i'll be seeing it when it comes out on DVD or On Demand.

[brodychet]

POSSIBLE SPOILERS FOR THE DARK KNIGHT RISES BELOW
***************************** * ***********
YOU WERE WARNED
***************************** ************

So since Morgan Freeman is Catwoman now, will there be a new movie on him?

[CommonCent]

+1

[dead_eye]

I must have seen a different Dark knight rises.

[Kran]

Because it's a video game meaning you get more depth, deeper story and get to explore more? Plus with optional content?

I aint saying the movie is dumb. It's not. But this kinda seems like an unfair analysis.

[vyke3]

True. The movie is 2 hours long while arkham city is like what? 15 hours maybe?

[Akiba96]

movie is closer to 3 and the game is like ten

[HarvesterOSarow]

If you beat Arkham City in ten hours then you didn't really want to play it. My first playthrough, doing most of the extras, finding collectibles and upgrading things, took around 30 hours. Now I'm sure you can do all that in less, but 10 hours? Really?

And even though I think it's a bit unfair to compare two different types of media against each other, IMO as far as Batman goes, Arkham City is far superior to any individual film or even the trilogy as a whole.

[Baka-akaB]

I disagree too , the game is a good game , but as a Batman adventure , ranked among the usual comics stuff , it hardy crack any of the top 10 batman plots .

People wouldnt be making any fuss about the comics version of the game . Hell DC got currently a comics version spinning out of the game , and it's not phenomenal .

What the movie trilogy proposes and what's happened right now in the regular batman comics is miles better

[moeqawama]

Oh let the hipster make his silly case... I loved the game, but the movie was incredible. Very dumb comparison

[solid7]

Because in the game YOU are BATMAN........

[ChunkyLover53]

Because the game was great, and the movie was fair, but obviously a decline when compared to The Dark Knight. Every time Bane talked, I laughed a little. He sounded just like Sean Connery.

[rdgneoz3]

My friend was dying laughing in a silent theater, when the little kid was singing and bane says "What a beautiful voice"...

And yah, the 3rd is an obvious decline from the Dark Knight. Nothing in it can compare to Ledger's performance as the Joker.

As for him sounding like Sean Connery, it was funny. Seeing as most the the tv shows and games had a south American accent for him.

[extermin8or]

lol the what a beautiful voice bit was brilliant, also when bane see's burning symbol on the bridge I think his eys (which did the acting because his mask covered him) I think it was supposed to eb fear he showed; instead it looked like someone had shoved something up his arse was quite amusing when coupled with his strained voice as he gave orders

[Angels3785]

There is two problems with what you said........1) the joker in the comics is a much more fleshed out character than bane....ask anyone about batman and they will say (regardless of seeing the dark knight) joker in response. The Joker is batman's main nemesis and his most worthy adversary. Bane only paralyzed batman then he started to die out. Basically what I'm saying is Ledger had a lot to work with. Not only because he worked with Mark Hamill (the true joker, even the batman creators called him "the most definitive joker to date") on his characterization of the joker, but because nolan also had brilliant writing to flesh out the character. The character may have been brought to life by ledger, but the real character was in the writing for ledger which came from the majority of batman comics. I'm not saying he did bad....he did excellent, but you have too look at things....the character he was playing is one of the best in the batman universe....Bane on the other hand is not a comparison to the joker.

Bane not being a fleshed out character and the fact that tom hardy had to act and show every bit of it through a mask that covered his face with a character which(in the comics) has nowhere near as much personality as the joker was a brilliant feat. Top that with the fact his voice was recorded and added into the film. Plus some idiots apparently could not understand his original more bad ass sounding voice, so they changed it:( Comparing a madman to a mercenary is absurd...ledgers performance was good, but iconic? He had countless experts and material to follow! Hardy made bane a bad ass! He was no badass in the comics! Ledger created the film version of the joker....who will always be great if done right. Bane's voice is a matter of opinion I thought it was great, but I liked the original voice they had better. I never laughed once at something he said and I never heard others do it....and I've seen it three times. I though that the times where his voice was more high pitched where more necessary than anything, like the scene where he said "what a beautiful voice" that was brilliant.

2) The dark knight rises a step down from the previous? Thats not what reviews are showing...not by a long shot. In fact this film is almost guaranteed to be nominated for best picture (more so due to the shootings and all the free publicity unfortunately). Many reviewers are going as far to say "if this movie doesnt win best picture, no comic book film ever will. "

I'd say that their performances were very close rather than ledger being iconic and vastly better. I personally still think Ledgr's performance was better, but pay credit where credit is due. The only thing I didnt like about this movie is that you could tell that this was filmed in new york, in the past films nolan made it feel like you were in some foreign city like gotham....a place you've never been before. But this one...even a blind man could see it was filmed in new york.

[Ganzi]

@angels3785 Sorry, but TDKR is definitely not going to win best picture. It'll probably get a nod, but hell would have to freeze over before it wins. Granted, its been a super weak year for movies (that is Academy level stuff), Moonrise Kingdom being the best release this year so far, but Paul Thomas Anderson's ( the guy who did Boogie Nights and There Will Be Blood) new movie "The Master" will probably end up sweeping the awards circuit this year.

I enjoyed TDKR, but personally, I feel The Dark Knight was a good deal better. But yea, thats my two cents.

[FlashBack]

Arkham City has little to none origin stories, they just throw villians and heroes in for fan service and they do stuff, you can't enjoy it unless you are a true fan.

[InTheLab]

Paul Dini knows Batman and Chris Nolan knows Hollywood.

Bane looks like a joke and sounds Irish instead of Hispanic.

Catwoman looks ridiculous.

Batman took 8 years off from being Batman? Batman is all about his mission. No way he's haging out for 8 years while Gotham goes to shit.

Bale's Batman voice is too distracting.

Nolan's Batman is more dude in a costume than crime fighting detective.

The people at Rocksteady are clearly fans of Batman. They made a game about comic book hero and Nolan made a film filled with pointless characters and little understanding of Bruce Wayne/Batman.

[Chuk5]

I disagree. I think Nolan isn't afraid to kill holy cows, and it may put some people off. He took bold steps to not only make a batman movie, he took steps to transcend the comic movie genre. Rocksteady did transcend the troupes of comic games, but arkham city felt like a step back to some degree. The open world nature of Arkham City sort of washed a bit of the special essence of the first games distinct world.

I think Rocksteady made concessions to some of the open world conventions.

Nolan pushed the nature of his vision (deconstructing batman), rocksteady walked backward a bit on arkham asylum's magic.

[InTheLab]

I only partially disagree. The open world of AC did feel like a broken puzzle of the true Gotham City, or at least how it was designed in the comics, but the Batman of AC is clearly a representation of the Batman that's been around for the last 30 years. While very far from Bob Kane's original vision from the Golden Age and Silver Age, AC does the better job of presenting the Batman as he's been since the mid 70's.

Early on in AC, Batman is having a conversation with Alfred about Strange. He says that Strange knows Batman is Bruce Wayne. This is just one example of why an actual comic book writer gets it, and why a Hollywood directer does not. Over the last 30 years, Batman has been thinking of himself as Batman and that Bruce Wayne is the mask. All he is Gotham and Batman. So for Nolan to have him on some vacation from who he is, is unacceptable.

Nolan movies, while good, have only bastardized the franchise. Nolan is afraid to dig deep into the comics and does not respect the source material. From Ra's right on down to Bane, Nolan has gotten it wrong at every turn.

Now, to some degree, AC is not the perfect representation of Batman. The city is not as it should be. Robin isn't the right Robin. Batman is not in love with the Joker, nor would he leave Talia to burn.

There's misteps with both, but one is closer to the source than the other.

[dead_eye]

In one bit of the film Bruce Wayne says "that's a brazen costume for a cat burglar."
and Selina Kyle says and "yeah and who are you pretending to be" and Bruce Wayne replies with either Bruce Wayne or a multimillionaire or something like that.

[LtSkittles]

No, Paul Dini knows Batman, and his mythos, and so does Christopher Nolan knows Batman, and his mythos.

The Animated Series is great, because Paul Dini worked on it, and so are the Arkham games.

Christopher Nolan's movies are based on 70+ years of comics, and the animated series.

TDKR felt like the 60's series, because Catwoman looked like Julie Newmar's version, and something else that I won't say. And Daggett in the film is based on Roland Daggett.

[Chuk5]

Having experienced both, Id have to say tdkr is far better.

[greyhaven33]

The movie was everything I wanted it to be and more...so many haters nowadays who just bitch and moan

[SolidFenix86]

Dude seriously...I don't know why people expect things to be absolutely perfect. Time and work go into these things and it's crazy how many people are not grateful for what they've received.

[SolidFenix86]

Jesus christ you guys b*tch about everything. The Joker never had long hair or licked his lips...R'as Al Guhl wasn't a mercenary. Understand just like anything else this is someone's interpretation of the Batman character. If you wanted Bane to be like he is in the comics then you would've been in for a very disappointing 3 hrs of your life. I really would like to see you guys do any better at acting while having a mask covering your face. Arkham City had a terrible representation of Bane IMO...but if you all want to do any better please make your own movie or game....oh wait....that probably won't happen. Idiots.

[Angels3785]

I agree with everything! except bane in Arkham asylum and city.....he looked like a monster! a beast! a scary opponent!

[spartan112g]

He looked like a monster in the game, but he was a whole different animal in the movie. In the movie he punishes people with his brute strength and systematically unraveled Batman's psyche. The Bane in the movie that could not only overpower you and outsmart you is much more frightening then just a stupid behemoth.

[007Bond]

I believe they both made the same mistakes which was underused villains. Bane was amazing in Rises, but there was so much going on and then he just dies like nothing. The Nolan trilogy was great, but the villains felt very rushed not acting wise script wise.

The same with scarecrow he has the potential to be a main villain, but never gets enough screen time. Speaking of which what happened to him in the end? Harvey was amazing as well, then he was out shadowed by joker. The should have been an amazing 4 to 5 film trilogy, but lack of giving villains no chance really hurt it for me.

Hell, joker,two face,bane,catwoman made these movies interesting NOT batman. Batman was outplayed in every movie except for maybe Begins.

Rises added too much OVER THE TOP action like those huge fight scenes, and bat plane. Sure batmans already not realistic, but this was making me think they made this last one for even kids to watch, which was not the case in the past two.

Yea I went a little too far typing this long comment LOL, but the only thing that made RISES interesting was Bane, Selina.

[SolidFenix86]

I think the daytime fight scene seemed out of place but I enjoyed how Bane was a physical challenge to Batman, I thought it was a great ending to an excellent trilogy.

I also agree the Scarecrow was underused along with Two Face.

[007Bond]

Sure it was a great action movie, and I did like the ending as well. Bane was a real menace, really well played. Although I said Catwoman was great I sometimes ask myself why was she in this? She sometimes made the scene with batman seem very cheesy, especially when they exchange words sometimes. I believe that if they brought finished up scarecrows story, and then bane it would have been complete. It just does not fell finished for me.

Plus Talia character was pointless she was just another extra added on to make bane seem like he had a heart.

[spartan112g]

First I have to ask if you even know what the term trilogy means because saying it should have been 4-5 films... really? tri = 3.

Dude, in this movie, the huge fight scene makes sense. It was a war in Gotham. A WAR. Also, I think many people do not appreciate what went into the bat plane because if you look really closely, it is technically just a helicopter with the blades underneath. It even flies pretty much like a helicopter with a bit more mobility at times. I think a lot went into it to keep it within the realm of reality and possibility.

[StreetsofRage]

People who are saying Nolan is going to continue....it's not happening.

RUMORS:

DC really wants to get this Justice League movie going, but the Batman in this trilogy just doesn't fit so they're planning a complete reboot with Batman. The new Superman is rumored to start talking and maybe showing different superheroes.

BTW, I didn't really like the movie. The last 30 minutes were great but everything else was weak and predictable. What saved this movie for me is Hans Zimmer's awesome score.

[ginsunuva]

I agree that AC was better than Tdkr. But it's also a game that allows for direct, limitless representation of the batman vision that movie sets and props can't do. But the thing that ruins the trilogy is Bale's thinness in the batsuit (looks like loose pajamas on him), including his small un-batman-like chin, and his forced unnatural grunting voice when he's batman. AC being a game allows for Batman to look accurate and have the original voice actor behind it.

And Mr. Nolan, where are Harley, Hugo, and Penguin? You could've done a great job with them. Penguin in BB, Harley in TDK, and Hugo Strange in TDKR.

[CommonCent]

For comparing a movie to a completely unrelated game (the plot/ universe) I gave the site 2 down votes. I suggest anyone with logic do the same.

[Capt-FuzzyPants]

Batman are the best movies I've ever seen. The Drak Knight Rises was the perfect ending even if it wasn't as good as The Dark Knight. The games are good, but the movies are legendary. The games won't be forgotten but the movies will be praised for a long long long time.

[Clarence]

I agree. I actually felt that the The Dark Knight Rises was the best out of all them.
I think people pick the The Dark Knight because of the Death of Heath ledger. He was great as a villain, but Tom Harding as Bane was more evenly match when going up against Batman.

Most want to see the Superhero dominate the whole movie, it wasn't like that with the Dark knight rises. Bruce Wayne had to learn how to be a hero again.
He had to learn how to be Batman all over.

Excellent movie.

As far as AC goes, its a game with DLC, so its much easier to change things. Once a movie is out its out. All in all Nolan created a perfect Trilogy.

[TheOneWhoKnocks]

ive always wanted to get into the batman comics (dont mock me) cos i never grew up with them, but where would be the best place to start please

[Ganzi]

ya know, I enjoyed both Arkham City and TDKR, but I actually liked both the Dark Knight and Arkham Asylum better. The Dark Knight was a tighter movie with better showmanship while Arkham Asylums' metroidvania playstyle and level progression just was more up my alley. Plus Hugo Strange was a huge disappointment in AC, seriously total waste of a really interesting character.

[2pacalypsenow]

why The Godfather(Movie) is better than any video game ever made. see i can do it too :-)

[Darrius Cole]

I haven't played AC yet, but haven't we learned that the a well-made video game is always better than a well-made movie of the same subject matter. The problem is that most movies have crappy, poorly made video games that try to make a cheap dollar.

About the movie,

I have seen enough fiction in all forms (comics, movies, anime, books, television) to know when the story has been told...when it time to move on. The story of Bane's Batman had NOT BEEN TOLD.

Nolan wanted to do the Dark Knight Returns, (the Graphic Novel) but it isn't time.

TDKR tried to bring closure to a story before its time. Because he tried to close it out prematurely he set the beginning of the movie in the wrong place. Gotham was in the wrong place, Batman was in the wrong place, Bruce Wayne was in the wrong place...everything was in the wrong place.

Because the opening setting was so un-Batman-like, the movie didn't turn out well.

I thought TDKR was the worst of the trilogy. But, truth is, this should not have been a trilogy. Enough big things happen to Batman to justify about 6 movies.

[Soldierone]

Doesn't matter how many times you say it, the die hard movie fanatics will never accept it.

In this specific example though, I think the whole "games last longer" does have an impact thanks to the open world enviroment and being able to explore things. However what about games with a 1 or 2 hour total cut scene time? MGS4 for example is nearly pure cutscenes, and tells an overall better story than any action movie of similar qualities....

[TXIDarkAvenger]

Comparing a movie to a game that aren't even based on each other...

Dark Knight rises was an amazing movie and arkham city is an amazing game, lets keep it at that :D

[goldwyncq]

The Dark Knight is severely overrated.

Let's all be honest here. The entire film was saved by one person and that's Heath Ledger. Everyone else have subpar performances. The plot is decent but the first third of the plot felt more like a Mission Impossible movie. The action scenes were hardly an improvement over Batman Begins. And the inclusion of Two-Face wasn't given enough justice. It felt more like crime drama than an actual superhero film.

The Dark Knight Rises is a way better film and easily the best out of the trilogy. That scene were *SPOILERS* Bane breaks Batman's back was so perfectly done. Catwoman was depicted accurately as well. And it has a twist near the end no one would see coming.

In short, this is the definitive Batman film everyone's been waiting for.

[Darrius Cole]

In no way is TDKR, and good as TDK. It's not close.

[theWB27]

The biggest difference to me in the movies was Bane was a far more formidable foe than Joker. Joker seemed like he would need "help" from other villains in case a plan didn't go right...it was purely mental with Joker.

Bane could match Wayne with wits albeit with help in that department...but there was no way Batman could catch Bane. I felt like in order to have stopped Bane he was going to have to break his one rule...I thought that the whole movie he was going to have to try and kill Bane.

Bane's voice was awesome. It was grandiose. I smiled everytime he spoke.

To end my rant....Joker seemed like he wanted to mess with Batman more than kill him. Like he said at the end of Dark Knight that basically they'd be going back and forth.

Bane on the other hand wanted to torture him, make him watch his city burn and then kill him.

[Darrius Cole]

The Joker does want to mess with Batman more than the kill him, that's the whole point. Batman is a genius lunatic, who attracts genius lunatics. The only difference it that Batman wants to protect the people from crime and the genius lunatic that he attracts don't.

The true villain is Gotham City. It weakens people and breeds crime. Batman protects the people from most ordinary forms of criminals and makes the city habitable. However that normal saftey comes at the price of producing Super-villains who are not afraid of Batman.

The joker is Batman's natural counterpart...re-action vs. action...Chaos vs. order.

Nolan, in BB, correctly got the idea that Gotham was the true villain. So even though he misstated the canon and made Ras Al-guhl bigger than he should be. it worked because it identified Gotham as the corrupting force.

The Dark Knight got all these concepts correctly. It literally did everything right.

The Dark Knight Rises was the natural end to Nolan initial flaw in over-emphasizing Ras Al-guhl. It mis-defined the characters, most importantly Batman. Batman can't turn off being Batman. Batman is who he is when he isn't pretending. Bruce Wayne is who he is when is pretending.

[theWB27]

I understand your points but I was just stating why I liked Bane a little more. I also understand that's what Joker was in the comics.

I think he got your last point of Batman being who he really is. He made it pretty clear that despite losing Rachel and Alfred leaving. Lucious even threatening to resign in TDR that despite whatever happened with Bruce...Batman needed to be there to protect Gotham. Nolan made it pretty clear that Bruce/Batman would give his life for the city above all else.

Either way can't wait to see it again tommorow.

[lorcraven]

Isn't one a video game and the other a film?

Or am I completely insane
?

[lpc]

Lun mera Arkham city achi thi

[lpc]

Lun mera Arkham city achi thi aur ha

[MrBeatdown]

I loved Arkham City, but not for it's use of Batman as a character. The problem with it is Batman is Batman, and nothing more. Bruce Wayne is non-existent, even before he puts on the suit.

Bruce Wayne is what makes Batman so interesting. Batmobiles, batarangs, batsnacks, and all the other cool crap are entertaining, but in the game, I never gave a damn about his character. He didn't feel human. It felt like Rocksteady used the image Bruce Wayne tries to create for Batman as the actual Batman character, if that makes sense.

It was the same with most characters actually. Nobody's character went beyond what you'd expect from a talking action figure. TDKR gets more into that stuff and to me, that's what makes it far superior to AC. It's a hell of a game, but it's just a big Batman play set.

[CaptainPunch]

I think it's a bit silly to compare a game to a movie. I loved The Dark Knight Rises & Batman Arkham City. But they're no way similar besides being about Batman.

[Shane Kim]

These Batman movies are soooo much about Bruce. I mean at the end of the dark knight it almost become a twilight movie with all drama.

Micheal Keaton, Michelle Phifer, Danny Devito and Jack Nicholson all da fúcking way.

[CaptainPunch]

Are we watching the same film here? The Nolan Batman trilogy is amazing.

[CaptainPunch]

If you're going to disagree, at least give me a good reason.

[trenken311]

I actually agree AC is better than this movie. I was very disappointed in Rises.

[Kane86]

K....I'm worried about some of you and how you actually made it this far in the world. For all you slow people out there (the ones who don't understand the Nolan story)....it's a human approach to the Batman character. Batman doesn't stop being Batman? Go read Knightfall....or pick up any other story where Batman STOPS being Batman.

Batman was no longer needed since he was viewed as a murderer, and most of Gothams criminals were convicted under the Dent act which drastically cleaned up the streets. Not to mention the Joker killed Rachel, so Bruce was mentally scarred from her death because he believed that she was waiting for a time when Gotham no longer needed Batman...it's really not that hard to understand.

I could picture a BRILLIANT story you guys would come up with....Rachel dies and the next night "WELL...the woman I loved died..still gotta be Batman!" God...some of you are ignorant ass wipes. There's a reason you're not writing stories or directing movies, stick to your calling please.