Review: Batman Under the Red Hood

Batman: Under the Red Hood is an animated movie based on the comic storyline of the same title.  Now I know you might be thinking that because it’s a carton it’s for kids and isn’t your cup of tea.  Well you’re dead wrong this is a very mature and dark story arch, they didn’t water down the source material in order to make it kid friendly.  It’s meant for an older audience like Christopher Nolan’s Batman movies.

The story in Batman: Under the Red Hood starts with the death of the second Robin, Jason Todd after the Joker beats him half to death with a crowbar and then blows up the building he left him in.  Naturally this takes a heavy toll on Batman, not being able to protect his family.  Then a new enemy shows up using the same name that the Joker originally went by before meeting Batman.  This does involve the Joker’s origin tale for anyone who hasn’t read The Killing Joke and doesn’t know I won’t go into too much detail but basically in it Batman accidentally creates the Joker.  Anyways Red Hood wages war with Black Mask and his criminal organization in order to cleanup the streets of Gotham his own way, by killing every criminal he can find.

The movie is full of terrific action scenes and incredible drama.  The struggle for Batman to stop a man who is stopping crime, saving lives and getting the type of revenge that Batman so desperately wants after losing Jason.  Red Hood wants Batman to join him, help him to protect the city from all the vile criminals that plague Gotham’s streets.  Dick Grayson or Nightwing wants to help Batman to stop the Red Hood but Batman doesn’t want anyone else getting hurt because of him.  Black Mask becomes so pressured by Red Hood that he makes the same mistake as the mobsters in The Dark Knight and hires the Joker to kill the Red Hood.  This war between Red Hood, Batman with Nightwing and Black Mask with Joker leads to some intense scenes that work really well because of the fact that the movie is animated it isn’t limited by the movies and actions that the actors can do. 

Speaking of the actors Batman: Under the Red Hood has a spectacular voice cast.  Bruce Greenwood plays Batman and does a great job he isn’t Kevin Conroy who is the voice of Batman that we all know and love but he is good enough that after awhile you don’t mind, and that is saying something.  It is no small feat to replace a beloved voice actor that we’ve all heard play Batman for years, although I don’t know why they didn’t just hire Kevin Conroy, I mean he is still playing Batman in the video games from Rocksteady (Batman: Arkham Asylum and Arkham City).  John Di Maggio who plays the Joker is similar in the respect that he is replacing a beloved voice for an iconic character usually played by Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker) but still is able to make it his own.  Neil Patrick Harris is a terrific actor who I love in How I Met Your Mother and has been in superhero roles before as Spiderman and the Flash and does another great job as Nightwing.  His role isn’t the largest but he fits Nightwing quite well. The best voice actor however is the one that I have saved for last and that is Jensen Ackles who may be the single greatest actor ever.  Yeah he is that good he’s from the TV series Supernatural which if you haven’t seen it you need to go out and buy the first season right now.  Don’t Google it because it will lead to spoilers, I intend to write a recommendation for it as soon as I figure out a way to write about it without using the word awesome in every sentence.  However I digress, Jensen Ackles does a phenomenal job as Red Hood the best of anyone in the movie, which is impressive judging from how many more lines Bruce Greenwood has and the fact that it’s about Batman.

Batman: Under the Red Hood is an incredible movie, the best of DC’s animated movies and my second favorite Batman movie after The Dark Knight.  In fact it may even be my second favorite superhero movie (it’s a toss up between it and Kick-Ass).  Don't let the fact that it is a cartoon fool you the movie is full of great acting, drama, and action if you’re a fan of superheroes you owe it to yourself to pick this one up because it is one of the best films of the year.

Score: 4/5

Recommendation: Plants vs. Zombies

            Plants vs. Zombies is a tower defence game where you play the owner of a house in a suburban neighbourhood that has become infested with zombies.  After every level you unlock a new plant with its own unique abilities.  For example PeaShooters attack anyone in their line of fire while Cherry Bombs explode killing themselves and everyone around them.  The game has a good sense of humour about it like your neighbour Crazy Dave who wears a pot on his head and gives you advice on how to deal with new zombie types or right before the last level of each stage the zombies send you a poorly written letter politely asking for your surrender so they can feed on your brains.

            
            The game is a lot of fun when I first got it I was sinking a couple of hours a day on it.  Which brings me to another good thing about Plants vs. Zombies; it’s a long game especially if you want to get all of the achievements.  The gameplay is simple and addictive and keeps itself fresh because of all the different plants you get to experiment with and they change the level design every chapter.  There are basic levels, levels with water areas, rooftop levels and foggy levels.  Also at night your plants are asleep and there’s no sunlight which you need to grow your plants so you have to change your playing style by focusing on creating your own sunlight and by using mushrooms which are weaker but are nocturnal for some reason.  The controls are easy but on the iPhone if you have big fingers you might end up placing your plants in the wrong spot; hopefully you won’t have any problems on the iPad though.

            
            Plants vs. Zombies is a really fun game with tonnes of hours of gameplay, if you like tower defence games or even if you’ve never tried them you should check this one out.  It’s one of the best games I’ve played on the iPhone and I’m not a big fan of tower defence games. 

Weekly Wrap Up

Duke Nukem Forever is delayed again!

            Wow is this game impossible to make our something?  It’s been twelve years for crying out loud I thought that with all the trailers and even some previews Gearbox finally had this thing under control.  I mean what on earth could have delayed it I mean hasn’t it already been delayed for every possible reason and then some.  Well I guess we’re all just going to have to wait another half month before we get our hands on what is sure to be a great game.  I mean the delay had to have been a result of all the love and care they have put into this game and I’m confident they just want to make sure that everything is perfect before they release it.

  

Nintendo’s 3DS was released in North America.

            Nintendo’s newest handheld is here.  As I stated in my article about the 3DS’ launch lineup I’m not excited about this, I’m not getting a 3DS and at the moment I don’t see a single good reason for anyone to get it.  I admit that there will be good reasons in the future once Nintendo gets its act together and releases one of its AAA titles.  In my opinion if you liked the DS and you really want the 3DS you should wait for some more games which will probably be a couple of months.

Crysis 2 came out.

            Crysis 2 the sequel to the game everyone wanted to try but very few could thanks to its incredible graphics is now available on the Xbox 360 and PS3 as well as the PC.  I never played the original Crysis but I’m considering giving this one a try.  However I’ll probably wait for it to go down in price a bit because there are other games out right now that I’m more interested in.  That being said the game looks great if you’re a big FPS fan and you like the first Crysis you should probably check this one out.

Sucker Punch hit theaters.

            Zack Synder’s latest movie is a highly stylized adventure though an amazing and dark world that’s highly influenced by video games.  The movie looks incredible and is a really fun ride; I have a review posted if you want more info.  It’s something you should really go see in theatres because it is full of amazing visuals and big loud explosions. 

iPad 2 came out in Canada. 

            The iPad 2 is now in Canada which is a big deal for some people, just not for me.  I don’t get the appeal of the iPad, I have an original iPad and I almost never use it.  If I want to go online I have a computer and a laptop, if I want to check something quickly or play a game for a couple of minutes I always have my iPhone on me.  There just isn’t a real reason for it unless you don’t have a laptop or smartphone at which point you should get one of those.  Also if you already have an iPad the iPad 2 is a very small upgrade for all that money, maybe the iPad 3 will be worth it.  

Review: Mass Effect 2

            Mass Effect 2 the sequel to Bioware’s epic sci-fi classic Mass Effect from 2007 is one of the biggest games of the year, but is it one of the best?  Luckily Bioware made this game and didn’t hand it off like they did with the sequel to KOTOR.  If you’re unfamiliar with Mass Effect it is a sci-fi RPG/3^rd person shooter set in space where humans have recently joined a galactic federation comprised of numerous different alien species.  You played as Commander Shepard a human who becomes the first ever human Spectre.  Spectres are intergalactic cops that work for the Citadel Council which is the highest authority in the universe and are above all law aside from the Council.  Your mission was to stop a rouge Spectre named Saren but this leads you to discover a much larger threat called Reapers.  The Reapers are a race of synthetic life forms that live out in the fringes of Dark Space.  They show up when the organic life forms inhabiting the galaxy are in their prime and then they kill them all.  Once they have wiped out all life in the galaxy they go back to Dark Space and wait for other civilizations to build up so they can come back and kill them.  I know it’s messed up but it’s actually really cool and Mass Effect 2 starts to explain why they do this.  In Mass effect 2 Shepard is still preparing for the Reaper onslaught but now there is a new threat, the Collectors.  They have been going to small human colonies and abducting every last resident.  Shepard believes that the Reapers have something to do with it but the Council won’t listen they believe that Saren was the threat and the Reapers aren’t real.  So you must work with a radical human organization called Cerberus and recruit a team to help you put a stop to the Collectors.

        
             The gameplay in Mass Effect 2 has been radically overhauled from the first.  The massive inventory full of weapons, armour and upgrades is gone now you only get a few types of each weapon and you can only pick one of each at the start of each mission.  The combat has also changed, the cover system has been improved so that it feels more solid like Gears of War unlike the first one where you didn’t really stick to the wall and it was sort of clumsy.  Your weapons now use ammo in order to make the combat a little more traditional rather than having a heat bar that fills up and cools down.  It doesn’t make much sense in the universe, why would they decide to use bullets if they don’t need them.  Is it to boost the economy by bringing back a dead industry?  It doesn’t really matter because it is a better system now that you know exactly how many shots you have left.  The weapons in the game handle a lot better you feel the recoil from the shots more and the accuracy is greatly improved especially the sniper rifle which you can now use to hit targets.  The weapon customization can now be used on the fly, instead of going through the inventory and selecting the right upgrade you can just press a button to get a move wheel like in the first game but now it also has ammo types like incendiary or corrosive so you can easily change them to fit your situation.  The leveling system has been reduced so you have less stuff to level up but that’s because rather than having all the different weapons that you have to level in order to be accurate and deal damage you start off proficient in all weapons.  Even your health system has been improved; your shields and health regenerate quickly after taking damage so you can keep fighting which prevents the combat from slowing down like in the first Mass Effect.

         
              The graphics have been improved which is impressive since the first Mass Effect was beautiful, Mass Effect 2 is one of the best looking games on the market.  The level of detail on the characters really adds to the amazing dialogue since you can see all of the expressions on everyone’s face in regards to the choices you make.  Another great thing about Mass Effect is all of the choices you make in conversations and in certain events that are better than they are in any other game.  Very few games actually get me emotional and Mass Effect does it with ease, they build such a detailed universe and get you to invest in all of their character so you care about the ramifications of every decision you make.  The audio is still top notch giving you the feeling that you’re in a sci-fi epic at all times.   The only problem with Mass Effect 2 is that the main story isn’t as strong as the first one.  The main plot only has a couple of missions but it encourages you do the side quests which are about as large as the main quests.  The side quests which are about the people in your party are very good.  They feel like something you have to do so the first time I played through I did them all.  Even with the side quests the story just isn’t as strong as the first one.  However it’s still one of the best stories in any video game.

            
              Mass Effect 2 is a phenomenal experience full of great characters, gameplay, graphics and audio and a terrific story.  If you have an Xbox 360 or a PC you should get both Mass Effects and if you only have a PS3 you should still buy this game even if you haven’t played the first plus you get tonnes of bonus content.  This is one of the best games ever made and is a must own for each and every gamer.     

            Score: 5/5