Nerd Rating

Tag: Batman

  • Lego Announces Huge New Arkham Asylum Set

    Yes, It’s Expensive. It’s Lego.

    Lego Lord of the Rings may be getting a bulk of the Lego love this fall but Batman has a huge new set coming soon.

    Releasing in January and only costing a cool $160 this Arkham Asylum set contains 1,351 pieces and is the largest set Lego has made for a superhero. It is based off of the Lego Batman 2 game from earlier this year. Now the only questions are:

    1. Where do I find the space for this?

    2. Where do I find the money to purchase this?

    3. Where do I find the time to build this?

    4. How do I purchase this massive box of Lego’s in public without people thinking I am a complete weirdo?

  • The Dark Knight Rises Trilogy Collections Revealed

    The Dark Knight Rises Collector’s Edition Also Announced.

    Warner Bros. has already announced that the final film in Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight Trilogy would be coming home on December 3rd and they have just revealed the packaging for the movie as well as unveiling the collector’s edition of The Dark Knight Rises and that they will be releasing all three Bat films in a trilogy box set.

    No price or list of special features has been announced yet. Both trilogy collections are shown with The Art and Making of The Dark Knight Trilogy book. It has not been announced if the book will be coming with the box set but I can say from owning it that it is a large high quality book that chronicles all of the three movies very well and is worth a buy.

    The Dark Knight Rises Collector’s Edition (Blu-Ray Broken Cowl Edition)

     

    The Dark Knight Rises Trilogy (Blu-Ray)

     

    The Dark Knight Rises Trilogy (DVD)

     

  • Here Is Your Official Wii U Launch Lineup.

    24 Titles Announced For Day One Of Nintendo’s New Console.

     

     

    For everyone that was lucky enough to get a Wii U pre-ordered a few weeks back the only question left was which games would be available on launch day so you could decide what you want to pick up with your system. Today Nintendo announced a 24 title lineup that has a little bit of everything for everybody. From Mario to Call of Duty to Tekken, Nintendo seems to have all the different age groups and game types covered for the November 18th launch.

    Take a look at the list below and let us know what games will you be picking up when you pick up your Wii U.

     

    • Nintendo Land
    • New Super Mario Bros. U
    • Batman: Arkham City: Armored Edition
    • 007 Legends
    • Call of Duty: Black Ops 2
    • FIFA 13
    • Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor’s Edge
    • Zombi U
    • Skylanders Giants
    • Assassin’s Creed 3
    • Game Party Champions
    • Just Dance 4
    • Scribblenauts Unlimited
    • ESPN Sports Connection
    • Transformers Prime
    • Wipeout 3
    • Sonic and All-Stars Racing
    • Epic Mickey 2
    • Darksiders 2
    • Warriors Orichi 3 Hyper
    • Sing Party
    • Tekken Tag Tournament 2: Wii U Edition
    • Rabbids Land
    • Your Shape 2013
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  • Review: Batman: The Dark Knight Returns Part 1 (Blu-Ray)

    Can This Animated Film Stay Faithful To Frank Miller’s Legendary Work?

    To say that adapting The Dark Knight Returns is a daunting task may be an understatement. Frank Miller’s 1986 classic is considered by most to be one of the greatest Batman graphic novels (along with Miller’s own Batman: Year One and Alan Moore’s The Killing Joke) ever published. DC Animated has already adapted Year One and did a good job of it but The Dark Knight Returns is a different beast. The “futuristic” dystopian feel of a Gotham fallen back into a state of hopelessness ten years removed from the last sighting of Batman has such an identity in the comic as well as involving a group of Batman’s and DC’s most iconic figures you begin to think that this could become a lost endeavor before you begin to watch.

    The movie opens just as the comic does with Bruce Wayne involved in a horrific wreck while racing F-1 cars in Gotham and right off the bat I am thrown off by the lack of internal monologue. It plays such a huge role in Miller’s work that it will take a few minutes to get past the exclusion of it especially if you know a lot of the source material by heart. But after a few minutes you become involved with the story that you know so well that it becomes an afterthought.

    As Commissioner Gordon prepares for his retirement, Gotham is being overrun with a string of murders, rapes, kidnappings and robberies by a gang known as the Mutants. Their leader broadcasts their hatred for the law and that the will kill Gordon and take the city. Thankfully for the purists the Mutant gang’s weird speech type has been left in tact as well as their distinct look.

    The smartest thing that DC did was to split this feature into two parts. The story is such a large event that it would have felt bastardized trying to fit it into 75 minutes. Even with two parts there is still so much story to digest in part one. Harvey Dent’s release from Arkham with a new face and new lease on life that doesn’t last that long, Carrie Kelly taking it upon herself to pick up the mantle of Robin and prove herself to the returning Batman, all of the interspersed news coverage showing the political and cultural overtones of Batman and what he represents to society and the caped crusader’s pair of fights with the hulking Mutant leader. It is all handled well in the movie with a few slight changes to the story that are subtle and only will be noticed by avid fans but none of them really had me cursing at the screen yelling ” YOU RUINED IT!”

    The animation is on par with every other DC release over the past few years. It’s mostly clean looking but sometimes feels like a little more care could have been given to it. I was excited to see what they could do with the look of Gotham considering the source material but was left feeling disappointed when it looked like a mostly bland city instead of the dirty, neon filled streets from Klaus Janson’s art style. The look of the characters is mostly intact with the only noticable difference being how young The Joker looks when you finally see him full frame at the end of the movie.

    The voice cast is good, not great. Gordon’s light undertone voice takes a few minutes to get used to but Carrie and the Mutant leader are pretty close to how I imagined when reading the graphic novel. Robocop himself Peter Weller has the opportunity to voice Batman and it is a mixed bag. During some scenes he seems to just be reading lines as Peter Weller, with no inflection or emotion at all but then will deliver one of the classic lines from the story and have you thinking “so that’s why they hired him”. Don’t worry Kevin Conroy, you still have nothing to worry about.

    A few minutes into the movie I was beginning to wonder if this movie could attain the lofty goals it set for itself by taking on such a beloved and legendary work. But the more I watched, the more I became engrossed in the story that I have read time and time again and by the time Batman gives his “This isn’t a mud pit. It’s a operating table” line near the end of the movie I was sold that despite a few missteps the animated department at DC took a chance and it paid off with a good feature that does have me looking forward to the second part.

    Well that and wanting to see an old Batman completely kick the s*** out of Superman.

    Nerd Rating: 8/10

     

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  • Take It Home Tuesday- 9/25/12

    I Said Goodbye To My Wallet Today.

    The Avengers

    I know a lot of you missed this small indie flick in theaters due to its limited release in only a few cities. It is really well crafted and amazing considering the small budget it had…………….

    Bond 50: The Complete 22 Film Collection

    You will find no better time to get these films on Blu Ray than right now. Amazon has the set for only $150 bucks (hit the link below) which is just under 7 bucks per movie. Take it from me, the packaging is quality and even comes with a slot for when Skyfall is released on Blu Ray next year.

    Batman: The Dark Knight Returns Part 1

    DC Animated has put out some good Batman titles over the past five years so let’s hope they haven’t bitten off more than they can chew by taking on Frank Miller’s graphic novel which is considered by a lot of people the greatest Batman graphic novel written.

    American Horror Story: Season One

    My favorite new show of last year. Maybe that says a lot about me considering how disturbing and depraved this show was. Still, if you haven’t experienced this weird ride you need to hop on before season two starts in a few weeks.

     

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  • Top 15 Comic Films (2012 Edition)

    Yes it is another list. But this should be a fun conversation starter since people these days have mostly varying opinions about what they consider a great comic movie. And can we all just realize what a great time we live in that there are actually enough comic related films out there that we can debate about a list of them? We are in a renaissance of nerdiness that I could only dream of as a kid.

    It’s been about three years since I made a list like this and by looking at it you can tell how much has changed in that short span of time. I started out with ten but just couldn’t seem to leave some films going unnoticed so I stretched it to a generous fifteen. Let’s all have some fun!

     

    #15 Batman (1989)

    When you go back and watch Batman now it is kind of amazing how this film was considered so “dark” for a long time. It shows how we have changed as a society and that “dark” 20 years ago seems a little bit cheesy by today’s standards. The great thing though about Tim Burton’s 1989 blockbuster is that even with the changes to the mythos, the annoying, slightly different bat symbol on the chest and Kim Basinger’s man hands (seriously, pay attention to them) this movie is still a great bit of fun that was carried by an amazing actor’s portrayal of The Joker. Sound familiar? And just so you know I will always prefer Burton’s Batwing over Nolan’s Bat. Sorry Chris, but Tim wins that round.

    #14 Batman Begins (2005)

    When Batman and Robin took a massive crap on our collective heads in 1997 we all knew that it would be a long time before Warner invested their time and money into the caped crusader again…and we were right. Eight years seperated the two Bat films but the wait was well worth it. Director Christopher Nolan and writer David Goyer brought Batman into a world realistic enough that it was hard to imagine him being a comic book creation. And massive kudos to them for not instantly going into the rogues gallery and picking the easy choice of The Joker first, instead crafting a story that involved The Scarecrow, Ra’s Al Ghul and the League of Shadows. You can tell Nolan was still getting his bearings for a true action movie with some of the fight scenes being jarring and hard to follow at times but was quickly rectified in the two sequels. The reboot is so good we can even forgive them for Katie Holmes.

    #13 Iron Man (2008)

    To say a lot was riding on Iron Man is an understatement. If this movie failed would we even have gotten to go to the theaters this year and watch The Avengers set new records? But it did succeed. Maybe even more than Marvel had planned. With the perfect casting of Robert Downey Jr. and the near brilliant idea to give this big budget movie to Jon Favreau, Marvel firmly placed the mantle of comic movie king on it’s head. The movie started out smart by bringing Tony into this generation by having him attacked by terrorists which led to his injury and creation of the Iron Man suit and showed him go full on philanthropist after dealing with the horrors of his captivity. Now let’s not call the movie perfect because the final fight with War Monger leaves something to be desired but what this movie did right, it did right in a huge way.

    #12 The Rocketeer (1991)

    The way Disney advertised for The Rocketeer way back in 1991 you could tell that they wanted to be their next big thing, a sequel machine. Sadly it did not happen but the movie we got is so wonderful that I am kind of glad we never got a chance to have a sequel ruin it. The cast was really good including Billy Campbell, Alan Arkin, Timothy Dalton and Jennifer Connelly before she became a six foot toothpick. It’s about a man that finds a jetpack, becomes a hero and saves the world from an actor trying to help the Nazis win WW2 all while saving the hot chick. What about that does not sound like an awesome comic book movie?

    #11 Thor (2011)

    Of all the movies that led up to The Avengers, Thor was the odd duckling. It would be Marvel’s first film to delve into the mystical elements of superheroes. To top that off, they cast Chris Hemsworth, a relative unknown unless you remember the first ten minutes of JJ Abrams Star Trek and hired Kenneth Branaugh to direct it. Now I know that might get a big loud HUH? from most people but it all came together perfectly. Hemsworth proved himself a leading man and the famed Shakespearean actor and director was able to give the movie a fantastic other wordly feel even while keeping a lot of it grounded here on Earth. But the movie belongs to Tom Hiddleston whose portrayal of Loki truly stole the movie and proved large enough to have him take on The Avengers.

    #10 X-Men: First Class (2011)

    Can we just all go ahead and give director Matthew Vaughn a big collective thank you for bringing the X-Men back to their roots? The reason why X-Men 2 was good was the character driven story that Bryan Singer delivered and X-Men 3’s Brett Ratner completely left behind for the bloated special effects film we got. Perfect casting like Michael Fassbender and Kevin Bacon (yeah I know, Kevin Bacon) brought the super group back from the near dead. Who would have ever thought that taking the X-Men 40 years in the past would have saved their future?

    #9 Unbreakable (2000)

    Yes this is technically not a “comic book” movie but you can not watch this movie and not feel that this could have easily been on the pages of any monthly book. Remember waaay back to the year 2000 when M. Night Shyamalan was the next big Hollywood director and his movies were still genuinely big deals? The beginning of David Dunn’s journey of discovering that this world is much more than it seems. Complete with heroes that are blessed with powers (even if they don’t realize it) and villains that are just as deranged as anyone written in the pages of a comic. I still get chills when I hear “They called me Mr. Glass”.

    #8 The Incredible Hulk (2008)

    After Iron Man hit it huge in May 2008, you would expect the second movie in Marvel’s Phase One series would have been as big a deal. Sadly The Incredible Hulk didn’t do near the business that Tony Stark mustered and one would have to think a big reason was Ang Lee’s 2003 version which left a bad taste in the mouth of a lot of moviegoers. That is a shame because this version is as close as you are going to get to a Hulk comic on the big screen (not counting the obvious Avengers). Edward Norton put a lot of work and love into this project and even though he and Marvel were not the best of friends during and after production you can’t deny that this was an awesome movie. I mean really, that fight with Abomination at the end is why we go see comic book movies.

    #7 Spider-Man 2 (2004)

    As time keeps on flying by the first Spider-Man does not hold up very well. The dialogue gets weaker, James Franco seems to be high the entire time (normal, I know) and that Green Goblin costume…..that costume. So while Spider-Man 1’s porridge was too hot and Spider-Man 3’s was too cold and emo like and just soul sucking bad, Spider-Man 2  gets it right. Taking from John Romita, Sr.’s classic Spider-Man No More story and having Alfred Molina play a near perfect Dr. Octopus (my favorite Spidey baddie) showed how great this character can be when you have a Spider-Man that may be filled with internal conflict but his love for New York and his promise to Uncle Ben overcomes all doubt.

    #6 Watchmen (2009)

    Watchmen is the greatest graphic novel of all time. Since the first time I read it when I was 14 it has only gotten better with time. It was the perfect desconstruction of the superhero that showed how flawed these people can be. When you read it you can’t help but think that there is no way someone could make a movie out of this. Well Zack Snyder did and despite a lot of flak for some of his other films, he did what I and a whole lot of other people thought impossible. He made Watchmen. And it didn’t suck. In fact it was completely amazing and the changes that were made (i.e. Nite Owl’s costume) made complete sense to me. And I know this may put me on Alan Moore’s death list but I liked the movie ending better than the comic. I’m sorry I just find it hard to imagine watching a 40 foot vagina with worm arms destroying New York. Call me crazy.

    #5 The Dark Knight Rises (2012)

    This is the movie that is bound to be the most polarizing on the list. Who in their right mind could ask Christopher Nolan to follow up The Dark Knight with something better? Expectations can never be met when hype is as high as it was for this movie. But you know what? Nolan did the near impossible and crafted a movie that finished out his Batman saga his way by taking Bruce to the depths of hell and despair and raised him up and proved that Batman is more than just a man. He is a symbol that keeps holding the line against impossible odds and even a broken body never means that the spirit is broken. Why do we fall?

    #4 Captain America (2011)

    I loved Captain America. I mean that is probably obvious by how high it is on my list but this movie was easily Marvel’s best until The Avengers. To me this flick got Cap exactly right. People that complain that he is a goodie goodie and a boyscout apparently have never read Captain America. That is who he is. He is mission first, no grey area, serves one God and believes America is the greatest land on the planet. Now in today’s world that is looked down on but it is the heart of the character and Chris Evans embodied it as well as anybody could. The supporting cast is the strongest of any Marvel movie with Tommy Lee Jones, Stanley Tucci, Hayley Atwell and Sebastion Stan each making use of their  screen time creating a believable support system for Cap. Who’s ready for Winter Soldier?

    #3 Superman (1978)

    The more that the years pass on, the more this statement remains true. Christopher Reeve is Superman. He always will be. I feel sorry for any actor that has the task of playing the character now until the end of time but Christopher Reeve was Superman in bright red and blue. Richard Donner took on a massive undertaking when he decided to make a movie about the best known comic character in history and he did so in a time when making these movies was not the “thing” to do. Gene Hackman chews up every scene he can and Ned Beatty plays inept very well (Mr. Loothor) and even Margot Kidder gives Lois the punchy attitude that she deserves but in the the end there is Chris Reeve with the giant “S” on his chest showing you that the comics you grew up on were right there in front of you, in real life.

    #2 The Dark Knight (2008)

    When is a superhero movie not a superhero movie? The Dark Knight brings up that question for every bit of its two hour and fourty-five minute runtime. It would appear to be a cops and mobsters movie that happens to have a guy in a bat suit chasing a psycho interweaved in it. That’s the beauty of what Christopher Nolan did with this middle film in his Bat trilogy. He so grounded it in reality that you did not have to stretch your imaginiation too far to realize that this could completely take place in some close reality to us. And yes it has been four years and you can not mention this movie without saying how insanely (literally) great Heath Ledger’s Oscar winning performance was. Remember when he was cast and everyone thought he would disgrace Jack’s 1989 performance? Yeah, how’d that work out?

    #1 The Avengers (2012)

    I wanted to name The Avengers the greatest comic movie ever the second I saw this very scene above these words. The camera spinning, Alan Silvestri’s amazing theme blaring through the speakers, seeing all six of these heroes preparing for what may the final battle Earth ever sees. Seriously I have goosebumps now thinking about it. You thought about it as a kid. What if you could get Captain America and Hulk and Thor and….well as a kid you kept throwing Avengers in there just to make the movie more awesome in your head. Even when X-Men and Spider-Man ushered in this new era of comic films in 2000 and 2002 respectively you still never thought you would really, truly ever see an Avengers movie. It was too big, too bold. Hollywood and Marvel could never get their stuff together enough to get it done. And that’s why watching this in theaters you realized that something truly special was happening. Under the careful guidance and love of Joss Whedon, Earth’s mightiest heroes came together and for two hours and twenty minutes put a huge child like grin on my face. And it was great and easily my number one pick for this list.

     

    Now lists are breeding grounds for agreements and arguments and that’s cool. Let me know what your top picks would be. And if there are big disagreements leave a comment below and let’s see if we can’t all be friends. That or make your own list.

    EXCELSIOR!!!

     

     

     

  • Will Warner Use Justice League To Reboot Batman?

     

    File this under rumor but in parenthesis put BIG. A source has revelaed to Batman-on-Film.com that Warner Bros. is looking to jump head first into the superhero team up pool after The Man of Steel releases next year. And not only that but they would use the Justice League film as the opportunity to reboot Batman and begin to establish him and the other characters in one movie universe.

    No we all know that Marvel’s massive Avengers gamble paid off but I think DC may have to take another direction and this may be the best way. With how poorly Green Lantern was received and The Man of Steel not even released, DC has no real way of getting all these characters individual movies and guaranteeing that they will all be hits enough to lead to a Justice League movie. Taking the opposite direction of Marvel may be the answer for DC.

    It has already been reported that Warner would like the movie for summer of 2015 which would put it in the same year as The Avengers 2 and they have already (reportedly) been in talks with Ben Affleck and the Wachowskis about directing the film. Ben Affleck has denied any kind of involvement with the movie and although Speed Racer was a massive bomb, Warner still has faith in the Wachowskis to deliver a big time movie.

     

  • Review: The Dark Knight Rises

     

    Let’s just go ahead and answer everyone’s question right up front. Is The Dark Knight Rises better than The Dark Knight? No it is not. But that in no way is a negative judgment against Christopher Nolan’s last Batman adventure. Not a lot could top The Dark Knight. It was a force of nature four years ago and still is today upon repeated viewings, so if you go into the theater expecting a better movie you may leave a little disappointed. What you will get is a long, ambitious epic that puts a perfect cap on Nolan’s Bat trilogy.

     

    It has been eight long years since Harvey Dent went a bit on the crazy side and tried to kill Jim Gordon’s family while Batman took the fall for the fallout so that the city could hold up Dent as their savior and use his death to pass an act that has cleaned up the city. With major crime effectively under control Bruce Wayne has retired from being the Caped Crusader to become a recluse who nurses his battle wounds and lives in regret over the death of his love, Rachel Dawes.

     

    But like with any hero Bruce cannot escape his need (or want) for Gotham to have the Batman again. When he is robbed by a lovely cat burglar named Selina Kyle, played very capably by the scene chewing Anne Hathaway, he begins to slowly come out of his shell eventually getting back into the cape and cowl despite his butler Alfred’s insistence that he should stay away.

     

    As happenstance would have it, the return of Batman comes about at the same time a new big bad known as Bane is setting his master plan in motion to take over Gotham and complete Ra’s Al Ghul’s vision. Bane is viciously played by Tom Hardy who is not as scene stealing as Heath Ledger’s Joker but is much more of a physical threat to Batman. This is one thing that helped the movie immensely. While Batman Begins had Ra’s and Scarecrow and The Dark Knight has the Clown Prince of Crime, none really seemed like Batman’s physical superior. That is not the case here. Bane is a physical specimen and much more dangerously is just as smart as he is strong.  If you are read up on Bane’s history in the Bat universe then you know basically what is coming about halfway through the movie but the event is still powerful and brutal.

     

    I really had no problem understanding Hardy’s unique voice during the movie. With stories floating around since last December about his performance being lost in the muffled voice behind the mask I had a few concerns going in but it looks like Nolan did heed advice and clear up Bane’s dialogue which is great because Hardy’s nuanced performance adds so much to the story. It’s not just the voice (which yes does sound like Goldfinger) but the emotions he is able to convey with his eyes and body motions that complete the character.

     

    Now don’t get me wrong the movie is not without flaws. But most of them are so small that they don’t merit mentioning but one that I do want to mention is Gary Oldman’s Jim Gordon. He has plenty to do in this movie but after having him be such an integral part of The Dark Knight he does seem to get lost in the shuffle of the massive story and the number of characters that are given screen time. Oldman is still wonderful in his scenes but Gordon had much more of a meaningful role in The Dark Knight.

     

    Everyone else on the roster has brought their A-game as you would expect. Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s John Blake does not seem like a thrown in character. Much of the first half of the movie is from his perspective yet it feels completely at home in the Nolan Bat-verse. Morgan Freeman is his usual witty self and Michael Caine puts an exclamation point on the statement that he his the best version of Alfred ever, comics or film. Seriously, dude had me tearing up in two scenes. In a Batman movie.

     

    This is a big, robust movie that is like most of Nolan’s work. It gets so big with so much at stake that you feel that it may collapse on itself but in the hands of a great director it transcends just being another Batman story and speaks on many levels including political unrest, the loss of hope and how anyone can become more than a man.

     

    Where The Dark Knight felt as a stand alone movie this feels like a companion piece to Batman Begins while also bridging every character from all three films. It succeeds in bringing to a close the greatest super hero trilogy ever and avoids the pitfalls of most third films (see Godfather, Spider-Man) by giving a true emotional payoff for the characters that we have been investing ourselves in since the summer of 2005.

     

    When I look back I would probably say that The Avengers is still the greatest comic book movie ever made but The Dark Knight Rises may be the better movie.

     

    NERD RATING- 9/10

  • Review: Lego Batman 2

    lego-batman-2-superman-flying

    I know what you are initially thinking, Lego games are a dime a dozen. From Star Wars, Harry Potter, Pirates of the Caribbean and later on this year with the Lord of the Rings, Lego and developers Traveler’s Tales have invaded every facet of movies and pop culture. Some have been winners (Star Wars) and others have seemed like cash-ins (that’s Captain Jack Sparrow to you). With Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes the developers have truly gone for broke and crafted an open world Gotham that is as much fun to explore as it is to  complete your missions. And by adding in other playable heroes (Justice League!!) the game never grows into the repetitive battle and Lego building that has plagued the games before it.

    Now I won’t try and fool you. You are still going to be doing your fair share of button mashing and collecting Lego pieces but now that you are given the option of doing that or just roaming around downtown Gotham opens up the gameplay so much. In most Lego games when I would become bogged down from the repetitive feeling of the game I would simply shut it off and move on for a while but here I find myself driving, flying or racing my way around the city to blow off some steam…or just keep listening to the sweet soundtrack.

    That’s right since this game was released under the WB games branch it means you get Danny Elfman’s awesome Batman theme blaring through your speakers and that is not all. When you finally get to take over playing as Superman you are met with John William’s iconic Superman theme. As a nerd this adds so much to the game that it is hard to describe the feeling of when you take flight and the Superman theme hits and all you want to do is fly around Gotham City living out your childhood dreams, just in Lego form. Even now I am getting a few goosebumps thinking about it.

    lego-batman-2-joker-fight

    Gameplay wise you are not going to find any huge leap forward to the action genre. You are going to be hitting punch….a lot. As well as jump, then jump and punch to execute an air attack. See where I am going here? The real meat of the gameplay, as with any Lego game, is by using the different characters in your party to open up the locked off portions of levels for the rest of your team. This is accomplished with the finding of a huge variety of suits. Batman has an electricity suit, a sensor suit (for stealth use) and many more. Robin, likewise, has and acrobat suit, magnet suit, etc. I could easily lie to all of you and say that I breezed through the game without thought but there were many times I was standing there examining a room and thinking just how in the heck was I going to use the suits to get to the next available area. None of the puzzles are mind numbingly hard but some will give you pause for a minute or two.

    Even though the game is subtitled DC Super Heroes you will play the majority of this game as Batman and Robin so don’t go into this thinking you will just jump right in and fly around as Green Lantern. But the sections that you do get to play as a Justice League member offers a great break in the gameplay especially when you are the Man of Steel. I don’t mean to short change the rest of the playable Justice League members here but I really don’t see how we as gamers have yet to get a quality Superman title yet everything he does in this game feels exactly right. If I could tell any developer that wanted to make a Supes game how to go about it I would just say play this game…..and do that.

    This is also the first Lego game that has featured full voice acting. That’s right, no more reading facial expressions this game has an actual script and it is actually pretty dang funny. Batman is super serious to a fault, Robin is a crackly voice teen that makes mistakes and Superman is a tool. The even managed to bring in Clancy Brown from the Superman animated series to reprise his role as Lex Luthor. I found myself laughing out loud on many occasions in between levels. I am happy to say that the voice cast make this game so much more complete and give me new hope that when The Lord of the Rings game releases this fall it will be another winner like this title.

    With it’s new open world style, quality voice acting, hilarious script, fewer camera problems than other Lego games and side missions to keep you busy for hours on end, Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes not only raises the bar for Lego games, it takes the bar and goes up, up and away.

     

    NERD RATING- 8.5/10

     

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