Video Game: Batman: Arkham City Trailer Dissection

So I was just checking out No High Scores who had found this new Batman trailer on RPS, who seem to have found it on IGN. Quite frankly, it's pretty awesome.

More Batman: Arkham City Videos

I'm really digging the way this trailer works for a number of reasons. It's got a great aesthetic to it, showcasing the mix of gameplay and cinematics that made Arkham Asylum work so well. The music is pretty fantastic and as well as being thematically appropriate has a real gritty buzzing tone to it that sort of reminds me of Angel by Massive Attack. And of course, there's the gameplay which looks pretty identical to Arkham Asylum, aside from maybe some more set-piece oriented bits such as avoiding helicopters whilst gliding (or, you know, gliding straight onto them.)

Let's break this down from the beginning:

Film Review: Star Wars: Episode III-Revenge of the Sith (2005)

What Star Wars has always done well is basic storytelling. Regardless of the little details scattered throughout the course of the story, The Original Trilogy is essentially a fairytale set in space and it seems that as writer-director George Lucas attempted to broaden his horizons to the political spectrum of the universe he'd created, the illusion began to fall apart with The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones. With Episode III-Revenge of the Sith, the story comes full circle with few questions left unanswered and no plot thread of merit untapped but perhaps more importantly it comes closest to capturing the tone and feel of a true Star Wars movie.

Following the end of Episode II, Revenge of the Sith picks up with Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) and Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen) hunting down the last few leaders of the Seperatist movement, introduced as opposing the Republic in Attack of the Clones. Immediately following the most engaging space battle since A New Hope, Chancellor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid) of the Republic Senate appoints Anakin to the Jedi Council, in an attempt to corrupt the young Jedi. Despairing over his newly pregnant wife Padme (Natalie Portman) and a series of visions he has concerning her death during childbirth, Anakin turns to Palpatine to learn if the Dark side of the force could hold any answers for saving her.
Compared to the attempts of the previous two prequels, Revenge of the Sith has a more focused presentation choosing to focus on the more emotional dynamic of the core characters than having their world of political intrigue propel the plot. There is plenty of weight to the transition Anakin makes because it his fuelled by a desire to save a loved one, something that anybody can relate to and as events run to their natural conclusion there is little doubt that love is the key motivator as opposed to descending down to the ranks of evil simply for the sake of it. Subtle layers of persuasion are added to Anakin's decision as he seems to become more distressed with his view on the world, initially acknowledging the terrible nature of his actions but eventually being so overcome with confusion that he begins to believe the lies that Palpatine feeds him, accusing the Jedi of conspiring against the Chancellor, the Senate and even himself.