In the Batman Arkham Origins commercial made for TV, by director Tim Miller and animation from Blur Studio, Bruce’s life flashes before his eyes briefly before a standoff with Bane. It’s simple, it’s eloquent, and for those familiar with Batman’s mythos, very very meaningful. Maybe you’re not so familiar with it all? I’ll lay it out for you here, moment per moment, as best as I can.
The first moment is the unmistakable moment Batman was born, when Bruce goes out of the theater with his parents, and his glee turns to horror as they are murdered in front of him.
The second moment shows him in his parents funeral, clearly no longer a child, his face attempting to betray no sorrow.
The third and fourth moments show him at other stages of his youth, getting into fights, and learning how to fight (wearing a gi).
At the fifth moment, Bruce is presumably being trained by the Assassins. This part should be evocative of Batman Begins, and a somewhat familiar moment to the Batman movie fandom.
And then Bane throws Batman a few punches, he looks up and strikes back.
I must confess, the CG look on this one is not as impressive to me as Warner Bros. Interactive probably expected it to be. For the purported narrative power it’s supposed to have, some of the faces and animations take me out of it and remind me I’m watching some CG. I really have doubts the game is going to look that good that close up. I’m sure you may disagree.
Overall, though, this is a commercial calculated to get non-hardcore gamers interested in the game, and with the little nods to other Batman media, I think it does that job well.
Batman Arkham Origins is coming October 25 to Playstation 3, Xbox 360, Wii U and Windows PC.
