I mean, they recently changed the name of Pennyworth to Pennyworth: The Origins of Batman’s Butler. That’s obviously unavoidable from a lore standpoint, but it also means that some will look at those characters and expect to see Batman in some capacity at some point. It’s just that each character is inevitably tied to Batman. Each boasts a fascinating origin story that eventually grew into standalone stories that were certainly worth telling. Taken on their own, Batgirl, Nightwing, Red Hood, and Robin have always been compelling characters. From what I saw, though, Gotham Knight’s new cast of characters really is the game’s greatest strength.

Others will simply be hesitant to embrace the game for that same reason. It’s inevitable that some gamers will brush off Gotham Knights because it doesn’t let them play as Batman. Gotham Knights Four Heroes Is The Game’s Greatest Strength In both cases, the battle for Gotham’s future is as compelling as it is fraught with peril. The second is the video game star whose absence has forced the Gotham Knights development team to take on a big responsibility of their own. The first is the in-game character whose death forces four young heroes to take on a big responsibility. That’s where I found Gotham Knights when I was invited to play the game for a couple of hours as part of a recent preview event: stuck in the shadow of two Batmans. Again, the Gotham Knights team has been very clear that the game is not some kind of Arkham sequel, but the longing for another Arkham game has generated quite a bit of wishful thinking. Fans not only expect a game set in the Batman universe to let them play as Batman, but it’s now pretty clear that a lot of people see Gotham Knights as a sequel to Rocksteady’s Arkham games. More importantly, Gotham Knights‘ players need to know that Batman is truly dead. With the Dark Knight gone, it’s now up to Batgirl, Nightwing, Red Hood, and Robin to step up, save Gotham, and perhaps become the city’s new protector in the process. After all, Batman’s death is the cornerstone of Gotham Knight’s entire premise. It might seem strange that the team at WB Games Montréal is going out of its way to emphasize that Batman is really, truly dead in Gotham Knights, but their emphasis on that point actually makes a lot of sense. This doesn’t seem to be a “Benedict Cumberbatch is definitely not playing Khan” situation. The Gotham Knights team has made it very clear that the game is being built around Batman’s death and that they’re not trying to trick people into falling for the Dark Knight’s surprise, playable protagonist comeback. I don't regret having seen it, but there isn't exactly anything to recommend here.Batman is dead in Gotham Knights. And the film is entertaining, albeit in an extremely lowbrow sort of way.

It's hard to say if her performance is uneven, or it's just the character. So what's good about this film? Fairuza Balk is interesting. In effect, he invites everyone to overact as much as they care to. He lets everyone wink at the audience and make cute little sideways comments to the camera.

In fact, he has next to no ability to rein in his actors. Speaking of Brian Dennehy (who I like very much as an actor), he is not a good director. Not that I have anything against the AA, but it just smacks of recent conversion fervor. At one point, his character references his time being sober as being virtually the exact same as Dennehy himself. The origin of this is embarrassingly close to the life of director/star Brian Dennehy. Then there's the shameless Alcoholics Anonymous propaganda. One of the lowest scenes is a retread of the old 'death as an aphrodisiac' cliché. Scene after scene is right out of the cheapest, lowest quality pulp fiction. The judge's lines are inappropriate and unrealistic. The script of 'Shadow of a Doubt' is bad.

Heavy shadows of doubt