Ant Reviews: Batman Vs. The Terminator (2014)

I’ve never done a fan made short as a movie review before, but having watched Mitchell Hammonds fantastic Batman Vs. The Terminator I had to give it a crack.

The story is such:

30 years have passed since Bruce Wayne survived Skynet's nuclear blasts in August of '97. Iron demons now roam the planet, and without the requirement to defend the innocent against crime and injustice, Wayne has seeked refuge in the bomb shelter that saved his life; the Batcave.

Having scavenged the wasteland for resources, he discovers the radio of a dead soldier. There is static over a frequency. Flesh and blood is rising up to the west. With The Stinger; a riot control vehicular unit built before the apocalypse along with a refitted bomb blast vest, Batman makes his way across what remains of the United States to join forces with the man determined to neutralize the electronic menace - John Conner.

A self-confessed geek, art student Hammond spent about 4 years drawing each frame individually (as opposed to using an animation program). The road was long and hard, and Hammond had to work on this project at night after working at Burger King. 

What hits hard first is the score by Noir Deco, giving it the right amount of 80s synth. What struck me as an inspired combo was combining the war sequences from Terminator and Terminator 2 with Frank Millers Dark Knight Returns, a combination so common sense its a wonder no has done it before. Some Terminator crossovers in the past, like that one Superman Vs. Terminator I read, would have had a Terminator from the future come back in time to fight Batman. This idea instead feels fresh.

Hammond's Batsuit is a great piece of work (I'd love to have an action figure of this for sure) as is the Batmobile design. The other characters in the scene are well done (some seem to think they're Green Arrow, John Connor and Solid Snake, though Hammond's blog makes no mention of this). Some shots and scenes have the pace and feel of great 80s-90s grown-up Anime, though some criticisms I have of the short is the choppyness of the animation at times, and how quickly the titles arrive at the end (considering how well paced it was up until that moment it feels jarring). But the ingenuity at the combination, as well as the spot-on character representation, fantastic atmosphere and tone, more than make up for any shortcomings.

Batman Vs. Terminator is one of those perfect fan movies which showcase the artist's love of the source material in a great detail without being show-offy, and Hammond achieves that in spades. From the Batmobile being visually linked to the bat, to the flashback to him falling down the well. To that moment when we all questioned Hammonds understanding of Batman when he gave Bats a gun when instead it turns out it was a grapple gun and we all sighed with relief. Hammond's Batman Vs. Terminator is a great little piece of fan fiction that inspires me to write a Batman Vs. Terminator comic based of his little film. You know you're onto a good thing when the universal criticism people have of your work is that 'it should have been longer.' Your hard work payed off sir, bravo.

*****Stars

Ant Reviews: Helix Episode 3 '274' (Quickie review)

As a suggestion from a friend of mine, I’ll keep this one brief as it’s good to get my head around shorter reviews. SPOILERS AHEAD

Wow. This episode was great, racking up the tension, suspense and intrigue of the first two episodes significantly.

First of all Ron D. Moore’s fingerprints are all over the show, with all characters harbouring dangerous secrets, messed up interpersonal relationships and tensions between groups of people, with double crosses and secret allegiances. I see a comparison forming between the infected people and the Cylons from BSG and how people will hide that important fact from those who trust them. Also, there are many moments of people as a group panicking and acting stupid.

The tension was upgraded somewhat, with the infected, at later stages of the infection, becoming crazed zombie-like monsters, in the 28 Days Later vein. This is another stylistic homage, as the fast-running infected transfer the infection via the mouth, and pin people down and kiss them with black blood. Match this with the ‘infected monkeys leaping out of science cages to attack people’ thing that happened with the pilot and the links are obvious.

Going back to that, the stand-out moment is when a bunch of panicked people are trapped in a hallway with an infected person. Alan, who deplores violence, is forced to shoot and has to live with the consequences, leading to a great scene of drama (even though he doesn’t reflect openly about his brother/wife situation). Jules, however, has a great scene where she talks to Peter (who’s knocked out) about why she cheated on Alan with him. A good moment.

The intrigues are all working well, and new questions are posed for people we thought would have no secrets at all. Soldier boy seemingly switches sides this ep, so we really don’t know what side he’s on. There’s a great moment at the end when one of the main characters finds out that their test for finding out who’s infected was wrong and uninfected people could be trapped down in quarantine. Good stuff all around this time, I’m glad it picked up quite a bit.