It’s impossible, at least for me, to encounter the fourth big entry in a wildly popular Batman series and not think of Batman and Robin, the disastrous 1997 Joel Schumacher movie that starred George Clooney, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Uma Thurman. Batman and Robin did what the Joker, Riddler, and Penguin had been trying and failing to do for almost 60 years. It killed the Dark Knight (as a film franchise, at least), at the time seemingly for good.
Batman: Arkham Knight is not a debacle on the order of Batman and Robin. But well into the game, I feared that it would be. The decision to revolve so much of the game around the new Batmobile is an alienating move that robs Arkham Knight at the outset of the fantasy of becoming the Dark Knight.
Arkham Knight’s setup is more in keeping with the series: Something happens that requires Gotham to be emptied, except for street thugs and supervillains and a few Batman allies, who exist mainly to be kidnapped by said criminals and subsequently rescued by Batman. But once we’re past that silliness, Arkham Knight unfurls a plot that is by far the strongest of the Arkham games.
