Perception and Morality: A Comparative Analysis Through Animated and Live-Action Movies
The perspective of a Batman fan
I have been an avid Batman fan from my early days. Perhaps no other comic hero influenced me like Batman in my formative years. The dark and brooding nature of the character lured me. Batman comics in the 2000s were dark and never portrayed Batman as a good guy but an outlaw with a particular set of rules. I still admire Batman, but how I perceive the character has changed over the years. So, this episode of movie analysis would be from the viewpoint of a Batman fan.
Last week I saw four movies. Two of them were animated films of the DC world, and the other two were live-action movies. Among the live-action films, one was a Malayalam movie based on a true story, and the other was an English adaptation of the famous fighting game Street Fighter. Two of them were a delight to watch, making the movie geek appreciate my time watching them. Among the other two, one was a disappointment, and the other was a good watch.
VIRUS [Available in Amazon]
An entire state deals with an unknown enemy whose grasp over humans is so firm that it won’t go without wiping out the host. VIRUS, the 2019 Malayalam movie, speaks of the rise of the Nipah virus in Kerala, India, during 2018. The deadly virus of Nipah is known to cause fatalities in nearly 75% of cases. Wherever the outbreak occurred, it has devastated the healthcare apparatus killing hundreds. Nipah doesn’t have a vaccine, and Fruit Bats act as its carriers to humans.
The film is an adaptation of real-life events and struggles that some people went through to contain the virus and keep the total cases at 23 with 21 fatalities. The success story of Kerala’s health infrastructure is portrayed with enigmatic intensity by the director, Ashiq Abu. The film is rich with a star-laden cast from the Malayalam Film industry (Mollywood). The cast has done a marvelous job. Especially striking are the performances of Parvathi Thiruvothu as a healthcare investigator, Rima Kallingal as the nurse who lost her life to Nipah, Tovino Thomas the Calicut District Collector, and Joju George as an employee in the Calicut Medical College.
Parvathy Thiruvothu. Image from Wikimedia Commons.
The graveness of such a health emergency is beautifully portrayed with a brilliant dark atmosphere that one will feel when engrossed in the movie. The movie speaks of the pressures that a state government face from a Union government that continuously tries to create a communal angle to an emergency that accidentally emanated from a man of a particular community. The crispness shown by the director in the detailing of the movie and events is brilliant. The fear that grips a society when such an outbreak happens, the inherent humanity among each of us, the daring nature of some ordinary lives, and the wisdom shown by higher officials were all critical in containing the Nipah outbreak. The movie takes home its message with grave reality and an enigmatic style.
Street Fighter: Assassin’s Fist [Available on Amazon Prime]
This 2014 English action film is based on the famous game Street Fighter and depicts the same story with minor changes. I am not a fan of video games. I had only played them when I visited my comparatively wealthy cousins a couple of times in my teenage years. They had a Play Station-3, and my favorite game was Tekken-5, in which I had some pretty good time while I miserably failed in Racing Car games.
Seeing a 7.3 rating in IMDB, I had some expectations when I started watching the film. The film was not worth my time, and it was a big disappointment; this was the second time I got cheated by IMDB. The movie, in my opinion, was not even worthy of a 3.5 score out of 10. Bad acting and dialogue delivery with no character arc to relate to made the film a flop show. The film was shot in a scenic location (Bulgaria) which was the only plus point to say about it. From my experiences, it seems that live-action adaptations of video games are often hard to live up to the expectations compared to the virtual animated world.
Reign of the Supermen [Available on Amazon Prime]
There is a problem with me being a Batman fan; I am biased towards the boy scout. If you are into the DC comics, you will know what I am talking about. Superman is the DC universe’s first superhero and still runs successfully as a cult hero among American comic fans. Outside the USA, I am doubtful of this guy’s popularity. But he is a well-known figure globally.
Superman. Image from Wikimedia Commons
The 2019 animated film was directed by Sam Liu and written by Tim Sheridan based on the Superman comic franchise. The events of the film happen just after the death of Superman in the Doomsday battle. The world is looking for a superhero to take his place, and many supermen come to fill the void. One among them is working for Darkseid- the criminal God of an apocalyptic Universe who aims to dominate the multiverse, starting with Earth. Darkseid is Superman’s arch-nemesis, and he is a master manipulator who has defeated the boy scout with his superior strength and intellect. But Superman is one of the strongest beings of the DC world, and the comic creators write him to have Godlike powers, so naturally, Soops (nickname of Superman) always wins the day.
Doomsday was a creation of Darkseid and managed to kill Superman. After Superman’s death, he plans to conquer the Earth with his Cyborg Superman. His plans fail as Soops is shown to be alive and comes back to fight the Cyborg Superman defeating the latter. With Soops back and the Justice League united, the world is once again safe.
The problem with our boy scout storylines is that they always have a happy ending. Too much sweetness damages one’s teeth. [Superman fans, please don’t lash out at me!]
With the biases aside, The movie was good. There’s always an element of suspense that the film keeps alive by showing the hope that people had for Superman, the cunning schemes of the criminal overlord-Darkseid, the comeback of Superman as a beacon of hope, and the romantic relationship of Superman with Lois. I especially liked the character arc of Cyborg Superman; his character gives the film an emotional anti-hero segment to the film which was brilliant.
Batman: Hush [Available on Amazon Prime]
What are comics without the chill of danger or horror, the bitterness of foul-play and betrayal, the sourness of madness and chaos? Well, this is what Batman comics are for. These dark aspects of psychopaths and sociopaths are what Batman’s villains stand for. Batman stoops to their level on multiple occasions to fight them and would have been one among them if it wasn’t for the rules that he will never break. Batman is the epitome of willpower, character strength, and intellect. He is an ordinary man in a team of superhumans (Justice League), and he believes in battling the criminals with a criminal mind, unlike most others of the DC heroes.
Batman. Image from Wikimedia Commons.
Batman: Hush is a 2019 animated movie directed by Justin Copeland and talks about the rise of a new villain in Gotham who is always one step ahead of the world’s greatest detective. The film happens somewhere after the Reign of Superman (2019), and Superman has a cameo role. The movie speaks of Batman’s tumultuous relationship with the jewelry thief, Catwoman. She teams up with the Dark Knight to take down the criminal mastermind Hush, who cunningly lures Batman’s villains one by one for carrying out his master plan, which is to finish the Bat once and for all.
Batman has Nightwing and Batgirl by his side, but Hush still manages to damage him severely. It was Catwoman who saved him at this critical moment. While Bat recovers, he dates Catwomen and starts a serious relationship. They both decide to marry. However, tragedy strikes again, and The Hush traps Cat. As he waits for Bat, Hush reveals himself to be The Riddler, a minor villain of Batsie (nickname of Batman given by Joker). After the Riddler gets a brain tumor, he seeks medical care, but the operation is unsuccessful. He finds the Lazarus pit and gets cured. He comes back with a replenished brain that outmatches Batsie’s. He kills Batsie’s surgeon, also his best friend, which results in Batman going berserk on Joker.
However, contrary to the Riddler’s plans, Catwomen-with her superior strength and arsenal save herself as Batsie arrives in time to help her. Batsie already found out who Hush is and plays with the latter’s inferiority complex making Hush lose control over his temper. As Batsie and Catsie defeat the physically stronger Riddler together, he falls to his death. Batman tries to save him, but Catwomen destroys his plan.
In the climax, Batsie laments that he couldn’t save him, to which Catsie lashes out at him, saying that Riddler tried to kill her and Batsie only cares about his rule that he will never kill and will save a life in whatever way he can. Catsie realizes that Batsie is still committed to the welfare of Gotham’s people and leaves him saying,
‘I still want to have a life with you, but not now, not today.’
As dark, psychological, and brooding Batsie is, the film lives up to the image of Batman created by Christopher Nolan in his Dark Knight Franchise. Batman: Hush is a must-watch for comic fans (both haters and lovers of Batman) because the film explores Batman’s humane side, who craves the love of a woman and deals with a new villain that outmatches him.
Conclusion
Humans are influenced by what we see, hear, smell, taste, and feel. As our sense organs make us understand this world, it is not factual to say that our understanding is the proper understanding of the world. Our understanding of the world is only our perception which might not be entirely accurate. As a Batman fan, I tend to look into the light and the darkness beyond it.
VIRUS speaks of a dark reality that happened and how light became visible, treading through the darkness without reaching unwarranted conclusions based on human prejudices. Although a lousy film, Streetfighter talks of the Japanese concept of honor and finding the correct meaning to one’s life. The film failed in its presentation, but the message is crisp and sharp. Reign of Supermen speaks of the importance of hope and how our perceptions decide the moral validity of hope. Batman: Hush is a reflection on all our lives which won’t be smooth always. Hush, the villain, symbolizes how the faults that we presume to be unimportant can cause severe ruptures to our future well-being.
In the climax, Batman says:
‘It is the set of rules, the only thing that differentiates me from them.’
Our morality is a result of our perceptions which can be flawed, so; we mustn’t fully believe what we are taught in our lives or what we are conditioned to believe. VIRUS plays with the idea of trying to find the humanity between each one of us in times when we get puzzled by the massive influx of emotions. The logic and reasoning can only see this humanity of our brain, not the emotional or intuitive part.
Batman symbolizes crony capitalism and upper-class worship of the ordinary person to see a savior in Bill Gates, Elon Musk, or others. Batman is often a symbol of White pride. But Batman is also a symbolism of outcasts orphaned by family or society due to circumstances but managed to rise from the immense pain of loss through persistence. He is the underprivileged common man of the Justice League- a group of heroes privileged by superhuman capabilities and Godlike powers.
Our understandings depend on our perceptions which might not always be right; the important thing for us is to be aware that our perceptions can be flawed. We can appeal to our logical and reasoning part in us to be morally unbiased and valid, similar to the message of the film VIRUS and the comic character Batman.