Your most Unpopular Media Opinion

Hawki

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-2010>2001 (for the films, it's the opposite for the books.

Johnny Novgorod said:
I love reading and prefer my books as actual books, not as .docs or audiologs.
Ditto. But my shelves hate me for it.

CrazyGirl17 said:
-I prefer dubs over subs. I don't mind subtitles, but I'd prefer to not constantly watch the screen all the time.
Ditto.

CrazyGirl17 said:
-Also, shows like Family Guy and Teen Titans go have been running for too long, and I stand by that.
That's unpopular?

McElroy said:
I mean, I know you have that list written down since I've seen you post it before, but notes about Episode V too? How big are these archives of yours?
Actually it isn't pre-written. You've probably seen those entries before as this isn't the first time this topic has come up, but I wrote it out again here - it's simply a case of me still having the same opinions. Even Ep. 5 is a case of writing it up on the spot. I mean, I've always felt meh about Empire, and it wasn't until I rewatched the six main Star Wars films in 2015 (in preparation for TFA) that I found myself able to articulate why.

Xsjadoblayde said:
WESTWORLD!!

It's not perfect. But it's fucking brilliant.
That's unpopular?

Well, anyway, Westworld is pretty damn awesome.

Ironman126 said:
Was this not already the established opinion? I thought that everyone thought this.
Eh, no? Ask people what the worst Star Wars movie is and they'll usually say Phantom or Clones. Revenge tends to rank higher than its prequel contemporaries, some even putting it into top tier listing.
 

Tanis

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FF7 is overrated.

Game of Thrones isn't very enjoyable.

The Who/Aerosmith/The Rolling Stones are all mediocre bands with a handful of solid songs.

One Piece is okay.
Bleach sucks.
Naruto got boring, fast.

Ozzy best music was in the 90s/00s (not that the 80s stuff was bad, just not as good).

Dio's Black Sabbath (AKA: Heaven & Hell) weren't worthy of the name 'Black Sabbath' when they were using it.

Princess Diana wasn't any amazing person.

Nearly all of the 'Modern Warfare' Call of Duty games have sucked.

There hasn't been a GOOD DC Cinematic Universe movie. Wonder Woman was a solid C at best.

Breaking Bad kind of bored me, barely made it past the first season.

I liked the ending to Dexter.
 

Phoenixmgs_v1legacy

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-I hate Star Wars, it's literally unwatchable for me. I hate just about all the characters from the annoying robots to annoying Chewbacca. Yoda's backwards talking, so annoying as well. Luke is so plain and uninteresting. Han is fine but he's paired with Chewy so...

-I find anime to have about a 99.9% chance of being crap (well above Sturgeon's law) and I've been burned on anime more than anything else by a large margin. And, I'm talking shows/movies that have basically a consensus rating of being a masterpiece like Neon Genesis Evangelion sitting at an IMDB of 8.6 to Elfen Lied sitting at an 8.1. Elfen Lied was so bad and so short I couldn't stop watching it because it was a train wreck that I couldn't look away from. Just recently, I gave The Girl Who Leapt Through Time a shot because it's only a movie so a low time commitment, that was hot garbage yet rated so highly. I want to try new things whether it's anime or something else, but the ratings make no sense. Never have I seen anything else rated 8+ on IMDB that is complete and utter garbage except for anime. I want to want to try new anime because there are some great ones out there like Ghost in the Shell: SAC, which is one of my favorite TV shows of all time.

ObsidianJones said:
The Following will be a Rant over my most Unpopular Media Opinion, my hate for Batman. But please, share your thoughts about your most unpopular opinion in regards to Media.

I hate Batman due to fans.
I just don't get why people let other people ruin things they like. I literally have no idea what any fandom of the things I cherish are like. Firefly is my favorite show, I have no clue what the fandom is like or how they are even perceived, I couldn't care less.
 

Death Carr

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Jojos bizarre adventure has never been good and will never be good
trigger is mediocre at best and they've never produced a stand out show
breaking bad was an awful show
george rr martin is not a good writer and the show handled the characters better than the books
young adult novels are almost always complete garbage
the call of duty and battlefield series were always bad
"shipping" culture around childrens cartoons is disgusting and awful
cowboy bebop is dull and unlikable
ditto for firefly
the prequel trilogy is on part with the ot
too many boardgames are priced $50 above what they should be just so that they can shoehorn in a bunch of shitty minis that won't even look good with paint
ticket to ride is on par with monopoly on how awful it is
ditto for settlers of catan
nendoroids are a waste of plastic (but still preferable to funko pops)
 

bjj hero

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Commando is the best thing ever put on film: spoilers below.

It has prime Arnie doing exactly what hes good at. Talking shit, punching people, throwing them around, dropping one liners and and shooting massive guns.

Hes deadly, funny and likable.

When you think it cannot get any better hes cornered and wounded, the villain has a gun while Arnie hasnt. How do you fix this? You can't but Arnies massive balls mean he calls him a pussy and convinces him to throw the gun away so they can knife fight to the death. Bravo sir, Bravo.

Its easier to say you think something popular is over rated.
 

bjj hero

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Marter said:
The Scorpion King 3: Battle for Redemption is the best movie of forever.

It's only an unpopular opinion because most people haven't seen it.

:)
Can you really say its better than commando? I love the rock as much as the next man but arnie in his prime?
 

Cicada 5

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Hawki said:
People have started to leave more than one unpopular opinion per thread, so okay, I'll chip in:

-The Game of Thrones TV series might be better than the books (hard to say, but I feel books 4 and 5 bogged down a lot, whereas the TV show, at the least, is much better paced).

-Advance Wars: Days of Ruin is a good game, and the #2 Advance Wars game at that.

-Adventure Time is hot garbage and I won't be sad to see it go.

-Avatar: The Last Airbender (the film) isn't a bad film. It's a bog standard average one that barely leaves any impact, and is a pale imitation when compared to the cartoon, but it isn't outright bad.

-Avatar (the James Cameron movie) is a very good movie that if anything, subverts cliche.

-Battlefield Earth (the movie) likewise isn't a bad movie, just a very flawed one. I admittedly still enjoyed it, even if some of its plot points are outright bonkers.

-Battlestar Galactica (reboot series) had a good ending and a good final season. While Season 4 is the worst season, its flaws are more due to pacing than its plot points.

-Captain Planet and the Planeteers hasn't aged particuarly well, but it deserves better than to be the laughing stock of the cartoon world. It has its heart in the right place, and isn't as preachy as people make it out to be.

-Red Alert 3>Red Alert 2 (for Command and Conquer)

-Diablo III is the best Diablo game.

-Doom 3 is the best Doom game.

-The Expanse novels are pretty lacklustre.

-Half-Life 2 is...fine. It's enjoyable. It's a net positive. But it isn't the masterpiece so many claim it to be.

-Halo 5 is a good game, better than Halo 4 and even Halo 2.

-Indiana Jones is overrated.

-The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past is overrated. While I won't deny its influence, it's easily superseeded by games such as Minish Cap, and most of all, A Link Between Worlds.

-The Jackson Hobbit films are good. Not nearly as good as the Lord of the Rings films, but still good at the end of the day.

-The MCU...isn't that great.

-The Matrix: Reloaded is a good movie. Not as good as the original, but still good (I'm inclined to defend Revolutions as well, but that's just average.

-Super Metroid is a good game, but Zero Mission and Fusion are better.

-Pan (the movie) is enjoyable, warts and all.

-Prince of Persia is the best videogame adaptation movie (sorry Mortal Kombat).

-The Freelancer saga of Red vs. Blue is garbage. The series should have ended with season 5, or season 8 at the very least. The series worked much better as a comedy than a drama, and Monty, while I hate to speak ill of the dead, did a number on the series, putting an emphasis on spectacle over writing.

-Regular Show is just "meh."

-Resident Evil 5 is a good game. Bit too actiony, but still good.

-The Inheritance Cycle gets too much flak. Eragon (the book) is derivative, but its sequels improve in terms of plot, worldbuilding, and writing. Not a fantasy masterpiece, but not creatively bankrupt.

-Shannara was never good. Sword of Shannara is riffing off Lord of the Rings, but while the books get more original afterwards, they never enter "good" territory, but stay in pulp fantasy territory.

-The Simpsons didn't magically just stop being good at 'The Principal and the Pauper' (I'm actually inclined to defend that episode). It's long past its golden years, but there's still good to be had post season 9, even though it doesn't reach the same highs of its early seasons.

-StarCraft II>StarCraft I

-Stargate: Universe>Stargate: Atlantis

-Star Trek as a franchise is overrated.

-Terminator: Salvation & Terminator: Genisys are good films. Not nearly as good as T1/T2, but still good. And by extension, T3 is the weakest Terminator film.

-Tron: Legacy>Tron Vanilla (though they're pretty comparable, they have different strengths and weaknesses)

-Warhammer Fantasy Battle>Warhammer 40,000 (as a setting)

-Alien 3 and Alien: Covenant are good films, albiet not as good as Alien/Aliens.

-Aliens: Colonial Marines is a good game.

-Law and Order is "bleh."

-Arrow>The Flash (for the TV series).

-The Star Wars prequels are net positives, with Revenge being pretty damn good. Not nearly as good as the OT, but there's far more to them than Disney's offerings (as an aggregate, my Star Wars film rankings mix and mesh).

I'm sure there's others I can think of, but they're the ones off the top of my head.

Silentpony said:
Hawki said:
Most unpopular eh? Hmm...Okay. Here's one...

The Empire Strikes Back is the weakest Star Wars OT film.
Interesting opinion. Why so?
Oh, so we get to ask the hows and whys here? Excellent. I can now grill everyone. ^_^

But as for my opinion here...well, here's the thing. Empire doesn't really have any major flaws in the same way that, say, Phantom or Clones has, and it's arguably a less flawed movie than Jedi. However, I do have the following gripes with the movie:

-Tone. Now, this isn't a bad thing in of itself, and is purely in the realm of subjectivity, but looking at the OT as a whole, Empire's tone feels out of place next to Hope and Jedi. It's darker, more militaristic, and less 'classical.' As in, Hope feels like an adventure story, one with space wizards and moon-sized space stations. Empire...doesn't. Many people love Empire for it, but for me personally, while not bad, it feels out of place in the context of its trilogy. And on the topic, I don't get it when people say that Empire is morally ambiguous. Um, how? The Empire's still clearly the bad guys here.

-Effects. Very minor point, but I feel that of the OT, Empire has aged the most visually. The tuntum stop motion for instance, and the Battle of Hoth shows its age in some cases. Not make or break, but again, I feel it's superseeded by its predecessors.

-Setting Gap: There's something very jarring about Empire compared to Hope when it comes to the three year period. Han's a general, and has been with the Rebellion for three years. So why hasn't the Rebellion just paid off Jabba for him if he's valuable enough to them to be a general? And if he is a general, how come he gets to go out and do the dirty work himself? Nitpicks, yeah, but I never got what's up with Han by this point. I mean, didn't the Rebellion pay him at the end of Hope? Can't he pay off Jabba and call it quits? Maybe the EU explains this, but ideally, the film should stand on its own. Jedi has a setting gap too (e.g. Luke getting a green lightsaber), but it's far less jarring a gap.

-Pacing: This applies to about 80% of the film, covering everything from Luke landing on Dagobah to him reaching Bespin. Empire feels at odds with itself here, as it spreads itself over two plotlines. Ideally, Luke's time on Dagobah should be slow, as he trains in the Force, as he meditates and all that. Ideally, Han and co. should feel fast, as they're under constant attack. However, watching Empire, the Dagobah parts feel too fast, somehow. The film is edited to keep flowing, and while that's usually a good thing, here, it just doesn't work for me.

-Plot: Again to the 80%, I feel that really, not much happens. Empire works in worldbuilding, in as much as we learn about the Force, but it also feels redundant. Nothing Luke learns on Dagobah feels that relevant to his fight with Vader. For instance, the tree scene. It's good foreshadowing, but it's never discussed in the film. I get that the film is treating me intelligently, having faith in me to get the point of the scene, but it feels...off, somehow? Like Luke should at least mention what he saw to Yoda, or reflect on it after learning about his daddy issues.

-Love: HanxLeia is...okay, I guess? I mean, it's better than AnakinxPadme (least as far as Clones goes, as a whole, I actually like their relationship), but people seem to really love HanxLeia, and mainly because of this film. Yet for some reason, I just don't feel that much for them. It certainly functions, but for me, that's about it - it functions. It doesn't help that Cloud City adds a feeling of sterility to the scenes they share in it, and C-3PO is easily at his most annoying here.

-Cloud City: Cloud City is the third act, and is mixed. On one hand, Luke vs. Vader is very well done, and IMO, easily the best sequence in the movie from start to finish. However, the escape part of Leia and co...isn't. The action feels very anemic, like they're constantly jogging, and out of place when compared to the more frentic action of Hope. Also, Bobba Fett. This isn't the film's fault, but I have no idea how he became such a popular character. He barely does anything, or say anything, and his role could be easily taken by a Stormtrooper taking Han to Jabba on behalf of the Empire. And while Luke vs. Vader is very good, it feels separate from Luke's time with Yoda. The duel is mostly down to their skill with lightsabers, and that's the one thing we didn't see Luke train in. Jedi's duel isn't only better IMO, but feels more congruent with Yoda's teachings, as the battle there is emotional as well as physical, whereas the Empire duel is mostly physical.

So, yeah. I don't think Empire is a bad film, and it does take my #4 Star Wars film spot. And as you can tell, a lot of these gripes are subjective, and I do admit that Jedi probably has more flaws. But Jedi also has higher highs than Empire for me, and Empire...there's something about the film that just feels off to me. Very unpopular opinion (hence why I chose it), but I'm afraid all I can be is honest.
What cliche does Cameron's Avatar subvert?
 

Dalisclock

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Here goes....

Death to Smoochy was an entertaining dark comedy.

Final Fantasy: Spirits Within is a decent film. It's just not a final fantasy film and should never have been called such. Trying to sell it as part of the final fantasy series just alienated fans and non-fans for totally different reasons.

Blade Runner is an okay film that's much better technically then it is a film. Plenty of other works(Final Fantasy IX, Westworld, etc) cover the same ground/ideas and do it far better. It's the definition of "Less then the sum of it's parts". "Tears in the Rain" is great but much of the rest of the film does not hold up to it.

Saints Row 3 is a worthy game in the series that suffers from some poor pacing(half the game are activities that are made mandatory to introduce said activity), the gameplay and story segregation is all over the place and the best endgame is the non-canonical one locked behind making a really stupid decision(letting Shaundi die so you can kill a man who you already defeated for reasons).

Call of Duty: Advenced Warfare was the last good game in the series, mostly because the series decided to go "Fuck it! Let's pretend this is a James Bond game!". Kevin Spacey as a morally grey bond villain who kind of had a good point which is ruined by some of the late game evilness(the concentration/prison camp). And yes, the QTE's were often really stupid.

That being said, Infinite Warfare was a decent game, with a cool idea shackled to a crappy execution and a terrible bland Shouty Jon Snow of a villain.
 

spacemutant IV

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The 90s Disney Beauty and the Beast was a terrifying tale of what Stockholm Syndrome can do to a person. That movie was written by means of a 'fill in the blanks' type of script; guy is a distant loner and an asshole but has some redeeming qualities the woman can see and these qualities ultimately take over and redeem the character as a whole. Except they forgot to put in these very important redeeming qualities. Never does he change his act until the end. What ended up the villain of that movie, I thought was going to be the hero. That beast needed to be slaughtered.

Now the new version with Emma Watson it seems is very busy with changing the script so that the beast actually redeems itself before it's too late, but it still carries the stink of the original. The whole concept is weird.
 

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I still maintain that 'A New Hope' is the best of the Star Wars movies and the only one that can carry its own weight. You have good guys, bad guys and a story that ended in such a way that there could have never been a sequel and the film would have been remembered fondly.

tippy2k2 said:
Oh, I haven't gotten to do this in a while! Yah!!!!

Dragon Age 2 was a good game. It had plenty of flaws but I firmly believe that the people who hate it hate it BECAUSE of the name and expectations, not because of the game itself. While I'm not going to quite go Greg "5/5" Tito on the setup, it was a solid game that didn't deserve the mountains of shit people threw at it.
Dragon Age II is one of those games that I feel would have been a lot better received if it hadn't been the direct sequel.

Call it Dragon Age: Kirkwall, leaving the potential of a proper sequel to come, and people would have liked Hawke's adventures a lot more.

As it was the whole thing just felt lacking, even the 'better' combat was near identical to that of the first game.

tippy2k2 said:
And now for the funner one...

I liked the Mass Effect 3 ending (pre-"fix"; I never even played the game after the supposed fixed ending so I have never even seen what changes were made). Maybe I just have a low tolerance for entertainment or maybe everything happened to fall in line perfectly with how my own story went but I thought that the Mass Effect 3 ending was not only tolerable but good.

Granted, it could have been better but I think that people were expecting "Suicide Mission" level of customization for all the decisions made over the trilogy, which is not what I had expected at all. But yeah, overall, I liked the ending of Mass Effect 3.
I always liked the ideas of the endings, not how I would have gone I admit, but I could appreciate the ideas behind them.

What I always find hard to believe though from people who liked the shipped endings, is that they liked the execution of them. We are told that our choices will drastically change the galaxy and then get shown three near identical sets of cinematics. Forget taking into account what happened during the trilogy, it's like Bioware didn't even take into account the one choice we made at the end.
 

Hawki

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Agent_Z said:
What cliche does Cameron's Avatar subvert?
Cliche 1: Settings tropes

Explanation: This isn't technically a cliche, it's rather a trope, but I feel it's worth noting. Basically, science fiction can be broadly divided into "hard" and "soft" settings, and the writing in the setting usually matches the type of worldbuilding. Avatar however is a mix of hard sci-fi (mostly) with soft-type writing. Or, in other worlds, it's a fairy tale that's mixed with hard sci-fi, yet doesn't fall into the sci-fa genre. It's a type of combination I don't see often.

Cliche 2: Alien Invasions

Explanation: Avatar is essentially an alien invasion movie with the roles reversed. Now, alien invasion stories can be written well (e.g. War of the Worlds, how it functions narratively as well as being an allegory for imperialism, or whatever contemporary subject its adaptations felt like reflecting), but mostly, alien invasions boil down to "evil aliens invade, good humans must fight them." And that can be fun (e.g. Independence Day), but it's pulp sci-fi. Avatar reverses the roles, which would be rare (but not unheard of) enough, but doesn't do a complete 180. Humanity is 'invading' Pandora, but doing so in a way that feels less overtly villanous than what the genre usually provides. They try to converse with the na'vi, they hold back, they use force as a last resort (this becomes important later), but it's still an invasion. Space colonialism if you will. So while alien invasion stories are common, and human invasion stories not unheard of, Avatar's take on the subject is far more nuanced than what we're used to.

Cliche 3: Nature vs. Science

Avatar doesn't entirely escape this cliche, but it doesn't descend into it either, even if it would have been easy to do so. At various points, there's the idea of becoming one with nature, of abandoning science and putting faith in nature/whatever, and things will work out. FernGully is sort of an example of this, in that we have a binary divide between technology (Hexus controlling the bulldozer) and the natural world (it's Krysta's seed that stops him). Like I said, Avatar doesn't entirely escape this cliche, because there's the whole aspect of newbie Jake succeeding where Grace and co. have failed, and Eywa's hand in the battle at the end. Still, I count this as a cliche subverted, because while humans rely on advanced technology in the film, it's the same kind of advanced technology that allows the na'vi to prevail. Eywa can send out Pandoran life, but Jake's still the one that has to take out the Valkyrie with an M60 and grenades, not to mention that advanced science is the thing that allows his Avatar to exist at all.

Cliche 4: Humans are Special

There's a cliche/trope I despise in writing and that's "humans are special" (look it up on TV Tropes). There's some universes that pull this off, but they tend to be the exception rather than the rule. This ties in with the alien invasion genre as a whole - of course humanity is going to emerge unscathed, because don't ya know that humans rule? Like I said, some of these stories evade it (e.g. War of the Worlds - humanity only survives against the aliens due to luck), but again, Independence Day. In ID1, humanity succeeds where no other species has. In Resurgence, humanity is so damn awesome that the sphere wants us to lead the resistance of aliens that failed by virtue of not being human.

So that brings us to Avatar. Not only are humans space colonials, but they get kicked off Pandora. There's no reconciliation, or anything like that. Humanity loses unobtanium, and things on Earth will get worse. And why not? The universe doesn't care about humanity. There's no special reason why we should succeed. We tried, we failed, and we have to face the consequences. I know from EU material that isn't what ends up happening, but in the context of Avatar alone, it's a stark theme. Sometimes, only one species can survive. Humanity isn't owed survival. We have to earn it. And if we fail, too bad. I've seen people try to rationalize the RDA's activities on Pandora, but I have to ask, if the na'vi invaded us, would those attempts exist? There seems to be great uncomfortableness in humans being anything other than protagonists in sci-fi, and I know this from writing experience when I tried inverting Battle: Los Angeles for a sympathetic view on the aliens (who in the film are nothing more than generic evil alien invaders that are human heroes must kill because humans are so damn awesome and all that). Avatar isn't interested in that, and is a stronger movie for it.

Now, by this point, you may be asking "but what about how Avatar is basically Dances with Wolves/FernGully/Pocohantas in space?" And, okay, yeah, maybe, but I feel Avatar does enough with its premise that it feels fresh, not to mention that it's an updated take on the type of story, since the "hero going native" stories that came centuries ago didn't have to deal with the environmental crisis we're facing in the 21st century. That, and it succeeds on its writing/characterization/worldbuilding/themes/plot regardless.
 

McElroy

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Hawki said:
Hey, you said there were no archives, but I just checked your Fanfiction.net page. Oh boy, I have to say that I will no longer be surprised, and you are definitely one of the biggest geeks I've ever seen.

You can take that as a compliment.

I do have one more unpopular media opinion though: Logan is good, but it's excellent only when compared to other movies of the X-Men franchise.
 

Jeroenr

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Silentpony said:
Hawki said:
Most unpopular eh? Hmm...Okay. Here's one...

The Empire Strikes Back is the weakest Star Wars OT film.
Interesting opinion. Why so?
At that point it was decided it would become a trilogy, because of that it lacked an opening and an ending.
And suffered for it.
 

Gordon_4_v1legacy

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Warcraft was a good movie, but it would have been better if they?d skipped to the WoW time period, during or at the begining of The Burning Crusade xpac.
 

Bat Vader

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I thought Dragon Age 2 was a good game. It's the weakest in the series sure but it's like Captain America levels of week. It's not the best in the franchise but compared to a lot of other games it's still pretty good. The combat is fun, the story is pretty engaging, the characters are like normal Bioware characters and have depth to them, and the romances were fun too. There's plenty of things to criticize just as their is plenty of things to praise it for too.

I also thought Mass Effect 3 was a good game too. While I did think the ending sucked it wasn't enough of a negative to take away the other 95% of the game I loved.
 

King Billi

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If I were to consider myself a fan of anything it would be Batman.

However...

I really don't care if Batman kills bad guys, not that I think he should just that whenever he has in comics or film's it never bothered me.

Everything that supposedly makes The Joker such a great and iconic villain actually just serves to make him boring and impossible to engage with especially when he is as overexposed as he is currently.

As far as I'm concerned 'The Killing Joke' is the Jokers definitive origin, screw this "multiple choice" rubbish.

The Joker, Bane and Ras Al Ghul all fall at the bottom of my list of favourite Batman villains.

The Penguin is in my top three.

Batman: Arkham Origins is the best game in the series after Arkham Asylum.

Batman would lose to to every other member of the Justice League one on one.