You have obviously seen – or seen enough of – James Cameron’s “Avatar” that you have formed an opinion, and regardless of what your take is of the movie – there is no disputing the fact that the bar has been raised for digital acting performances.

Notwithstanding that the process of motion capture has animators worried for their jobs (as well it should), I was struck by the disparity in Avatar’s work compared to the cut-scenes in Batman: Arkham Asylum. Upon unlocking the Poison Ivy villain (who was green way before it was fashionable), it becomes quickly apparent that the mo-capped performance of Zoe Saldana as Neytiri is light years ahead of the current state of character animation of video game cutscenes.

Batman himself in dialog-based cutscenes is a rigidly stiff, expressionless character who stands in a military pose while his lips move in a simple opened or closed manner. Clearly all the animators were assigned The Joker character, and when Batman’s eyebrows move it all, it is as mechanical as can be. Batman’s cape is more expressive than the Dark Knight himself in this title.

As long as video game budgets rival (and sometimes surpass) Hollywood films, why isn’t there closer quality? There will be day when James Cameron’s advancements in film-making technology begins to crossover into video games. It may not be possible in the current-gen of consoles, but we’ll get there. We have far to go, but make no mistake – the video game industry will get there.

Then we will all be able to suspend disbelief and be the Caped Crusader.