I was a little sceptical going into this movie, I was excited to see it, don't get me wrong, but there were a lot of ways that this could have went wrong, and just happy to say that I didn't run into many.
Batman is continuing his effort to rid Gotham of the criminals who call it home, when trying to stop a few thugs from delivering "Amazo" to Black Mask (the current Gotham kingpin) he watches as they are assassinated at long range by a sniper. Following the sniper and chasing them down only enhances the mystery. He moves like someone that Batman has known in his past, he's been trained, and been trained by the best. As Batman discovers more about the identity of the Red Hood, the sniper who killed the thugs, he finds a new enemy. The Red Hood is setting himself up to be the new kingpin in town, but not for the reasons you might think.
The story here is a combination of two separate Batman stories, one an older and very well known one, the other newer, but still a nice addition to the animated Batman film library. The older story is that of the loss of the second Robin at the hands of the Joker. Batman was unable to get to Jason (Robin) in time. The Joker beats him to near death with a crow bar, and then blows the building up. The second story they bring into this movie is the reemergence of the Red Hood. Many criminals have taken up the mantle of the Red Hood to hide their real identities at times, even people like the man who would eventually be known as the Joker. A man calling himself the Red Hood is in Gotham, and he is taking no prisoners as he rises to the top. I wont go into detail on that much further lest give away key elements of the story.
As I said I was a little wary going in, trying to take these two stories, one of them being very iconic and putting it to celluloid is a difficult notion considering the fickle nature of fans like me. With this in mind I can say that they certainly satisfied my idea of what this story should look like. I was so glad they had Black Mask in this, he is often ignored because he is a new villain and not well know, but in the last several years has been a very important character in the nature of how Gotham and its underbelly functions. The Joker is beefier than I would have expected, and I was not a fan of his voice. The voice wasn't bad, it just wasn't the Jokers voice, I can understand they wanted to distance themselves, even if only slightly from "Batman: The Animated Series" but they should have kept Mark Hamil as the Joker, his voice is the perfect fit for it, and he has been doing it for the last twenty years, I'm sure they would have been happy with his performance.
Gotham is just as dark as it should be, with a little more color than we saw in "Batman: Mask of the Phantasm" but not pushing the limits like they very easily could have. The architecture of the buildings was spot on, as was the design of the Batcave and the various other locations we see in the film. I didn't like the look of Ras al Ghul's lair, but that's a minor complaint. The voice cast did a fantastic job, other than the Joker they all perfectly fit as I thought they should. The is a violent movie, and at times very bloody, the Joker cuts a mans throat with a shattered glass, a mans head explodes when attacked by the Red Hood, a few people are brutally set on fire, in that way it pulled no punches, pun intended.
The story (thank God) is not a look at super villains, or how bad ass Batman is, (and he is) but delves deeper into the psychology of Batman and all the thought that has went into building these characters for the last several decades. What makes Batman who he is? What makes the Joker what he is? And how are these two connected? Is it a mistake that Batman doesn't kill? All questions that they play with in this story, this film is by no means a children's movie simply because its animated, I still think for the most part its okay for kids to watch this, but like Harry Potter it wasn't originally intended for children.
Batman's greatest failures are on display here, should he ever have let the second Robin be Robin in the first place, and what if there was no changing him to begin with? These are the kinds of stories that they should be putting in these smaller animated Batman movies, and they do, at least for this one. Because of the Animated Series, and Mask of the Phantasm this movie had a groundwork of other dark Batman animated shows and movies to help it along. Without the other animated works that have been made in the last 15 years this story wouldn't have surfaced, and if it did it wouldn't have been the story it is here.
This was a well made and well timed venture, and I'm really glad not only that I saw it, but that someone allowed them to make it. 8/10 stars.
Director: Brandon Vietti
Starring: Bruce Greenwood, Jensen Ackles, John Di Maggio, Neil Patrick Harris, Jason Isaacs, Wade Williams, Jim Piddock
No comments:
Post a Comment