Gotham By Gaslight

You know Warner Bros. Animation, I don't think you understand what an R rating is. Both this and The Killing Joke could have been PG-13 and you wouldn't have to cut a damn thing. Is it the stigma of it being animation so in order to hammer your point home that it is heavy stuff you gotta make it an R rated movie so people take it seriously? Christ.

Yeah, Gotham By Gaslight is rated R which blew my mind when I picked it up at Redbox, I almost thought I got the wrong movie but nope. Now granted when you are dealing with a subject matter like Jack The Ripper, you're gonna get a body count and you're gonna get blood but an R rated film that does not make. Okay, slow down, go back, let's start basics. Gotham By Gaslight is an adaptation of the popular Elseworlds series DC has been making since the late 80s, taking classic superheroes and giving them unique spins. Like, what if Superman didn't land in Kansas but in the USSR and fought for communist values? Well this is a what if of Batman taking place in the late 1800s and one of his earliest cases is catching Jack The Ripper, based off the very first Elseworlds book. Now I do have to say, the book is okay, in fact I liked the movie better than the book. It's a very loose adaptation adding tons of new elements and centering the story on Jack whereas the book had 2 cases. So the story I genuinely liked, it's a very good mystery and to see a well known superhero in this time frame is a neat thing to see. I've always admired the Gotham By Gaslight suit, though I have never been a steampunk fan which it takes inspiration from. So the story and characters are really darn good, with one quiet scene between Bruce and Selina that really stole the whole movie for me, it was really good! I only had one major problem with the movie that I don't think was how it ended in the book, my memory is fuzzy and I should go back and read it one day, but I can't divulge what really pissed me off cause it spoils the mystery. But we will move to the technicals now! Animation is really great, the colors are dark and murky, and I must praise the unabashed unapologetic potrayal of late 19th century culture. Like they got their research down man, life sucked back then and it sucked even harder for women. Voice acting across the board is great, specifically Bruce Greenwood but you know what's weird? Bruce is a better Batman than he is...well, Bruce. But all in all, it's a decent movie, I enjoyed it more than the fraking Killing Joke that's for damn sure. Doesn't deserve the R rating even in the slightest, perfect for a rental, and if you know anything about me we can't leave this alone now. I don't got any other movies for the week, so let's watch some more animated Batman movies! Tune in tomorrow, same time same channel!