Batman Bad Blood

Not a bad end but I feel it's still fairly open ended.




I feel this whole continuity has ended though, if you look at a complete list of these DC animated films the last one released 3 years ago so I think they are moving on to new horizons and there won't be a continuation. Again the movie takes certain aspects of the comics around that time where Batman apparently dies in an explosion leading Dick to take up the cape and cowl, with the Batfamily expanding to Robin, Batwoman, and Batwing to be the guardians of Gotham. They don't go all the way with Bruce's death but the movie's focus is primarily on those four to varying degrees of success. Obviously we haven't encountered Kate or Luke in any previous movies so this is our introduction to them, and I feel Kate gets the better end of the stick. We learn more about her past, personal life, not so much as to why she dresses in a kick ass red and black batsuit but she's here to help fight crime so good on her. Luke on the other hand really is just kinda there, we know he's Lucius Fox's son, he's had military experience and gets swept up in this criminal plot and dons this mechanoid batsuit to assist in the hunt after Lucius gets attacked, but that's really it. I feel the reason and appeal of adding him in was because of the suit's capabilities in the action scenes, and I gotta say the animation for the fights have only gotten better and better each time, here it's really fluid and at a quick pace but not so fast it's hard to keep up they do it just right showcasing the skills of each fighter. The villain scheme leans back to lavishly ludicrous but I still say the last movie had the superior plot and making all the pieces work. It's competently made and to see this period of history where Dick is now Batman I never thought I would see in any medium outside of the comics, I legit would not mind picking up those issues and reading them until Bruce returned, but the movie has a lot of plates spinning and it could have had some stuff trimmed for it's benefit. I loved seeing Sean Maher get upgrade after upgrade in these movies from being a cameo, to side character, to practically the main character here! Also huge love to Yvonne Strahovski, I would really like to dig into the Batwoman comics and I did get halfway through the first season of the CW show before life stuff happened but I wasn't hating it, so her character has always held interest for me and she did mighty good work here! It's a decent little trilogy, for someone as hardcore a fan as me you'd enjoy it but in all truth and honesty the DC animated movies are pretty much for exclusively the fans, not that anybody can't watch them but I don't know many people who go out of their way to view them despite there being gleaming gems in it's library. So take it for what it's worth, I liked them but they're not my favorites either. Final score I give it 3 stars, 7/10! Next week is a bit unconventional but it's kind of necessary for me considering the new movie coming out, we're going way back into the back catalogue of reviews next time so I'll see you there.

Batman Vs. Robin

Court Of Owls confirmed!

Even better it's a semi-adaptation of the comic storyline that is one of the rare exceptions where I've read it. I'm not fully aware as to why I decided to pick up the hardcover collections of both Court and City Of Owls, but to see this story adapted even very loosely is pretty awesome! Set some months after Son, Damian is approached by a masked assassin telling him to use his lethal instincts and to turn on his father and mentor, with the Court targeting Batman so they can reassert total control on the city once more. You think this would be another Hush situation where any divergence or dropped plotpoint for this adaptation would raise my ire greatly, but considering the title is not the same as the comic already skates free from that. True they take slight inspiration and pick bits and pieces of the comic to utilize but all in all it is an original story. We get more confrontation between Bruce and Damian, and how our Robin still struggles with the no kill rule which helps resolve my slight grievance with that in the last movie. Bruce has to come to better terms that he is a father first and a vigilante mentor second, that's a fairly solid arc that contributes to them having more respect and trust in one another. How they handle the Court is better than Gotham, God bless them they tried and I love that show to bits despite it's maddening quirks, yet the original elements they inject still work perhaps not as a faithful adaptation but as a version in this continuity. Now do I highly recommend and easily say the comic is better? Oh hell fucking yeah! Scott Snyder crafted something rarely seen in the comic runs with making Gotham City a central character itself, and with it being the first story out of the gate for the New 52 series it's a homerun! I haven't read the entire storyline penned by him but I got farther than any other regular comic book series before or since. All voice cast members return from the first and still deliver well. I can't really submit hard evidence of this feeling I got, but the animation style honestly felt very much like an anime show, again there's nothing distinct that would lead to such a conclusion, maybe I noticed more details of the animation and character designs, maybe it was the plot, but I fully 100% expected the Court members to have hair color of every shade of the rainbow and then some in this. It's bizzare, I can't place my finger on why, but there was something to this movie. Yet another uber short entry, 79 minutes with credits this time, say what you will but they are some quick sits. Did I like it better than Son Of Batman? I do feel the plot was more focused and better written, I liked the character dynamics more now that they've been expanded upon, and the adapatation aspect I enjoyed. 3.5 stars, 7.5/10, for real now I have no clue what comes next so it is truly anybody's guess how this trilogy wraps up. One way to find out.