The Batman: Pics, Videos, and Other Awesomeness

There was no shit storm as far as I recall. Just a slightly more heated discussion.

 

Yeah we are a friendly lot. That discussion is not even in the top 10 of heated ones I took part in that are still well below shitstorm level. I avoid taking part in forums that feature proper shitstorms.

 

I judge our conversations on these modern controversies to be civil. Good job Lustria-Online!

We can disagree on things without losing our lovely forum decorum.

 

You are missing religion!

In fact I like discussing those from time to time since there are several valid approaches to view each of them, if one manages to keep their personal feelings out of it.

Probably not a topic for here though, you are right.

 

Let's talk about Batman animated movies. I have a review scale.

5 stars is a cinematic masterpiece. This should be watched by pretty much everyone
Example: The Dark Knight

4 star is an excellent movie. This should be watched by fans of action
Example: The recent Shazam movie

3 stars is a good movie. This should be watched by fans of DC
Example: Batman (1989)

2 stars is a meh movie. You should watch it if the particular story interests you.
Example: Batman Forever

1 star is subpar movie. You should be watched if you enjoy systematically analyzing a failure
Example: Batman and Robin

0 stars is a painfully bad movie. There is no redeeming value in this movie.
Example: Catwoman

Batman Gotham Knight (3.25 stars). This is not an orthodox movie. This is six self contained Batman stories each roughly 20 minutes. They take place between the events of Batman Begins and the Dark Knight. Each self contained story has a different writer, animation style, and director, though the voice acting remains the same which includes the legendary Kevin Conroy.


Batman/Superman Public Enemies (2.75 stars). This is basically a Superman movie that has Batman as the deuteragonist. The villain is Lex Luthor and the scale of problems is high. It also has elements of a buddy cop movie. If you liked Justice League Unlimited, this movie is for you. Not only does it loosely continue the plots of season 2, but it has most of the same voice actors. A lot of President Luthor politics, a lot of Cadmus and Waller, a lot of conspiracies.


Justice League Crisis on Two Earths (3.25 stars). This is an enemble movie that focuses on a wide array of characters. Batman is one hero among many. The basic plot is there is a parallel universe where all the good guys are bad guys and all the bad guys are good guys. Earth-2 Lex Luthor is sort of the star. The voice acting cast has a lot of top shelf talent, especially James Woods who does a superb job playing Owlman, Batman's counterpart, who effectively leads the Syndicate even though Ultraman thinks he's in charge.


Batman Under the Red Hood (3.25 stars). The plot of this movie is a little predictable in my opinion, but the voice acting is great. Neil Patrick Harris is Nightwing. John DiMaggio is Joker. I know people really love Mark Hamil, but DiMaggio did phenomenal. It's got one of the more poignant moral conflicts for Batman.


Superman/Batman: Apocalypse (2.5 stars): This movie is mislabeled. Superman is a supporting character and Batman is not in this nearly enough. this is basically a Supergirl origin movie. Batman's solution to the problem of the week is cool, but on the whole this movie didn't do it for me. The action was good.


Batman Year One (2.5 stars): Batman Year One is one of the greatest graphic novels of all time and this adaptation was true to it. Why did I only give it 2.5 stars? This is basically a panel for panel remake of the graphic novel. There is nothing new and almost nothing removed. Frank Miller is a genius comic book writer but he is a little overly fixated on streetwalking prostitutes. If there is anything that should have been cut from this adaptation... Another thing they didn't adapt one iota is the contemporary 1980s stuff. If you haven't read Batman Year One I would give this 3 stars.


Justice League Doom (4 stars): Want to see Batman be truly bad ass? This has good action scenes, good pacing, great voice acting, and a compelling story. Really no complaints here.


The Dark Knight Returns (2.75 stars): This is the based on the Frank Miller classic The Dark Knight Returns, the most important Batman graphic novel ever made. This graphic novel is inspired as Tim Burton's inspiration for the 1989 Batman movie. Without this breakaway hit, Batman may have never escaped the quagmire that is Adam West's BIFF! BOP! POW! Batman.

Just like Batman Year One, my misgiving with this movie is that they changed nothing from the original graphic novel. Ronald Reagan critiques galore, Cold War politics, 80s pop culture references, and more!


The Flashpoint Paradox (4.25 stars): Flash is the star, Batman is the deuteragonist. This movie has some questionable science involving time travel but other than that this movie is excellent. Great voice acting, drama, pacing, and a story filled with twists and turns. Flash has to deal with a time paradox that ruins everything. I won't spoil anything beyond that. It's deliciously full of grim dark with just enough elements of hope to keep you going. That's exactly how Scalenex likes it! If you want to spoil the biggest reveal, skip to 34:34.

I don't think this movie is technically part of the New 52 series of movies, but the voice actors are mostly the same and these the animation templates that are used for it. I'll review the new 52 movies separately in their own blurb. The new 52 movies follow the same general continuity much like the live action MCU whereas all the other movies I'm mentioning here are basically self contained.


Justice League Gods and Monsters (2.75 star): This is an alternate universe from DC. Okay, technically every continuity reset is an alternate universe but this one is substantially different. "Superman" is a son of General Zod. "Wonderwoman" is Becca, now exiled from New Genesis and 'Batman" is Kirk Langstrom after a mutation accident. This is a good movie if you like anti-heroes and you like twists. Because this world is non-canon, anything can happen.


Batman the Killing Joke (1 star): Despite have an all-star cast and crew pulled straight from Batman the Animated Series, this movie sucked. The Killing Joke is a very iconic Batman graphic novel. The problem is The Killing Joke is a very short graphic novel. You cannot be true to the adaptation without padding the run time. Half this movie is about the Killing Joke, half this movie is a completely unrelated B-plot with the stupest Batman villain ever devised, worse than the Condiment King.

Another probably is this is director Bruce Timm's first rated R movie. This movie includes a modest amount of swearing and "adult situations" and they all come off as awkward and forced.


Batman and Harley Quinn (? Stars): I know the second I pay to rent this movie, it will end up on DC Universe for free. Until then I won't watch it and get the full context into Harley Quinn's and Nightwing's awkward love scene.


Batman by Gaslight (4.25 stars): Bruce Wayne is a wealthy orphan who fights crime with high tech gadgets and a scary batsuit, in the 1880s. In this case Gotham City is in the United States but has a lot of elements of London in it. "High tech" gadgets is relative. This slows the pacing down from a traditional Batman movie but this is a greaty detective movie as Batman has to track down Jack the Ripper before he can kill again. Almost zero characters are brand new. Most of the characters are Victorian reboots of well-known Batman characters which is great. If there was only one recognizeable supporting character it's obvious that that person is the villain but since everyone is a recognizeable character there are red herrings and ringers a plenty.


Batman: Assault on Arkham (2.5 stars): First off, Batman gets top billing but he's barely in this movie. This movie focuses on the Suicide Squad and it's set in the universe of the video game Arkham Asylum which I never played. Maybe if I played the video game I'd appreciate it more. This fell a little flat for me, though it was magnitudes better than the live action Suicide Squad movie. At least the plot made sense.


Justice League vs. the Fatal Five (3 stars): Batman, as well as Superman and Woman are mentors in this movie. This is basically a sequel to the Justice League Unlimited animated series. Same director, voice actors, animation style. The A plot is that the Fatal Five come from the future as part of their complicated take over the galaxy scheme. The Fatal Five are the main villains from The Legion of Superheroes which is sort of like a cross between Star Trek and Justice League. The B plot (where the meat is) is the coming of age of the younger Justice League members.

The new breakout characters are Miss Martian and Jessica Cruz (who happens to be a rookie Green Lantern). Strong female characters that manage to demonstrate their strength through their action and not by telling us how strong they are.

Batman Ninja (3.75 stars or maybe 1 star): I think this movie is so bad that it's good. Other people disagree with me and just think it's bad. From an artistic stand point the visuals are amazing but the story is really really really stupid and campy. Batman was outsourced to a Japanese company to produce, so if you like anime for the sake of the art and are a Batman fan, I would recommend this for you.


Just for the sake of completion, I'll cover the DC animated movies that don't really have Batman in them


Justice League The New Frontier (2.25 stars): I don't know if this graphic novel was set in the sixties or the seventies but I do know that like the Frank Miller adapations, this was basically a panel for panel remake of a famous graphic novel. Heroes from various places unite to battle an alien menace. Classic story, but this movie was a little flat. It's not a bad movie, but nothing really stands out in this as exceptional or memorable.


Wonder Woman (3.25 stars): This is basically the same plot as the recent live action Wonder Woman movie, but it's set in the 21st century rather than WWI. This movie was better than the live action movie in that the exposition was a lot less clunky, the villain was more well fleshed out, and animated Wonder Woman had far more interesting meaningful interactions with normal humans than her live action counterpart.

As good as the animation was, the live action Wonder Woman action scenes were magnitudes better. Also I like looking at Gal Gadot.


Green Lantern First Flight (2 stars): Is it better than the live action Green Lantern movie. Yes, but not by enough. At the very least, the villains were interesting and they didn't waste time with clunky exposition. The love story was less corny.


Green Lantern Emerald Knights (2.5 stars): This is an anthology covering multiple green lanterns from other planets. This is beautifully animated, but it's anology that's not about Batman. It's sort of sad that a Green Lantern story gets better when you cut Hal Jordan's role down.


All Star Superman (2.25 stars): This is basically a cross between the Twelve Labors of Hercules and Superman. Superman continually does incredible things, each more amazing than the last. I wasn't a big fan of the Superman/Lois love story that formed the B plot. If anything it made me wonder what he sees in her. Not that she was anything short of sweet and supportive, but at the end of the day she is an ordinary woman and he is Superman. They did some weird stuff with Jimmy Olson in this.


Superman Doomsday (2 stars): Another pretty meh Superman story. Superman has to take on a great challenge with a vague depowering effect putting at roughly half strength. Also Lex Luthor and Lois Lane are in this. Pretty by the numbers despite the fact that Superman is literally dying and coming back from the dead.


Superman vs. the Elite (4 stars): The next director and writer to try their hand at a live action Superman movie needs to watch this movie and take careful notes. It's easier to write a good Batman movie than a good Superman movie because of issues with power scale. This movie is a good movie because it covers the great power/great responsibility theme and it provides Superman with a problem that he cannot just punch his way out of.


Superman Unbound: Haven't seen it yet, but it's available on DC Universe. Maybe I should see it.
EDIT: Turns out I did see it, I just forgot about it because it was that unmemorable. 1.75 stars.

 

I have seen only a tiny fraction of those, but I enjoy your reviews!

 

Have some more then.

Batman has been fighting crime since 1939 but he rarely gets much older. The other superheroes are mostly in the same boat. Every once in a while, heroes are rebooted to whatever the “current” area is.

It’s one thing to believe that Clark Kent can fly through space, lift several ton weights, and shoot lasers from his eyes, but the idea of Clark Kent working at a thriving newspaper in the 21st century? That’s just too implausible to allow suspension of disbelief.

So DC Comics a few years back opted to reboot every ongoing series at once so every character from Batman to Condiment Man gets a 2010s reboot. This is called the New 52 which not all comic book fans agree on whether or not it’s good.

Anyway, I think the new 52 animated adaptations are good.

I certainly like what they did with Batman. True, it’d be nice if he could be voiced by Kevin Conroy but not-Kevin Conroy is doing okay. Batman has a certain stoicism and dry wit that demonstrates that he was raised by Alfred Pennyworth.

They certainly started out well.

The Flashpoint Paradox is probably the kicking off point (though they changed the art style a little bit for the next one). I already reviewed it. There is an end credit scene that sets up Justice League War 4.25 stats.


Justice League War (4) involves superheroes joining forces to fend off an invasion from Darkseid. This is essentially the same plot of the live action movie but JLW came out first and is better in almost every single way. It doesn’t have Jason Mamoa and Gal Gadot providing their on screen charisma and eye candy, but other than that this movie is better than the live action counterpart on everything.

The pacing and action is good. The dialog is great. The exposition is smooth. Rather than round robin trying to give every single possible pairing of character a bit of screen time, the heroes are thematically paired off.

Batman and Green Lantern have a great buddy cop dynamic going. Batman’s darkness and stoicism contrasts nicely with Green Lantern’s more carefree attitude. They are good foils.

Superman and Wonderwoman have a latent attraction thing going and they sort of bond as fellow non-humans.

Shazam and Cyborg bond through being the new guys. Shazam is super eager to be a hero and Cyborg is somewhat reluctant making them good foils.

Flash is the one hero most of the other characters knew before the alien invasion. He is the least important role (he got to star in Flashpoint Paradox so he gets to fade into the background a bit now), but his important role is to keep the other characters from killing each other.

There is an end credit scene that sets up Justice League Throne of Atlantis.


Son of Batman (3 stars): So spoiler alert, Batman has a son, Damien Wayne. Damien is an ass hole but it’s an open question on whether he is a good asshole or an evil asshole. Slade Wilson/Deathstroke is introduced as an ongoing villain.


Throne of Atlantis (3.75 stars) predates the live action Aquaman. The plots are pretty similar. Throne of Atlantis is a good movie, but I believe the live action movie is slightly better if only because Jason Mamoa is awesome. Aquaman is the main character but it takes all hands on deck to save the day.

The A plot is Arthur Curry/Aquaman discovering who he is and rising to battle his evil half-brother who does a bunch of evil things, no spoilers. The B-plot is that the Justice League technically formed at the end of JLW is a league in name only. They still are not very good at working together as a team and this movie deals with growing pains on that front.

I might have given this movie a higher rating if I hadn’t already seen Justice League episode “The Enemy Below.” On some level I can only see Aquaman battle his half-brother Orm so many times. One of the many things the Young Justice plot did right was fast forward that obligatory plot so Atlantis could move on to other stories.

And yes, Batman is awesome in this movie too.


Batman vs. Robin (3.25 stars): The title is misleading. Batman and Robin aren’t really against each other but Batman vs. The Court of Owls wouldn’t sell as many bluerays. The movie starts with the brief introduction of a new Batman villain. One that is so nauseatingly evil that it would make anyone question Batman’s no killing rule. The main villain is an organization called the Court of Owls, a vigilante group that provides a good foil to Batman.


Batman: Bad Blood (2.75 stars): This is my least favorite movie set in the new 52 universe. It’s not a bad movie, I just don’t like it as much as the others. In my opinion this movie has too many B-plots. We are still covering Damien’s character arc. We are reintroducing Nightwing and diving into his insecurities. Batwoman is introduced as an entirely new character as is Batwing and there is an Easter egg appearance of Batgirl. That’s just too many sidekicks! It kind of makes sense, the A-plot is that Batman is missing and it takes a whole village to replace him.


Justice League vs. Teen Titans (4 stars): Once again, the title is misleading but Teen Titans vs. Trigon, also the Justice League is there is not a very catchy title. There is a little bit of character growth continued from the previous Justice League movies. Superman and Wonder Woman are officially a power couple. The Justice League is more used to working as a team.

Damien and Bruce have an argument and Damien gets shucked off to boarding school, which in this case is the Teen Titans. Apparently the Teen Titans have been around for a few years and never showed up on screen in previous movies (though it was alluded to in an Easter egg).

The main character is Raven, but Damien gets a bit more character growth. We introduce Starfire, Beastboy, and Blue Beetle. In nearly every non-Batman centered movie in the new 52 universe, Batman is the deuteragonist. Now Damien is the deuteragonist to Starfire. He is now his father’s son, and after so many movies, I no longer hate Damien’s stupid face. I actually root for him now. Good job writers!


Justice League Dark (4.25 stars): This movie rocks. The villain is great, very scary and very unorthodox. The pacing and mystery is good. This primarily features lesser known DC heroes, Zatanna, Constantine, Dead Man, and Jason Blood, but Batman is the token non-magic user on the group to keep us grounded and Batman is in rare form in this movie. He is at best the third most important character story wise but his every word and action is gold.


Teen Titans: The Judas Contract (3.75 stars): The Teen Titans main adversaries are Deathstroke, Trigon, and H.I.V.E. We already covered Trigon, so now it’s time to cover H.I.V.E. Damien has been dominating the screen time for a while, but not this time. Damien is still there but is role is much smaller as he has basically completed his redemption arc. This movie focuses mainly on Beastboy and Terra, but Blue Beetle, Nightwing, and Starfire get some more development. Not a bad sequel to Justice League vs. Teen Titans.


Suicide Squad: Hell to Pay: I’m waiting for this one to come out on DC Universe, so I don’t have to pay for it. I am not super optimistic about it. I’m not a huge fan of Suicide Squad in any of its iterations.


Constantine: City of Demons: I am eagerly awaiting this one to come out on DC universe. I really came to like Constantine’s character in Justice League Dark.


The Death of Superman (3 stars): Spoiler alert, Superman dies. The other members of the Justice League are pretty much only there so they can beaten up but it’s important to cover your plot holes. “Why weren’t Green Lantern, Batman, Wonder Woman, and the Martian Manhunter there for Superman’s big fight?” is a valid question. That was a huge problem with the live action Dawn of Justice. Superman sacrificed his life to defeat the villain when he didn’t have to. In this case he sort of did.


Reign of the Supermen (3.25 stars): Superman can’t stay dead but at the very least he is dead for several months. During this time, several quasi-supermen show up to fill the void. This is rather similar to how when Bruce Wayne was missing Batwoman and Batwing showed up and Damien came out of seclusion.

The quasi-supermen do a god job showcasing aspects of the real Superman. Steel embodies his humanity. The Eradicator embodies his alien-ness, Superboy embodies his public image, and Cyborg (not to be confused with the Teen Titan’s Cyborg) embodies his raw power.


Batman Hush: This comes out in July, I might rent it for $3 because I’m not patient enough to wait for it to come out on DC Universe. It looks awesome but I will never buy an animated Batman movie again without watching it. The Killing Joke is $20 I’m never getting back. That movie looked awesome too

 

More Batman fun. A Youtube channel called Batinthesun made an amazing amateur live action 30 minute Batman story called City of Scars. Unfortunately, the crew of Batinthesun are one hit wonders. In my opinion every thing they did after City of Scars sucks like a vacuum cleaner.

 

Don't diss Owlman...He's badass.

I saw a nonpolitical reason that ruins the CW Batwoman premise. She is Bruce Wayne's cousin. It is weird that you never saw the cousins together before BUT whoever came up with this doesn't know how families work.

If Bruce Wayne had a cousin, he probably had an aunt or an uncle if not both. Why didn't the orphan go with his blood relatives instead of with his elderly butler?

Unless Bruce Wayne's aunt and uncle were terrible people. If that's the case, his cousin has even less right to take over his house, his tools, and his legacy.

But anyway, the Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie is out, but it's sold for $20. I'm going to wait for the price to go down. I'll buy it for $12 or rent it for $3. I'm really hoping it will show up on DC Universe. The clips I've seen make the movie look entertaining but it doesn't look like a masterpiece of media.