Batman: Bad Blood

First things first: this film is good but some major flaws stop it from being among the best of its kind. If you enjoyed the other films DC's released since its universe restarted, this one is definitely a nobrainer. The pros are definitely good animations with some really strong pictures, crazy ideas and an interesting story that allows some character development. You could say the film tries to be an action film with story - unfortunately the fusion doesn t quite work. One reason for this is, that the film favors action over story. This wouldn t be as bad, if the protagonists wouldn t turn to punchline-swinging clichés while fighting, just seconds after they had some actually interesting conversations that drive a plot that is supposed to give them depth. This luckily applies a bit less to Batwoman and not at all for Robin. The second major flaw for me is that I feel like the writers don t respect the motivations, aims or morals of the protagonists. Some other reviews also mention the ridiculously accidental dying of super-criminals. Your protagonists can t kill someone, so Karma has to do justice or what? If Batman would take his code of honor seriously, he had to kick all of them, due to them being unable to watch out. A last minor flaw for me was Batwing. This guy got some clichéd background and then continued to just being there, well and kick major ass. Maybe he marks the point where the writers didn t have time for more plot, since Batwing really misses some dialogs to make his integration into the Batfamily somehow authentic. On the bright side of characters there is Robin, who gets just little screen time but I think they got really a lot out of it. I think Batwoman also deserves a character-development shout out, even though I feel like she would have been more plausible if she wouldn t be the clear loser on the "Kick Ass-O-Meter". I personally feel like if the film had given the story more room, it would be a contender for the likes of Batman and the Phantom. This way it s "only" a good film.

While the style of the animation is fairly good, the script is very poor and simplistic with the little complex angles (Heretic) being few and far between. I'm not really sure to whom they are addressing this movie: as an example (and there are way too many in any of the action scenes) the way Damien takes some blows from Blockbuster and keeps fighting like he is immune to damage is just too big a leap of faith to ask anyone over 12 years old and the gritty tone of the whole movie is too dark for anyone under that age. Why some directors keep ruining something so full of potential as the Batman universe keeps baffling me...