Batman: Gotham Knight, 3/5
I love Batman. Who doesn’t? A friend and I were actually discussing Shoot ‘Em Up, when she hit the reason why everyone likes Batman. Everyone likes to believe that deep down inside there lies the mettle to be something incredible, someone just needs to be pushed far enough. And we’re not talking incredible like reciting pi out to one hundred places or being able to whip up a really great meringue with only heavy cream and cumin in the house. I’m talking about going to the ends of the earth to train and then going out every night to protect the city you love. There are a number of heroes that have that anger and drive to them: Batman, Punisher, Daredevil. Generally in their history there is a loss of family. My friend said, “It really only takes a good dead family story to sell me,” and I (almost) completely agree, because it resonates with that primal hero or villain in each of us. The part of us that would go batshit nuts and find justice and vengeance. The part of us that says, “I don’t need superpowers to be a hero, I have stamina and drive (and dead loved ones).” The Batman in each of us.
That said, I am a sucker for Batman. I watched the Animated series as a kid and read the comics. So Gotham Knight came out, and, in my blind enthusiasm for the upcoming Dark Knight, I went out and got the two disc special edition (I haven’t looked at the special features, after all, this is a movie review, not a DVD review).
What Gotham Knight is, if you don’t know, is six Batman stories loosely connected and put on one DVD. One of the most striking things about this movie was the range of the stories. Some are told with Batman almost not speaking at all. Some are told from Bruce Wayne’s perspective. Some have action, some have emotion.
Of the six stories, my favorite was the first one, “Have I got a story for you,” which is the story of Batman chasing a villain across the city, as told by 3 kids who saw pieces of it. Each one saw Batman as a wholly different creature. The story was not only engaging, but the artwork was beautiful. Not in the traditional comic book sense, but it reminded me of Frank Miller’s Dark Knight Returns, which was one of the first graphic novels I read with Batman and which, to this day, stands out in my mind as a gritty, dark, Batman-esque world in which he should function.
The second one, “Crossfire,” was a pretty standard story, reminding me of a series of Spider-Man comics called Tangled Web where we see the effects of Spider-Man’s action on the normal people of New York. Here it was the effects of Batman on two Gotham police officers.
The third story was my least favorite for a number of reasons. One of the strengths of the “Anime” style in my view is the ability to create really muscular masked heroes. One of the downfalls is the propensity to create weedy looking normal people. We meet Bruce Wayne in this one and, for some reason, he has a huge nose and a terrible underbite. He looks more like Cowboy Bebop than Batman. Couple that with the fact that the story revolves around the gadgets and one should see why I didn’t like it. Sure, Batman has toys. He has a utility belt. But he also has guts and I don’t want to see a story about his toys. I am willing to bet that there were people who got suckered in by this one because of the ending, showing compassion, &c., but I would also like to point out that Batman is a detective first and foremost, so he would have known better in the first place, rather than making the mistake that causes the sappy ending.
The fourth one, “In Darkness Dwells,” had a mediocre story, but the artwork was amazing. Batman goes against Killer Croc at one point and it was like Croc had crawled straight out of a Mike Mignola comic. Also it featured the first rendition of Scarecrow that I have ever found interesting or vaguely intimidating.
The fifth one was another mediocre one, mitigated by a slightly interesting mingling of flashback.
The final one was a good chase story with a much better Wayne than the third story, and I was excited to see the appearance of DC mercenary mainstay Deadshot. It was an interesting chase, and I would watch it again, but it did not blow my socks off.
One of the best parts about this movie, however was the fact that Kevin Conroy played Batman. Conroy started playing Batman in 1992 for the Animated Series (one of the best animated shows of my time), having never read anything about Batman before. The plot was explained to him and he, a Shakespearian actor, says “Oh, Hamlet,” and had no trouble playing the part. They were going to cast a younger man for Wayne but he also convinced them to use his voice and the split between Batman and Wayne is amazing. Conroy has been playing Batman continuously since 1992 and, for my generation, is the voice of Batman. You can hear that he has aged since the heyday, but it is still a very good performance.
Do not believe the claim that this is the first animated Batman movie to get a PG-13 rating. The Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker movie got a PG-13 rating until they re-edited it. The PG-13 version was later released as a Director’s Cut (and it is pretty good, it’s the only Batman Beyond that I’ve seen and it reminded me a little of the story from Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns).
Please pardon the fact that I overly nerded out on this review.
Overall: An interesting concept, better than the Animatrix, however I wasn’t blown away by it. The first and last ones are probably the strongest and I hated the third one. I am also slightly biased against anime. Three out of five, I liked it.
