Goddam Batman: Gotham Knight

Another week, another DC comic movie Jim forces me to watch. This week he gets me to watch “Batman: Gothan Knight”. Now as a big fan of the early 90’s animated series of Batman, and seen some of the more recent cartoon’s, I had a bit of an expectation coming into this movie. But as I later figured out, the movie is done by numerous of anime artists, so I just ended up expecting the not expected. Click more to see what I thought.

This movie is a bit different to talk about, because it is 6 different stories by 6 different artists. And in most cases, they do not follow any kind of universal story line. First story is “Have I got a story for you” where 3 teenage friends tell their story about their encounter with Batman on their trip to meet up. All with different views on what Batman is, and how he is. “Crossfire” is the story of how two policemen working under Gordon think of Batman and his vigilante ways while in the midst of a gang battle. “Field Test” has Batman testing out some new technology, but instead of making his life easier, it almost corrupts him. “In Darkness Dwells” has Killer Croc and Scarecrow kidnapping a priest and Batman’s heroics. “Working Through Pain” is more of an origin story of how Bruce Wayne trains to be the Batman. And “Deadshot” is the story of an amazing sniper as he picks off victims one by one, and only Batman can stop him.

Anime style of the first story. Euck!

This movie is harder to talk about than most movies, because of the different stories in the actual movie. I found the movie to be a fun one to watch. Not because the stories are all that interesting, or because the animation is unique. It is because it is neat to see how other people see Batman. I’ve always thought Batman to be exactly how he is in the 90’s series, it is what I watched growing up. So to see how some folks see him as a shadow, or others see him as a young charming kid, it is cool. Even though this is the only thing that really interests me about the film, it was enough to entertain me. Don’t get me wrong, the short stories were some-what interesting, but nothing breath-taking or all that embracing.

What I really didn’t like about this movie was the animation. I am not a big fan of anime style of animation, so to see different styles of anime really didn’t intrigue me. Especially the first story, it was annoying to watch and terribly drawn. It was very abstract and lacked detail overall. I also kind of wished this movie focused more on Batman himself and not about the people that are affected by him. It is cool to see what the local children think of him, but I am watching Batman.

Overall, this is a hard movie to like. It is similar to Animatrix, where it has nothing to do with the franchise, but just to see what fans see the franchise looks like. It is great to watch if you are a big fan of Batman and anime animation. But if you are just a casual Batman fan, and rather watch Western style of cartoons, I say this is a pass. I am glad I saw it for the sake of getting more Batman, but I wish I saw a true Batman movie instead.

Nostalgia and the style I loved!