Wednesday, May 28, 2014

Movie Review: Son of Batman


Rating: 1 star

I finally found some time to sit down to watch this movie. I knew there was going to be some changes to the story but not so many you could barely even recognize the original story.

I had a hard time choosing which was worse, the story or the voice acting. I really don't understand why they ruined an amazing story and replaced it with this crap. This was very loosely adapted from Batman and Son by Grant Morrison. Why all the unnecessary changes? It truly makes no sense.

The story for this movie follows the League of Assassins being attacked by Deathstroke who was trying to take revenge on Ra's al Ghul. The attack leaves Ra's al Ghul dead and Talia in need of a safe place to take Damian. She decided to take him to Gotham so he can meet his father, Batman.

And in a totally useless subplot Dr. Kirk Langstrom (it was better written in the book) who was working with Ra's al Ghul to create a Man-Bat super serum is now being forced to work for Deathstroke. To make sure Dr. Langstrom complies, his wife and daughter were taken as insurance. Side note: why did they made Dr. Kirk Langstrom's daughter in this movie look like the New 52 Joker's daughter?

So, as Talia tells Bruce about the "conception" of their son, Bruce doesn't seem that angry about the fact that he had been drugged as opposed to the way it was depicted in the book. His response was more in a nonchalant way, like oh well, I was taken advantage of but I still find this woman attractive. He actually enjoyed the fact that he was pretty much raped. Great message you are sending there DC Comics.

Anyway, Talia leaves Damian with Bruce so she can go off on some half-baked plan that of course didn't work out (because other than the opening scene the Talia in the rest of this movie can't do anything besides flirt with Batman and be a damsel-in-distress).

I have another question, why was Deathstroke included in this movie? His character was not in the original story and his presence in the movie certainly didn't improve this poorly written story.

Why was Robin (Tim Drake) not even included in this? Why replace him with Nightwing (Dick Grayson) who wasn't in the original story. So all the animosity and rivalry between Tim and Damian has now been applied to Damian and Dick. Which makes no sense what so ever since Dick is the perfect big brother doing his best to keep those two from constantly fighting.

I was so disappointed with this movie. It was not good and with each animated movie that has been released lately it's apparent how much Bruce Timm brought to DC Comics/Warner Brothers because these movies continue to suffer tremendously without his insight.

I also wonder if Voice Director Andrea Romano is just coasting along until she can leave because it doesn't seem like she's even trying any more to cast the right actors for the role. Or perhaps she knows how awful these movies are and doesn't want to put a good voice actor in a bad movie. I can't believe the voice acting continues to be bad, I found with some of the voices they were over acting while others were barely making an effort. The only voice acting I can say was actually good was Alfred Pennyworth who was voiced by David McCallum with second and third going to Nightwing voiced by Sean Maher and Killer Crock voiced by Fred Tatasciore.

I'm a Damian Wayne fan and yet this movie made me despise him. He was such a annoying little brat and they showed him being over skilled. I know Damian was a skilled fighter but there is no way he could have taken on Deathstroke and the only way he could have done that was with this watered down version.

Another thing that irritated me about this ridiculous movie was, while Damian was off fighting Deathstroke, Batman was down by the Lazarus pit making out with Talia. And would have continued if the place was not blowing up around them.

So in the end, the book was so much better than this lackluster film. If you haven't read the book, please read it, the story is very good.

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