Apr 28, 2018
I'll preface this by saying a) I watched the English version, which apparently has an entirely different script than the Japanese and b) I haven't seen much of other Batman Animated movies so I don't know if they are all supposed to be like this.
That being said:
TL;DR - This is worse than Suicide Squad.
Maybe this is supposed to be a fun, gimmicky popcorn flick with quirky anime-batman hybrid redesigns and moments, but this was just too much.
Story: absolutely nutty - problems arise and are solved at complete whims and deus ex. Here's an example (spoilers). The batman villian's combine their mecha castles to
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convert into a mega amalgamation a la Super Sentai. Damian Wayne as monkey robin summons an army of monkeys to fight it. They, too, combine into a mega monkey mecha, but it's not enough. The bat clan arrive, and actual bats reinforce the monkey mecha into a Bat mecha. Now the villians' mecha can be defeated. What the fuck?
Everything is either rushed or a complete waste of time. At one point, Joker and Harley """""die""""", then pretend to be normal for about 5 minutes, and then, surprise, come back last minute into the final battle. Why even bother with the middle part? It offered no suspense, it wasn't a real twist at the end, and didn't prop up the Joker as a bigger antagonist than before.
The story is filled with stupid decisions like this. Basically every smaller narrative arc is a waste of time, and ultimately makes the whole story a waste.
Art: Slightly better than RWBY, and definitely not as bad as Berserk 2016. Also, there is a section where they switch animation styles which is mostly well-done. There's some bad rotoscoping at that section, but overall it was a nice change of pace. Setting and character designs were also good. Overall, if you wanted to watch something because it looked good, I wouldn't recommend this movie, but it can be interesting at times.
Sound: Sound design is relatively poor and sometimes the film is just completely silent (and not in the introspective or subtle kind of Mushi-shi way, it just seems they didn't have anything to put there).
Characters: It's a rehash of the archetypal batman vs joker dynamic, except worse. Batman tries to grow as a character and what he does is completely overshadowed by how the problems are resolved. Also, we don't spend anytime trying to ease our way into character development. Rushed as poorly as the whole story.
Enjoyment: At times, it's stupid fun, other times, it's just stupid.
Overall: Hard pass. Watch if you are want to see "samurai" batman and friends. Otherwise, it's a waste of time.
Reviewer’s Rating: 1
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