So far this summer I’ve reviewed movies where Kevin Conroy
voiced Batman and given my first thoughts on the final instalment in Christopher
Nolan’s Batman franchise. So let’s look
at a film that combines both of these things.
At first viewing I wasn’t sure I really liked this film
because it’s really a series of vignettes that all have different styles and story lines, and
on the surface don’t seem to connect together outside of all taking place in
the Nolanverse. But like Nolan’s movies
this movie too becomes better with re-watching as new layers emerge. I began to see that there were connections throughout
all of the six shorts after all. From
big ones like Maroni and the Russian having a gang war in Crossfire and meeting
to do it again in Field Test, to smaller ones like Teresa Williams who we were
told was killed in Field Test by gang violence was actually revealed to be one
of Deadshot’s victims in the final short.
Or the gun that Batman knocks away from the injured gang member falling
into the grate that Batman will later be in when he crawls out of the sewers,
in Working Through Pain. And of course
the sewers connect Working Through Pain with In Darkness Dwells because they take place one right after the other.
As for the shorts themselves I like that they all look at
different angles of the Batman mythos.
From how the average person would view Batman, how the cops view him,
how he views his position as a crime fighter; that he won’t risk someone else’s
life, only his own. I think I like
Working Through Pain the best of the bunch because we got to see more of
Bruce’s training which is something that isn’t really looked at all the
much. It was great to have a woman as one of
Bruce’s teachers and to see the suffering of people in that area of the world. I mean a guy is being operated on with no
anesthetic or even a blind fold on, way to push the PG-13 rating guys.
As a collection I love the backgrounds in all the vignettes. It really gives the feeling of Gotham as a
character in itself. I also love that
almost all of them had a scene of Batman watching over the city with his cape
flowing in the breeze. It’s an iconic
image of him as a protector and it never gets old. I like the character designs for the most part
in all the shorts with a few exceptions.
One of those exceptions is the character designs in Have I Got a Story
For You. I think it’s because the
characters are designed to be flat and ill-proportioned and then they are
placed in these wonderful elaborate backgrounds and I don’t think it fits
right. However the one thing I did like
about that first short was its title shot.
It was great to incorporate it as part of the graffiti of the skate park
and it actually makes the other title shots look boring by comparison in my opinion. The other titles all look like the lettering
from Nolan’s movies of course it takes places in the same universe so I think
that was fine for the Gotham Knight title, but if you were going to do such an
interesting title shot for the first short why not do it for all of them? The
other problem for character design is the design of Bruce Wayne in the second
story Field Test. The way he looks no
just…no. I know that was made with
Japanese animators and directors and so of course that distinct anime style is
present, and in many respects I really like it.
It’s interesting to see Eastern styles of animation with a character
that was created in the West but this particular design doesn’t work, because he
looks like he’s fourteen. The design of
Bruce in Working Through Pain I found far better, it captured his youth without
going too young, and I thought the design in Deadshot was the best of them all. That one though had the darkest shading of
all the stories, giving it a distinct comic book look, and that probably
explains it.
Kevin Conroy does a really marvellous job with the voice
acting here and I like that he still manages to bring such a distinct voice to
Bruce Wayne in contrast to Batman, and a young Bruce at that, that I truly miss in Christian Bale’s
performance.
I liked that they brought in other characters from Batman’s
rogues gallery and managed to use interesting ideas like Batman hallucinating
on fear toxin to give Killer Croc and Scarecrow new looks, but not take that
out of a real world based universe that Nolan's world is because we can’t be absolutely certain what
Batman was looking at. I love all the
fight scenes in here, the choreography and the angles were all great. Again I think my favourite comes from Working
Through Pain, because we got to see Bruce do exactly that and handle multiple
opponents which is always fun to see. I
don’t think I’ve ever found a multiple opponent fight scene that I didn’t like,
but I’m sure I’ll find one, one day.
To conclude it has wonderful animation, a great blend of
East and West. It has great character designs
for the most part and I love the background designs. Overall I think it’s a great film that fits
well within the Nolan set of movies and I kind of hope they make another one
someday.
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