Movie Review: Batman: Hush (2019)

Once again I shall take a look at an animated feature based on characters from DC Comics. If you’ve followed my blog for some amount of time, you know that I tend to do this every now and then. So let’s have a look at their latest output.

Catwomen and Batmen… “Batman: Hush”.

Batman (Jason O’Mara) has to face one of his toughest challenges yet when a mysterious new villain starts causing mayhem from the shadows. All the while forming a relationship with Catwoman (Jennifer Morrison). Now, I haven’t read the comic that this story was adapted from, so I can’t say how it stacks up compared to that. So looking at it from an outsider perspective, it’s kind of a mess. It’s weirdly undercooked. There are a bunch of moments that could work really well in a Batman story, but the complete package here feels weirdly like it’s stitched together with scotch tape and the occasional nail. And there’s a revelation in the story that doesn’t work too well for me. I’m not saying what it is, in case you want to see this movie, but let’s just say that it didn’t entirely work for me on multiple levels. There is some good material throughout the plot, but overall it’s not too well held together.

The characters in this are enjoyable and interesting. Jason O’Mara returns as Batman/Bruce Wayne, as gruff as ever, but given a bit more nuance as his various relationships develop across the movie. And O’Mara is really good. Jennifer Morrison plays Catwoman, the thief/femme fatale and former enemy of Batman that now is a bit of a love interest. She’s tough, she’s capable, she has a good bit of sass, and she is an interesting foil to Batman’s self-seriousness here. And Morrison is… okay in the role. Sean Maher returns as Nightwing, and he’s as fun as ever in the role. We also get supporting work from people like Peyton List, Peyton List (apparently there are two of them, what the fuck?), Adam Gifford, Geoffrey Arend, Stuart Allan, Jason Spisak, Chris Cox, Maury Sterling, Bruce Thomas, Hynden Walch, and more, all doing pretty well in their respective roles.

The score was composed by DC Animation regular Frederik Wiedmann, who as per usual fucking killed it with his music. It’s big and epic, but also knows when to get a bit more quiet and emotional. The occasional inclusion of a cello certainly also helps it out, as it adds another layer to Wiedmann’s compositions. This guy somehow always one-ups himself.

Based on the acclaimed comic by Jeph Loeb and Jim Lee, this movie was directed by Justin Copeland, and he did a good job with it. Sure, the narrative stitching wasn’t great, but the way he leads on animation and action is fucking spectacular. The detailing is stellar and the fluency of it all is some of the best we’ve seen from any of these movies. And man, those fights are brutal. Not just because there’s blood used, but also because of the way the animation and sounds design really conveys how hard the characters hit their opponents in this.

This movie has been decently well received. On Rotten Tomatoes it has an 89% positive rating. And on imdb.com it has a score of 7,0/10.

While it may be a bit of a mixed bag, “Batman: Hush” is still an enjoyable action film. It has a meh plot, okay characters, really good performances, great music, and great direction/animation. Time for my final score. *Ahem*. My final score for “Batman: Hush” is a 6,86/10. So while very flawed, it’s still worth a rental.

My review of “Batman: Hush” is now completed.

I was a little disappointed that they never let Batman sing any Deep Purple in this movie.

Movie Review: Son of Batman (2014)

I’ve told you how I love watching DC animated movies so many times before, so let’s just jump into the review.

Ladies and gents… “Son of Batman”.

On a night like any other, Batman (Jason O’Mara) gets a visit from Talia al Ghul (Morena Baccarin) who tells him that he has a son named Damian (Stuart Allan). So now Batman has to take care of his troublesome son while also looking into a case that seems to involve Kirk Langstrom (Xander Berkeley) and possibly even Deathstroke (Thomas Gibson). And this plot was… fine. While I like the idea of Batman finding out he has a bloodthirsty son that he has to take care of, I never really felt that invested in the plot. It was entertaining and I never thought it was poorly told, but it wasn’t as investing as it could have been.

The characters in this, while not the deepest, were pretty interesting and really entertaining. I’ve said it before and I’m gonna say it again, Jason O’Mara is great as Batman… not much else I can say there, he’s great. Stuart Allan plays Damian in this movie and I think he did a really good job. Firstly, he’s actually young, so he actually sounds like a kid. And secondly, he portrayed the vengeful, entitled, and angry feel of the character very well. Morena Baccarin was really good as Talia al Ghul. David McCallum did a really good job voicing Alfred. Xander Berkeley was really good as Kirk Langstrom. Thomas Gibson did a pretty good job as Deathstroke. He wasn’t bad per se, but I feel like his voice didn’t fit the character too well. Nightwing also pops up in the movie, voiced by Sean Maher. And I think he did a really good job as the character. So overall I’d say that the cast is really solid.

The score for the movie was composed by Fredrik Wiedmann, the same man that did the score for the awesome “Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox”. And I think the stuff he composed for this movie was really good. It was tense, exciting, and just overall worked very well within the movie.

So since this is a direct-to-video DC animated movie, we should talk about the animation. So how is it? The animation here is good. During scenes where characters just walk around and talk it looks fine, not great, not bad. But during action scenes it looks really good. The action in this movie is fast, fun, and surprisingly brutal. Especially during the last fight of the movie, that part was awesome!

This movie has been pretty well received. On Rotten Tomatoes it has a 70% positive rating. On Metacritic it doesn’t even exist. And on imdb.com it has a score of 6,7/10.

“Son of Batman” is a fun addition to the DC animated universe. It has an okay plot, pretty good characters, good performances, great music, and good animation. However like I said, I wasn’t exactly that invested in the plot and the animation wasn’t always the best. Time for my final score. *Throws Batarang*. My final score for “Son of Batman” is an 8,89/10. So while it’s flawed, I’d still say that it’s worth buying.

My review of “Son of Batman” is now completed.

There’s a scene in Arkham Asylum in the movie and it shows how you do cameos the right way… Just saying.