Ani-MAY-tion: Batman: Soul Of The Dragon (2021)

I have enjoyed many of the animated Batman movies from the past couple of decades, some of them rank alongside some of my favourite live-action features, and so I went into Batman: Soul Of The Dragon with a certain amount of optimism. It looked as if Batman was being thrown into the middle of a Bruce Lee escapade, and that was alright by me. Okay, there’s no ACTUAL Bruce Lee here, but we all know this is a pairing of Batman and Lee in everything but name.

The plot revolves around a mystical and powerful sword. It was guarded for years, but now may have fallen into the wrong hands. If the sword is used to open a secret gate then our world will be at the mercy of some grand horrors. Fortunately, Batman is on the case, and he is accompanied by some skilled martial artists who used to train alongside him many years ago.

This should have been a slam dunk. I cannot think of the last time I was so excited by the premise of an animated Batman movie, and I kept putting off my viewing of it with a heavy heart. The fact that it ends up being a sub-par adventure for the Caped Crusader is almost unforgivable. There’s no reason for this to be as relatively dull as it is, and things aren’t helped by a supernatural element coming to the fore in the third act.

Writer Jeremy Adams supplies a dull and lifeless script, seemingly uninterested in using the period and setting to occasionally let loose and have some fun with the characters, and director Sam Liu (who helmed one of my favourite animated Batman films a few years ago) does little to liven things up in between the moments of dialogue. The fights lack a certain amount of power and flair that I was expecting, and the pacing isn’t helped by the non-chronological structure, making things feel a bit too drawn out as we are pulled towards a finale that doesn’t seem half as interesting as other movie ideas I had in my head.

The voice cast do well enough. David Giuntoli is fine in the role of Bruce Wayne/Batman, although he isn’t up there with the best actors to take on the role, but I was much happier to hear the performances from Mark Dacascos, Michael Jai White, and Kelly Hu. I am not saying that I recognised them immediately, but they were a great fit for their respective roles, and I am generally a fan of them in anything they do. James Hong also has a small role, and is always a welcome delight, while Josh Keaton is stuck playing a fairly uninteresting villain.

It’s all okay, I guess, but almost every department deemed a bit more. The visual style should have been bolder, the soundtrack should have been more interesting, and the plot should have mixed in more recognizable elements from one or two classic martial arts movies. We should have been given a great “Bruce Lee” movie with Batman added in as a special ingredient. Instead we got a mediocre Batman movie with “Bruce Lee” and co. mishandled and wasted.

4/10

If you have enjoyed this, or any other, review on the blog then do consider the following ways to show your appreciation. A subscription/follow costs nothing.
It also costs nothing to like/subscribe to the YouTube channel attached to the podcast I am part of - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCErkxBO0xds5qd_rhjFgDmA
Or you may have a couple of quid to throw at me, in Ko-fi form - https://ko-fi.com/kevinmatthews
Or Amazon is nice at this time of year - https://www.amazon.co.uk/hz/wishlist/ls/Y1ZUCB13HLJD?ref_=wl_share

Batman: Gotham By Gaslight (2018)

Unbeknownst to me, not being a huge comic book guy, DC have been running for some time now with a series known as the Elseworlds stories. This takes familiar heroes and places them in unfamiliar settings/times. Perhaps an alternate universe, perhaps a different time period, perhaps something that feels very similar to what we know but is just a bit of a sidestep to make it all seem fresh.

Batman: Gotham By Gaslight sees Batman prowling the streets of a bygone Gotham. His job is the same, there are familiar characters populating the city, but the biggest public enemy of the time happens to be a dangerous killer who carves up women and goes by the name of Jack. Yes, this is the Batman Vs Jack The Ripper tale that you never knew you wanted, and I must say that it's pretty damn great.

First of all, if you haven't realised by now that the DC animated movie universe is where they have been churning out all of their good stuff then you have a lot of catching up to do. Not all of them are brilliant, but I can't think of any that are truly dire. Second, this is one of their very best, thanks to the premise lending itself well to a perfect blend of the familiar and the reimagined.

Based on the graphic novel by Brian Augustyn and Mike Mignola, writer James Krieg has taken the storyline and embraced the more fun elements that fans will get a kick out of, which helps to balance out the darker aspects of the whole thing (e.g. the actual identity of Jack). The relatively brief runtime, just under 80 minutes, is in line with most of the other DC animated features, and ensures that things move quickly enough, even if it's not crammed full of action sequences. This is definitely a case of quality over quantity, and ain't nothing wrong with that.

Director Sam Liu benefits from some gorgeous visuals and animation, a superior voice cast (Bruce Greenwood is a great Bruce Wayne/Batman, Anthony Head is a fine Alfred, and Jennifer Carpenter delivers a very effective Selina Kyle performance, without excessive purring or wordplay), and the sheer fun factor of the core idea. Some purists may balk at a few of the character changes, but I don't have a problem with them being here, considering we're very much seeing everyone involved in an Elseworld context.

Unless you're one of those purists I just mentioned, Batman: Gotham By Gaslight is guaranteed to entertain you and give you your Bat-fix until the next adventure comes along. The story could have easily been put together with much less care, and one or two of the supporting characters are obviously here without being all that necessary to the plot, but everyone involved actually takes the fine silk of the material and spins it into gold.

9/10

Buy it here, Batfans.
Americans can buy it here.