Batman:Gotham Knight
While the festival begins tomorrow, I was pleasantly surprised to find that there was a free-pre-pre-screening of Batman: Gotham Knights, a direct to DVD release from Warner Premier which is supposed to serve as an animated bridge between 'Batman Begins' and 'The Dark Knight'. Basically, its 6 animated shorts done by different directors showcasing their different artistic and storytelling style through the medium of Batman stories, those familiar with the Animatrix are familiar with this process. The DVD goes on sale on July 8th, and screens at Fantasia officially on June 5th, so I guess this is a pre-release review, spoilers abound!
Now, I'm not going to even try to hide the fact that I'm a Batman fan. I read the comics, I've collected a few toys which are on display in my apartment, and I own all of the DVD of Batman: the Animated Series which I voraciously consumed as a kid and, to round out my biases, I haven't really liked any of the Batman live-action movies (an exception here is made for Michelle Pfeiffer and Lee Merriweather as catwoman). Tim Burton's penguin funeral made me spurt milk out of my nose, and Christian Bale sounds like the cookie monster.
First up (before the actual feature) was 'Mercorisidia' an artistic short directed by Nicholas Cantin that looked at the relationship between nurse and patient set to the backdrop of Explosions in the Sky. At times it felt like a music video as the slow moving music followed the elderly nurse home and back to the hospital again. The camera work was intentionally choppy which made me kind of queasy, but the music was fitting and the overall audio and visual experience was appropriately haunting. While I enjoyed it, it didn't seem to be something that the crowd (made up mostly of heavy-set men wearing Batman t-shirts) were expecting or looking forward to.
Now the feature. The first of the shorts, 'Have I Got a Story for You' was a cute little piece where four youth talk about their sightings of the Batman. The animation was clean and smart but the story (written by 'A History of Violence' screenwriter Josh Olson) was predictable. Moreover, its reminiscent of an episode of Batman:TAS entitled 'Legends of the Dark Knight.' Ultimately however, the TV show episode was vastly superior in its tongue-in-cheek comedy, experimentation with style, and playfulness while 'Have I Got a Story for You' was lackluster. Its subtle dig at Iron Man was worth a good laugh though.
Next up 'Crossfire'. Another 'meh-fest' from author Greg Rucka which introduces us to a pair of police officer's who theorize the legitimacy of vigilantism. While it had the potential to be clever and thought-provoking it kinda fell flat and I began wondering if I should even bother with the rest of the shorts. The animation, again was amazing, done by Futoshi Higashide and Prodiction I.G. who brought is the Ghost in the Shell T.V. series.
Next, 'Field Test' a story that flushes out the relationship between Bruce Wayne and Lucious Fox as Batman experiments with some new technological gizmos. The dialogue was cleverly written and had the crowd laughing up a storm at times but had a somewhat preachy ,wagging-your-finger ending that I find so common in anime. While better than the precious two, it wasn't great.
Halfway through and I'm checking my watch, which was a very stupid thing to do. The next story, the action-packed 'In Darkness Dwells' we get a juicy piece of eye candy as we are re-introduced to the villain 'the Scarecrow' and introduced to a re-imagining of 'Killer Croc.' Oh man the fanboys (myself included) were wetting ourselves and by the end of the episode there were whoops and cheers coming from all over the theatre. A definite crowd pleaser. While I found it a bit too heavy on action and very little on plot, I really didn't care at this point. Vis-a-vis the last three this was a godsend.
Next up, 'Working Through the Pain' which looks at how Bruce Wayne deals with all the physical beat-downs he takes. Through flashbacks we see him visit South Asia (presumably India) where he learns techniques to control his pain. A very cleverly written script and while it again ends a bit preachy, it was subtle, smart and poigniant. I really should expect as much coming from the author of 100 Bullets.
Finally, rounding it all off was 'Deadshot.' Well, saving the best for last definitely worked on me. Here we are introduced to 'Deadshot' a villain from the comics who, well, has really good aim. Again, fanboys get up and cheer. Pushing my glasses up further, I recognized the voice actor of Deadshot as being the same from the Justice League TV show, and his character was pretty much a carry-over from the DC Animated Universe. That kind of shit gets major props from me. What else can I say? The story was very tight. The animation was amazing, and the script a lot, lot of fun. The silent Batman is juxtaposed with the mouthy and arrogant Deadshot which ironically sets the stage for the upcoming 'Iron Man' and 'The Dark Knight' battle over box office winnings next month.
Okay, so that's a lot of writing. What can I say overall. Well the shorts are of varying quality, ranging from yawns-ville to all-action blowouts. You won't go wrong coming at this film for its animation, fight sequences, or voice acting (Kevin Conroy reprises his role as Batman which made me want to get up and cheer the first time I heard him speak). For Batman geeks this is a must see. For non-Batman fans/Fantasia attendees, this is mixed bag of nuts. Ironically I probably would have liked this film a lot more had I not been a Batman geek as I wouldn't put it under such a heavy microscope and just sit back and enjoy the pretty pictures. And they certainly are pretty pictures.
1 comment:
Hey come on! Though Christopher Nolan's movies were a completely different form of batman franchise, You have to admit, he did a good job! Christian Bale fit perfectly
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