Batman: Gotham Knight

Spoiler Level: Medium

A very dark yet very enjoyable anthology of short stories about Batman, all done in the vein of the Christopher Nolan Batman movies.

The animation is done by different anime studios, and while each one is done in a different style often with different looks, the changes never feel jarring.  And with this being anime, it truly is an OVA!

My favorite short is probably the first one, where four skaters exchange stories of the encounter they've just had with Batman, and each one sees him as something totally different;  a supernatural shadow, a living man bat, or a high tech mecha warrior.

While each short is self contained, there are small connections between them, which is part of what makes it fun.  It has some truly gory scenes, which isn't so fun, but drives home how terrifying a place Gotham is and what Bruce Wayne has been through.

So all in all, not my favorite DCU OVA, but still enjoyable.

Superman / Batman: Apocalypse

Spoiler Level: High

Another enjoyable offering from the DC Original Animated Movies.  Again, having not read Superman/Batman I wasn't familiar with the source material, but Rich says that from what he can remember,  it was a very loyal adaptation.

It also includes a nice touch with mentioning the impeachment of President Luthor, a direct reference to the previous Superman & Batman OVA, Public Enemies.  It doesn't feature in the plot at all, but it's a nice touch of continuity, letting us know the two stories are connected.

This is the story that re-introduced Kara Zor-El, the Silver Age Supergirl, back into the DC Universe.  Personally, I'm not a big fan of the reSilvering of the DCU; I rather liked that the modern Green Lantern was Kyle Rayner, the modern Supergirl was Matrix / Linda Danvers, and that Wally West had inherited the mantle of the Flash form the late Barry Allen.  Now Hal Jordan, Kara Zor-El and Barry Allen are all back, and the DCU doesn't feel like it's grown as much as it had 10 years ago.

But on the plus side, at least the stories are enjoyable, and that's what really counts.  Kara arrives on Earth and her powers come to her in a rush;  they feel like too much responsibility to her, and really all she'd rather do is lead a regular life.  (And Lois is conspicuously absent in the scenes where she learns to go shopping.)    But of  course, everyone else has other plans for her;  Wonder Woman feels Kara needs to master her powers in the safety of Paradise Island, and Darkseid would rather have her lead the Female Furies.  All of which gives Kara opportunities for some good teenage angst on how she wants to choose her own life.  Batman manages to hold his own against the big guns (literally) in Apokalips.  Oh, and Krypto has a cute scene too.

Pretty much my only complaint is with Darkseid's voice.  No offense to Andre Braugher, but his voice just isn't deep enough.  Darkseid looks like he's made of stone, and as such his voice should be more gravely.  It needs to rumble.  But as complaints go, that's not much of a complaint at all.

I have yet to see a DCU OVA I didn't like, and this one is no exception.  Really, how great is it that we live in an age where we're getting animated movies of acclaimed comic storylines? I'm certainly enjoying it.  Only two more to go!

Batman: Under the Red Hood

Spoiler Level: High

Wow, and I thought the Wonder Woman one was violent!

This is another case where I was only vaguely aware of the source material.  I was aware that Jason Todd was back from the dead in the comics because he was alongside Green Lantern Kyle Rayner and Donna Troy in Countdown to Final Crisis.  So I asked some friends how he came back, and the general answer I got was that when Superboy Prime was smashing at the walls of his little pocket universe bubble it was sending ripples through the New Earth universe, which led to several characters being resurrected.  Which is a bit convoluted, but hey, it's comic books.  And apparently Judd Winick felt the same way, because he crafted this tale to give it a more straight-forward and Batman-centric reason.

I can imagine that for people who read the original comic there was more of a mystery who the Red Hood really was, but any suspense on that part is completely lost here by the need to explain to the general audience just who the heck Jason Todd is in the first place.  So the film needs to open with the conclusion to "Death in the Family" where we're shown one of the most shocking moments in Batman history-- the scene where the Joker beats the second Robin to death with a crow bar and then blows him up.  Although it wasn't handled quite the way I would have done it, it still comes across as properly shocking and harsh as it needs to be.

After having set up just who Jason Todd was, the suspense that the Red Hood is Jason back from the dead is pretty much a give away right after Batman and Nightwing's first fight with him, and the center of the story becomes the question of how he came back, and are his more severe tactics better than Batman's.  It raises a lot of good questions and creates a lot of good character drama between Batman, Nightwing and the Red Hood. Batman is blaming himself for failing Jason, but at the same time we also see the stable, self-confidant man that Dick Grayson has grown into because of Batman.

All in all, this is possibly the darkest Batman film I've ever seen, live action or animated.  It may be a bit gratuitous at times, but that helps to convey why Batman has a line he won't cross, and why Jason Todd felt it needed to be crossed.  Jason's side may even be a valid argument, but Batman reminds us why it's important to not let the heroes be reduced to the villains' levels.  And I for one am glad to see that even one of the DC's darkest heroes has never forgotten the difference.

Superman/Batman: Public Enemies

Spoiler Level: High

Okay, first things first:  The DVD cover is the same as the graphic novel cover.  Major, major points for that.

Second things second:  I've never read the source material.  Superman/Batman (the comic book) came out at a time where Jeph Loeb was driving me crazy with how he was handling the Superman titles.  Yes, I was one of those few people who actually enjoyed the "Superman Weekly" format and the HUGE cast of Metropolis that grew out of it.  When Jeph Loeb and his crew came on board, their goal was to get back to the basic cast and split the four Superman books back into four separate comics.  All of which I wasn't thrilled about, but was handling okay.  But he was also very big on returning the characters back to the way they were in the Silver Age, and that led me to eventually drop all of my Superman comics.  So I never read Superman/Batman (or "S-Bat," as Rich and I always called it) when it debuted.

In hindsight, I'm glad I didn't, because it allowed me to go into this movie with a fresh attitude.  And it's really good.  Oh sure, the Giant SuperBat Robot made my jaw drop, and not in a good way.  But I can forgive that, because it tried to be an homage to the Super Robots of old, such as Mazinger Z, and because the rest of the story worked so well.  I always liked the concept of Lex Luthor being president, and the guest stars alone gave a lot of great moments; Power Girl having such a big role was great, seeing so many villains try to take the two down was fun, and best of all... a true Superman vs. Captain Marvel battle! 

Chalk up another win for the DCU Animated Original Movies!

Star Trek vs. Batman

I first saw a trailer for Star Trek vs Batman years ago, around when Star Trek: New Voyages and Starship Exeter first came out, and I was excited about fanfilms. At the time I thought the trailer was all there was ever meant to be for it, and all the "coming soon" stuff was either a joke or just another project with good intentions that wouldn't get finished.

Then today I learned that no, it didn't stop at the trailer, the thing was actually made! Well, I had to check it out.

The premise is pretty straight forward-- the Enterprise gets hurled back to 1967, and Kirk and Spock wind up in the middle of a scheme by Joker and Catwoman in their fight with Batman and Robin.

The script is excellent. There are some genuine laughs, and a even a half-serious attempt at some drama, although that in itself is a parody of specific Star Trek episodes.

The acting is a mixed bag-- Kirk, Robin, and Catwoman are excellent. Batman and Spock are both pretty weak, which is a shame, because the dialogue written for Batman perfectly captures the old TV show, and you can just imagine Adam West saying it. The Joker has Caesar Romero's laugh down perfectly, which makes up for his delivery. And McCoy deserves an honorable mention, because while he doesn't look a thing like him, he sounds closer than John Kelley in New Voyages/Phase II.

Fanvids have gotten so good that it's easy for me to nitpick that Spock's costume is too big or that everyone has a bright green line around them when they're on alien planets... but then I think, Oh wait, let me compare this to my own Star Trek fanvid. (That would be "Star Trek V: Super Heroes O.") Oh yeah, this one kicks my butt. And besides, it would be missing the point-- that we love these original shows, sometimes because of what they got wrong as much as for what they got right. This fanvid was made with such dedication that you can truly feel the love for the source material.

Yeah, I have to agree with Fan Cinema Today-- I would include this one in any top 5 must-see fanvid lists. So what are you waiting for? Go on over to racsofilms.com and see it!