Batman: Under the Red Hood.

Final DC movie I planned to review, we are finally here! And yes, I know, another Batman one... sorry guys. Enjoy!

Now I have read neither of the story arcs this is based on, so I can once again make no comments on how well this does/doesn't work as an adaptation. But I still know enough about the characters to know how well written they are and I can talk about this in terms of a piece of entertainment. 

Where else could I start other than with the fact that the Red Hood is voiced by Jensen fucking Ackles! If you aren't fangasaming right now, you fail as a nerd, I'm sorry. That aside, sadly Conroy doesn't reprise his role as Batman. Then again if both Ackles and Conroy were in the same movie, I don't think I'd be able to take it... Also no Hamil Joker. Sad times. It's probably worth a mention that both Jason Isaac's and Neil Partrick Harris do voicework in this too.

I'd argue however at the same time, having Ackle's doing voicework is problematic. We all know him as Dean and he has a tendency to both come across as Dean in interviews and he has played basically the same character in his entire career, I ended up finding myself seeing Red Hood more as Dean than I ever did as well, Red Hood. He does a good job, he just isn't very versatile. I mean they even give Red Hood exactly the kind of car Dean would drive. Red Hood is still a great character though, even if they do try a little too hard to make him Dean.

Harris' Nightwing is problematic too, he does a good job voicing him, but the characterisation of Nightwing is absolutely shit in this. I mean he kicks ass, but his dialogue is just plain awful.

Wasn't really a huge fan of Batman in this either, I understand since it's dealing with the death of his partner that he isn't going to be the charming, wry, paranoid Bats I love but I don't know, maybe it was the voice acting or maybe it was the writing itself but Batman didn't come across as sorrowful or distraught he came across more like how someone would whinge about something trivial on their Facebook.

On the other end of the scale, the depiction of Joker in this is excellent. The Joker is a fine line between goofy and evil and I think very few people find the balance. But here, I think it is found. This Joker is brutal, evil and truly insane but still has that goofy quirkiness of the Joker too. Just a shame Hamil couldn't be voicing him.

Under the Red Hood tells a great story. It's incredibly powerful emotionally, I mean that closing flashback after everything that happened brought tears to my eyes. But it is also fiercely brutal. Jason Todd's initial death is for the most part off screen and although the Joker doesn't do a full on Saw job on him, it is still depressingly brutal. How Todd's corpse is still in one piece and fully dressed after being inches away from the centre of the blast though, I really don't know. The Red Hood himself is a fucking insane villain (of sorts) and the film follows his journey to become a better Batman than well, Batman by doing the things he claims Batman never could. It is also as much as a story of all of Batman's sidekicks and what became of them, especially when it comes to Jason Todd, really taking on the elephant in the room that the whole concept of Robin is kinda fucked up. There is also an ongoing question of who exactly Red Hood is, bringing up the creation of the Joker to confuse us (because of course he was Red Hood originally) but his identity should be obvious given the opening scene. The whole film plays out like a pseudo gangster flick with hints of a revenge movie in there too.

I'm not a huge fan of the animation this time around. Ugly character designs, jerky animation and so much QUALITY. It's a shame it couldn't be better animated, more like Apocalypse was.

What stops this from completely hampering the experience is that despite the subpar animation this film is beautifully directed, I don't really know how to sum it up in words but it's just really visually splendid, mainly down to the little things. Clever, dramatic staging, interesting use of close ups and slow motion, interesting ways to show something and and so on.

I don't really know anything about the Lazarus Pit in the comics, but I found the excuse for why Jason Todd is still alive as bullshitty at best. He is basically a zombie. I know in the world of superheroes the last thing I should be bothered by is a pool of water with healing abilities that could possible bring someone back from the dead, devices like these have been used in literature since forever but I don't know - I never really think of Batman and super powers/supernatural in the same breath, unless he is teamed with another super powered hero. That being said, the whole plot of him coming back, but coming back damaged was interesting enough for me to go, 'that was silly meh, it was cool though!'

Despite the fact that Batman and most of the main cast have no super powers, the action still manages to be absolutely epic and keep that comicbook feel. I think what is great about the fact Batman has no powers is that it allows them to be really creative during the fight sequences. This has lead to the infamous 'Prep Time' joke in the comics, but as long as you take it seriously, you can have a lot of fun making Batman fight sequences. Especially when he is teamed up with or against other human heroes that force the writers to think of creative things for them too. This isn't without its problems though, Batman and his sidekicks seem to step around bullets all too easily, which would imply some kind of super speed. And they sure can take a mighty beating without spilling one drop of blood. I get that this was probably more a stylistic choice than anything else but they kept blowing people up and all they got was torn clothes despite being right next to the detonator, it just really got on my nerves. I mean Todd dies at the end in the explosion, it is implied but both Batman and the Joker were closer to the blast. You could argue something in Batman's suit could have absorbed some of the blast or some bullshit but there is no excuse for Joker to have a torn suit and Todd to be dead. Why bother even putting it in, if you're going to take away all dramatic tension?

So do I recommend this? I'm torn. UtRH is damn good movie and I enjoyed the hell out of it so that should make it a recommendation right? Well yes, yes it does - I do recommend this but just reading my review back again and thinking over the film again, this film is deeply problematic. It could be best summed up as 'contrived'. There is some great writing, great voice acting and great action but the film rests pretty much entirely on contrivances and I'm not sure it can hold the weight. I guess you'll have to decide if you watch it yourself.

Think About It!

-Locke