Son of Batman (2014)

Very well executed

I'll tell you why so serious

A different way of telling a story

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

This is the single worst Batman movie to date. I truly believe this is worse than Batman and Robin, because at least that film is funny.The plot makes no sense, the villain's motivations are frankly ridiculously stupid and nonsensical, the fights are uninspired, Damian Wayne is at his worst in terms of insufferable characterisation and insipid, mean-spirited dialogue, the voice acting ranges from fairly good to the worst I've heard in professional animation.Deathstroke is changed from an incredible and intelligent fighter into a pathetic, idiotic bumbler who gets knocked out with one punch from Batman. The supposedly unstoppable army of Man-Bats are actually less effective and far dumber than normal human beings, and stopped in one of the weakest anti-climaxes I've ever seen. The plot is so poorly handled that I honestly started to laugh out loud at what were supposed to be tense scenes. That's not even getting into the scene between Batman and Talia which seems to suggest the writers are rape apologists--yes, Bruce states he was drugged and raped by Talia, but that it was "not all bad" which is undoubtedly the most horribly awful thing I've heard in a DC movie.Bottom line, I only recommend this to people if you want a truly hilariously inept film to watch and laugh about with your friends, which is precisely what I did after trying to watch it on my own.

Marvel may be the current kings of the mountain on the big screen, but when it comes to direct to video animated films, it's DC that reigns supreme... well, at least their Batcentric stuff. 'Under the Red Hood', 'Dark Knight Returns', 'Assault on Arkham'; All quite good. Particularly the last two.Like those films, 'Son of Batman' is certainly not for kids. There's more death and blood in the first ten minutes of it than all of the theatrically released live action Batman films combined. Unfortunately, a weak script and poor voice acting help to keep this particular 'Son' grounded.

Marvel dominates the live action stuff but, until DC catches up, they have the animated film department mastered…until they released "Son of Batman." I'm not one to complain about the changes made from adapting a book, graphic novel or comic (and this one had A LOT of changes), instead, the problem that hurt my enjoyment of this one had to due with the fact the story was just really weak and the dialogue was absolutely terrible.While the film follows the predictable lines of a man finding out he has a son and has to somehow connect with them despite the fact they have been alienated from each other for a significant amount of time, the movie fails to hit that requirement of the two finding common ground and they learn, laugh, love and grow together. Yes, "Son of Batman" ends with Batman and his son Damian being a good team and Damian even becomes Robin, the problem is that we don't really see them grow. Damian is a bratty little snob of a child up until he gets the exact thing he wants and is the one thing Batman keeps trying to teach him not to cling to and then *BAM* they are all good and their common ground is found and are now the best of besties. It was a very weak attempt at family drama and matters aren't helped by the fact the film has terrible dialogue to back it up.Some will write off these complaints as nothing because the film is "just a cartoon, man," but when you compare this film to the other, numerous quality films that DC has released based on their characters and their iconic stories, this film just feels like a letdown and something that was thrown together too quickly.What's up, brother? Feel like reading more of my rants, ramblings, geek references, bad jokes, and other movie reviews (like a more in-depth look at "Son of Batman" and other animated Batman movies that, thankfully, don't include his annoying son)? If you do, you can visit my blog at revronmovies.blogspot.com. If you don't and hate me now (because hating people is easy on the internet), I just want you to know that I still think you are a beautiful person and want to make you some chocolate chip cookies.

Okay adaptation of the Grant Morrison comic book story. Obviously they reworked it and changed some stuff (not for the better, as usual). As with most DCAU movies lately, the animation is unimpressive and the voicework is spotty. I can't stress enough how much I hate Jason O'Mara's Batman. Far too nasally. I miss Kevin Conroy. But the worst is Thomas Gibson as Deathstroke. The opening scene between Deathstroke and Ra's Al Ghul is like something out of a parody of '70s kung-fu movies, complete with over the top voices. Stuart Allan does the best job as Damian. This character is not surprisingly the best part of the movie.As with most of these DVD movies of late, they seem to have abandoned trying to reach an audience outside of the devoted comic book fan. I watched it with someone who knows nothing of Batman outside of the movies and I had to explain quite a bit of stuff that the script didn't bother with. For example, when Nightwing shows up, my friend was lost as to who he was and why he was there. The movie doesn't explain it, just tosses him in with the assumption the entire audience already knows his story and connection to Batman. Very sloppy and lazy but it's par for the course these days with DCAU. Anyway, despite my issues with it and it not being anything close to perfect, it's enjoyable and I was never bored. If you're a hardcore fanboy you'll probably love it. If you've never read the story this was based on, I would suggest you keep Wikipedia handy.