This movie is a collection of shorts, related by plot but unrelated in direction, voice acting, or artstyle. The end result is an interesting amalgam of artistic differences, but the story throughline is a solid genre narrative. I found most of the artstyles to be offputting, but if you like them you’ll enjoy this movie more than I did.
Closest comparison: It’s like the Animatrix by way of Batman: The Long Halloween.
Setting: Noir
Plot: Super Hero
Tone: Noir
This movie is more grounded addition to the Batman mythology, a less fantastical prequel than many of the other entries. The story is solid and straightforward, pretty much what anyone with any knowledge of Batman would expect at this point, but with all the crazy interpretations out there it’s nice to have a standard by which to measure.
Closest comparison: It’s like The Batman by way of The Long Halloween.
Setting: Noir
Plot: Crime
Tone: Super hero
This movie takes its time to allow Batman to do his sleuthing, something a lot of other Batman movies gloss over, but it somehow manages to squeeze in plenty of classic villains and action along the way. The film is split into two parts, and there’s a jarring jump between the two, although the plot recovers pretty quickly afterward. Still, it ends up dragging on a bit too long and many of the twists and turns that take up a sizeable chunk of the runtime don’t end up mattering when all is said and done.
Closest comparison: It’s like The Batman (2022) by way of Batman: Hush (2019).
Setting: Noir
Plot: Mystery
Tone: Super hero
This movie starts with time travel and gets progressively over-the-top from scene to scene. Fans of Shonen anime will appreciate its revelry in the tropes of the genre translated to the Batman mythos. Fans of Batman what-if scenarios will enjoy the translation into recognizable archetypes. Everyone else will just be confused. But for its target audience it’s a lot of fun.
Closest comparison: It’s like One Punch Man by way of Dragonball Z, with a Batman skin on it.
Setting: Adventure
Plot: Shonen Anime
Tone: Super Hero
The main problem with this movie is that none of the characters act like themselves. The overall story is mostly fine, but when all very popular characters behave in random or even bizarre ways it makes the twists that rely on previous knowledge of the characters pointless. The aesthetic is pretty cool, but the movie doesn’t make the most of it.
Closest comparison: It’s like Bad Blood by way of Hush.
Setting: Noir
Plot: Serial Killer Mystery
Tone: Super Hero
This movie is yet another reinvention of Batman, this time both more grounded and more gritty than Nolan’s trilogy. It chooses style over convention many times, which could have made the chase scenes hard to follow, for example, but the direction masterfully guides the audience to keep up with the action. Pattinson is good as Bruce Wayne but really shines as Batman, and the script focuses on the intimidatingly silent detective more than the super-human super-rich super-hero. The Riddler’s riddles aren’t sublime, but they’re more than good enough to carry keep the audience intrigued until the answers are revealed. This film’s primary sin is its length, clocking in at four minutes shy of three hours, when a deft editor could have trimmed it down by a solid half hour if he had been allowed to do so.
Closest comparison: It’s like Batman Begins by way of Joker (2019).
Setting: Crime
Plot: Detective
Tone: Thriller
This movie boasts a better story than it can deliver. Most of the Batman villain A-list villains are in the movie, but only two or three have any impact on the plot. The plot is more like a soap opera than a super hero movie, and it attempts to tantalize without following through with any substance. The final reveal is lackluster and less interesting than no reveal at all.
Closest comparison: It’s like Suicide Squad (2016) by way of Batman: Bad Blood.
Setting: Neo Noir
Plot: Detective
Tone: Super Hero
This movie is treading water with no direction in sight. It has passable action and halfway decent plot, but the whole affair seems to just drone on and on until it’s finished, and it’s not even that long of a movie. The visual style is very bland, relying on dark hard-to-read images for the bulk of the narrative. The whole bat-family is in this one, as well as a collection of villains, and this seems to be the main draw of the film. It creates a new villain, but instead of being a grounded, empathetic character like in Batman: Mask of the Phantasm, instead it comes off as formulaic and canned.
Closest comparison: Just watch Batman: Mask of the Phantasm again instead.
Setting: Noir
Plot: Mystery
Tone: Superhero
This is actually being rather generous. It's really a 2.5 but I had to pick a direction. The fight scenes are ok but uninspired and the writing is really really bad, especially in the dialogue. Everything is oversexualized and the way it's edited shows Joss Whedon tried to minimize that aspect as much as possible when he took over directing in the last month or so of film production. On the plus side it's colorful and the Flash has some funny lines with good delivery. Mostly a dud, but not a dumpster fire like Batman v Superman.
Full disclosure, we saw this movie last week but accidentally missed the first 30 minutes and didn't realize it until we got out and it wasn't as late as it should have been. We re-watched it today and my opinion of it actually didn't change that much. If it were a made for TV movie or a 90's direct to video special I would have said it wasn't too bad. But as it's a $300 million blockbuster it's hard to imagine how nobody on the production team threw up the red flag before it was released.
Many of the jokes are spot on, but there's quite a bit of overt liberal agenda pushing, and it just gets heavier as the movie goes on. Quite unfortunate. If you skip it, you're not missing much. Just watch LEGO Movie again. That one's a 5/5
