Review - Son Of Batman

DC Comics has been putting together these direct-to-video releases for a few years now, and for the most part they've been pretty enjoyable.  This newest one, "Son Of Batman" is based on the character of Damian - Batman's love-child with Talia Al Ghul - from the New52 Batman series.

Damian's grandfather, Ra's Al Ghul, is murdered by Deathstroke in the opening minutes, leaving Damian to seek vengeance.  Talia takes Damian to live with Bat-"eat-your-veggies-and-you'll-grow-up-strong-like-me"-man, and... well, it almost seems like a great premise for an ABC TGIF sitcom series.  Batman lets Damian become a new Robin and they have to go save Talia from Deathstroke.  There's lots of fighting, and in the end Damian is left with Batman for good.  Because, really, the Batcave is the perfect place to raise a child. 

The son becomes the father and the father the son?

The Good:  This is actually a pretty fun movie, once you stop joking around about how funny it could actually be to see Batman as a daddy.  I'm really happy they pronounced Ra's Al Ghul correctly too (take some notes Christopher Nolan).  The interplay between Damian and Nightwing is actually well written and voiced.  You can feel the jealously from Nightwing, and I'd liked to have seen more of that.  Alfred's small role steals the show.  He's dry.  He's funny.  He's everything you want from that limey ol' Pennyworth.  As for the villains, it's friggin' nice to finally see Deathstroke in something.  Those of us who grew up in the late 80s and early 90s of comics thought Deathstroke was the coolest baddie around.

Oh, and there's a lot of cleavage shots of Talia's boobies.  That was worth the $19.99 on it's own.

I was talking with someone the other day about how Batman was "taken advantage of" to spawn this love child (her words were "raped") and it got me thinking - this might be the most human we've ever seen Bruce Wayne.  I mean, he's Batman, and Batman does whatever Batman wants. The old joke has always been that Batman can beat anybody and sometimes that means letting the other guy think he's won while Batman sits in the Batcave and giggles while drinking scotch.  Could Batman have intended for himself to be taken advantage of to produce an offspring?  On one hand, you have Batman - The Dark Knight who genuinely likes being alone, seeking to avenge those who can't do it for themselves.  But on the other hand, you have Bruce Wayne, who longs for the family life he lost at such an innocent age.  It's possible then to assume that Bruce Wayne subconsciously encouraged himself to be drugged and taken advantage of because Batman would never have allowed it to happen.  Think on that for a while.

The Blu-Ray also comes with four bonus Batman cartoons, ranging from the Animated Series to Batman Beyond to Brave & The Bold.  They're a nice companion to the story and I'm glad the Blu-Rays of these DC movies include them.

"Right up your bum, bad guys!"

The Bad: The blood.  Wait wait wait.  Before you call me crazy, I'm all for seeing some blood in these things.  It's a Batman cartoon.  There's gonna be violence and blood.  But watch that opening attack sequence on Ra's Al Ghul's castle.  One slice from a sword and the henchmen seem to lose every drop of blood in their body.  There was enough blood transfused in the opening ten minutes to continue keeping Keith Richards alive for another decade.  One small gunshot resulted in about three pints of blood being splattered every which way.  I was actually laughing at how bad it was.

I also missed having Kevin Conroy doing Batman's voice.  I know that's picky, but when Deathstroke first arrives and you hear his voice, he actually sounds like Kevin Conroy's Batman.  It was exciting, confusing, and disappointing all at the same time.

The Verdict:  This is a pretty solid little flick.  It's just long enough, and has some decent action sequences too.  If WB is going to continue making only New52 movies, then I hope they do Batman's "Death Of The Family" soon.  That was the best Batman story of the last ten years.  "Son Of Batman" holds up well with the others in the collection in terms of quality.  I still think the best DC Animated DVD was "Wonder Woman", but the quality and detail of "Son Of Batman" is better than some of the last couple outings. 

And yet, we never got this scene in the movie...

- Ryan Fan Club