DC has been spiraling downwards with their animated films for quite some time now. I still look at the Flashpoint Paradox as the beginning of the end as that’s when DC seemed to have decided that it was time to switch directions. As this film is the sequel to Son of Batman, I can’t say that I was too hopeful for it and it was basically what I had expected. More on what’s happened to DC in a little bit, but let’s go into the plot.

Batman and Robin take down a crook, but a new villain appears and destroys the guy first. This puts some tension between the dynamic duo and Robin decides that he can do well on his own. While Robin is being tempted by the darkness, Batman must work to try and make Gotham City a better place and find out what is up with the whole Court of Owls organization. Can he really find them and do they exist?

So, let’s talk about DC comics as a whole with their animated films. Originally, they were pretty incredible. We had the DCAU titles and solid stand alones like Superman Doomsday and the Batman/Superman series. The Justice League films were also fantastic. I’d say that Batman Year One is where DC slowly began to consider how things would play out if they went for a bit of a darker stretch. JL Doom was good, but not as good as the previous Justice League films and then we got The Dark Knight Returns films. The original comic wasn’t great so how could the film be? Then Superman Unbound came and that was probably the last really solid film before we entered the Flashpoint film and the New 52. JL War was actually decently good, but it should have been great. The film was already trying to push on with the excessive violence motive, which continued to plague all of the films, which came afterwards.

It’s no surprise that Batman vs Robin is also really violent and dark. Unnecessarily so, but it’s DC’s new MO. It’s too bad because they used to be leaps and bounds ahead of Marvel when it came to animation. Right now, Marvel has probably taken the lead when you compare the current films and shows for the two companies when it comes to animation. DC still has their other products like the Lego series and the new Batman Unlimited titles, which should be good. Unfortunately, all of their mainstream products are staying along the road of darkness and violence.

In Batman’s case though, it’s not entirely new. Even his comics have typically always been a little darker and grittier than the others. I’m a big fan of the character, but I can’t even think of the last time that I read a full comic from one of his mainstream titles because they all tend to be pretty intense. Especially New 52 and onwards. You also can’t blame DC from an economic stand point. Look at what Marvel did with Daredevil? DC probably saw the good reviews and decided that it was time to make things get more intense as well. I’m sure that you’ve heard about the Gods and Monsters movie that is accompanied with a show. Let’s face it…DC doesn’t seem to be changing their mind about where they’re going anytime soon, which is why it may be a good thing that they’re taking a break from adapting the classic arcs. I’d rather that they wait on the next Batman/Superman film until they start to make more tame epics like they used too.

Part of the reason why the Marvel Cinematic Universe succeeded is because it was so light. All of the main films were fairly cheerful with the exception of The Incredible Hulk, which still never got dark. Even Iron Man 3 and Age of Ultron, which seemed to be a little grim based on the first trailers still turned out to be the comedy action blend that Marvel has really been shredding the competition with. If you’re going to copy a competitor, copy what really made them a force to be reckoned with. If DC was able to emulate that style for their films, they would definitely be on the map by now.

So, aside from the constant stream of excessive violence in Batman vs Robin, the opening is pretty off putting as Robin deals with a psychotic criminal. Again, this guy is just added to remind us that Gotham City is a very bad place and that the team must go up against crazy people like this all the time. I still wonder, why would you live in Gotham? It’s apparently better to be homeless in Metropolis than rich in Gotham. At least you will have a Man of Steel to watch over you in the other place.

Another big negative was one that Terminator always managed to sidestep. There is animal violence in this film as Bruce Wayne shoots an owl…with a gun! Remember how Superman snapped Zod in Man of Steel to show that he wasn’t always perfect as Superman? DC must have loved that because they’re doing the same thing with Batman. Before he got the no killing and no guns policy, he actually used guns and looked for the people who murdered his parents for some time. He shoots an owl because he thinks that an Owl organization took them and it’s just really bad. For starters, this isn’t Batman and the whole point is that he trained himself to avenge them with justice. He didn’t go around as a kid looking for trouble and shooting animals.

I suspect that the Bruce Wayne subplot from the past was around for Oscar bait and to show fans how deep and moving this film was. It’ll likely work as flashbacks like this one typically seem to work quite well, but it definitely didn’t do any wonders for me. Bruce Wayne also looks bad in the present as he lets one of the Owls charm him for a while and there’s a reason why we don’t see his playboy side anymore, it simply doesn’t help his job aside from finding out intel. It’s just unnecessary.

The ending is also a big anticlimactic way to end it all. Ready for spoilers? Skip this paragraph if you don’t want to find out. Batman actually loses to Talon in the end after talking so much about how he was going to win. That was embarrassing and the film was really heavy handed with the Damian hype at that point. Robin was also losing, but Talon helped him with the kill and naturally, DC decided to make it a decently gruesome one. Off screen, but you definitely know what happened. What I can’t get over is the fact that Batman lost. He also lost to Damian earlier and said “Finish me” basically. Seriously, they made Batman look so weak during those moments.

Now, Batman didn’t look bad in all of his screen time. On the contrary, typically he was shown to be an excellent fighter as he overpowered many of the Owls while they were teaming up. Batman still is the world’s greatest hand to hand fighter, he just has a tendency to lose a lot and also forget that he wears his gadgets for a reason. What’s the point of a utility belt if you’re only going to use it on zombies right? Still, let’s take a break from the negatives to look at the big positive of the film.

You can find solace in the fact that the fight scenes here are animated very well. Batman’s fight against Talon looks similar to Captain America vs Winter Soldier and debatably better as the director added a lot more feints. Both opponents will keep pretending to throw a punch to make the other block and they do this until one of them finally panics and throws a punishing move that the other counters. It reminds me of a good SSB4 battle as it’s all very tactical. Batman definitely shows his mastery of hand to hand combat and Nightwing also looks quite good. The feats here are quite good as Batman definitely pushes himself to the peak of human perfection. We haven’t seen many Batman fights that were quite as good as these and DC essentially pushed the hand to hand fight scenes as far as they could go.

Nightwing was the best character in the film as he did a very good job of fighting the Owls and his twin staff fight style helped to differentiate him from the others. The film shows that he is naturally not quite as skilled as Batman and doesn’t fare as well, but I was satisfied with his performance over all. He definitely should have wrecked Robin when they fought, but it was basically his win as he had already stopped to gloat a little bit. He should have beaten Talon, but considering his numerous injuries at the time, I suppose that it was basically all right.

Talon’s an interesting villain and his design quite good. His fighting style and build are similar to that of Deathstroke’s, but he’s not the kind of guy to just run away. His origin story was there to show us that he already knew how to make the tough calls and now he is a pro at what he does. I have to question how he got good enough to be one of the best martial artists in the planet, but everyone has to start somewhere right? He was a fun villain to have and he gave us most of the best fight scenes in the film.

As for Robin, he’s still not one of my favorite characters. His fight between Batman was really his fault and there was not much of a reason for it. I suppose that Robin wanted to test his skills, but he still just let Talon get away. Batman’s defenses were sound and made sense so I was not on Robin’s side when the kid decided to get past them. Robin’s a good fighter and he shows signs of becoming a good character soon, but he’s still a little too arrogant and he got tempted by the darkness a little too easily. At least he made the right calls when necessary.

It’s pretty much a given that the animation is solid even when no fights are occurring. Everything is streamlined rather well and you can tell that this is a modern film right when you start. DC’s definitely been doing well in this department and I hope that they can keep up this level of quality. The voices are another story. Most of them are all right, but this is easily my least favorite Batman voice. He just sounds so…weak. Batman won’t be scaring any crooks with this voice and he just sounds nothing like Batman. I’m hoping that he gets a new voice for future Batman films.

One of the more powerful moments in the film was when Batman fought with the Owls (Talons I suppose, but I prefer to call them Owls) in the museum. That was when we found out that they were already effectively dead so it was all right to go all out. Batman held his own for quite a while, but the enemies could keep regenerating and they were able to fight at high speeds.They were a good challenge for the Dark Knight and I liked them as villains. They’re mindless, but powerful enemies. It’s safe to say that these guys would overwhelm Captain America pretty quickly.

I’ve just about wrapped up everything that there is to say about the film. It’s rather short as it’s barely over an hour, but that’s still enough time to fit in a lot of fights. The movie also adapts the famous moment where the Owls infiltrate the Batcave. This is an extremely loose adaption of the arc, but it still covered some of the main points, which is cool. If you ever wanted to see the real arc animated…time to take out your old comics once again!

Overall, Batman vs Robin is still in the new DC style of seeing how violent and dark their titles can be without crossing the line, which hurts the film a lot. The actual fight between Batman and Robin is fun even if you probably know who will come out on top. The Justice League are essentially referenced thanks to Alfred and Star Labs, but I wish that they hadn’t been since that means that Superman exists in this universe. I try to forget that since Superman should have been around to help at various points when the Talons invaded the cave. Ah well, guest stars can’t appear every time. The action segments were solid and Nightwing continues to remind me why he is the best Robin. If you don’t mind a decent amount of violence and intense themes, you can check this film out, but I’d recommend just watching Batman Sub Zero instead for a deep and emotional Batman film. Batman’s been getting a lot of films lately, maybe it’s time to go back to someone like Green Lantern or Superman. After all, the Man of Steel deserves his time in the spotlight.

Overall 4/10