Bat nuts waiting for the sequel to Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight blockbuster need wait no longer. An heir to its throne called Batman: Under the Red Hood has arrived. You’re welcome.
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It’s not directed by Christopher Nolan, who spearheaded the cerebral sci-fi standout Inception. Instead, Red Hood is masterfully directed by Bat-toon veteran Brandon Vietti, and it’s also the eighth installment in what is turning out to be a streak of excellent original animated films from DC Comics and Warner Bros. Animation. But it’s also easily as good as almost all of the live-action Batman films made so far, and in some cases, even better.
That’s because unlike many of those films, Batman: Under the Red Hood — premiering Friday at Comic-Con and out July 27 on DVD, download and on-demand — is a taut, violent thriller that puts the lie to the faulty premise that DC and Warner’s straight-to-DVD filmography is child’s play. This film will give kids nightmares.
Want proof? Batman: Under the Red Hood begins with Joker (Futurama‘s brilliant Bender, John DiMaggio) nearly beating Robin to death with a crowbar. It trudges through human and robot blood and corpses before landing in an explosive, disturbing finale that unrepentantly exhibits why the campy ’60s superhero devolved back into the brooding, vulnerable Dark Knight (inhabited here by an excellently weathered Bruce Greenwood).
The part you didn’t see in the clip above? That’s where Red Hood, the mysterious new supervillain in Gotham (Smallville and Supernatural‘s superb Jensen Ackles), chucks a duffel bag full of gangster heads onto the table to let everyone know who’s in charge. Unlike Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker, which had to be re-edited for excessive violence, Batman: Under the Red Hood revels in its ultraviolence. There’s probably more blood in this film than all of DC and Warner’s straight-to-DVD films so far put together. You can probably throw in Super Friends and Justice League too, just to even out the odds.
But the adult themes and violence, of which there are plenty, aren’t the only reasons that Batman: Under the Red Hood excels where Batman & Robin tanked. Comics fans that know their Batman: A Death in the Family know what to expect when the film opens on Joker’s violent dispatching of the second Robin, Jason Todd.
And those comics fans who’ve read Batman: Under the Hood by Judd Winick, who also scripted Batman: Under the Red Hood, understand the nemesis’ power over Batman’s heart and mind. Both are shown off in a ceaseless series of action-packed fight and chase sequences, as well as tense exchanges exhibited in the clip below.
For those who nothing of that nerdy comics back story, let’s say they know each other too well to let each other live happily ever after.
Once reacquainted, Batman and Red Hood’s professional and interpersonal crises accelerate quickly, sucking in characters like the Joker, Black Mask (a riotous Wade Williams), Ra’s al Ghul (Harry Potter‘s Jason Isaacs), the android Amazo and more. That includes the charming first Robin, Dick Grayson, who has matured into the stellar hero Nightwing.
Inhabited with effortless charisma by Dr. Horrible himself, Neil Patrick Harris, Nightwing balances Batman’s damaged psyche with wisecracks and nearly flawless crime-fighting. Their impressive teamwork battling Amazo and Red Hood provides Batman: Under the Red Hood with much of its considerable kinetic energy. The film makes it perfectly clear that it’s time to give Nightwing his own television show, with Neil Patrick Harris in the hot seat.
Beyond the kickass action, cool gadgets and buckets of blood, Batman: Under the Red Hood succeeds wildly as a more personal death-match, a far cry from the existential, interstellar apocalypses of recent DC and Warner films like Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths and Green Lantern: First Flight. After shooting for (or is that at?) the stars, it’s not easy to bring high drama and intrigue back down to Earth.
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But propelled by Christopher Drake’s haunting, moody score, Vietti’s Batman: Under the Red Hood excels, like Nolan’s The Dark Knight, as a psychological thriller masquerading as a superhero film. As nastily violent as it is, it’s also engorged with intimacy and vulnerability, just waiting for a justifiable psychotic like the Red Hood to come along and puncture it with a knife, automatic rifle, or whatever’s around.
Those who think that DC and Warner’s animated films can’t compete with their live-action counterparts should probably watch Batman: Under the Red Hood — without their kids. And think again.
Wired: Flawless cast (especially Harris and DiMaggio), breathless action, ultraviolence, excellent script, impressive comics-film transition, Lazarus pit zombie!
Tired: Some boxy CGI, few too many lighthearted quips from Red Hood
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