Hello and welcome to Project Nitsuj. It’s time once again for Animation Bang and today we’re taking at the Dark Knight himself Batman. Batman is hands down my all-time favorite superhero. He has no superpowers but yet he can take down anybody in the DC universe with ease combined with his dark past and his own way of handling things while carrying his own burden and the burden of others Batman is without a doubt the hero that all superheroes secretly strive to be like. And since today marks the 75th anniversary of the Dark Knight I’m celebrating by reviewing his latest DC animated movie Son of Batman. Words you probably never thought you would hear in your lifetime. Taking almost 70 years, comic book writers finally decided it was time to give Batman his own son to call his own. The Son of Batman came out in April this year and is based off the 2006 comic book written by Grant Morrison and drawn by Andy Kubert. To make this movie even more interesting they got Ethan Spaulding to direct the movie. For those you who don’t who Ethan Spaulding is he served as one of the directors for Avatar: The Last Airbender directing some of the episodes from Book 2 and 3 such as The Blind Bandit, Nightmares and Dreams, the first part of Sozen’s Comet, and one of my favorites Tales of Ba Sing Se. The movie as you would of guess is Batman finding out he has a son and the two finding common ground with each other. Let’s celebrate Batman Day by seeing him to take on his biggest challenge since The Joker and take a look at Son of Batman.
So we start the movie in the secret mountain lair of the League of Assassins where we meet the son of Batman Damian voiced by Stuart Allen (and give them credit they actually got a child to play this role, I like that) being told by his grandfather Ra’s and mother Tailia (so Tailia’s the lucky lady. All these years I thought it would be Catwoman or Poison Ivy. Okay it’s a long shot with Poison Ivy but let’s face it she was committing crime to get Batman’s attention) that one day the League of Assassins will be his one day (Ra’s: The Lazarus pit will still belong to me of course. You’re a child you don’t need it. It’s not like your gonna die in the future or anything). This touching moment of grandfather and grandson is interpreted by assassins (assassins attacking assassins? Doesn’t Assassin’s Creed do this on a yearly bases? Scene here: //youtu.be/dHxYzOS9wM8, man this escalated quickly. We’re not even 2 minutes into the movie and we already got death. Glad to see old age hasn’t slowed Ra’s down). The mysterious assassins continue to assault the league owning all of them (okay seriously you guys suck as assassins you should be taking these guys down with ease) that is until Tailia comes in and starts killing people left and right (she’s like a female Rambo. Except less masculine, better chest area, and I can understand everything she says. (AI girls): She’s a woman not a god! Come on comrades! She’s a woman not a god). We see that the man leading this attack is none other than the badass assassin himself Slade aka Deathstroke voiced by Thomas Gibson. Long ago Slade was one of the men that Ra’s considered to be his successor but once Ra’s heard about the reputation of Batman and saw him as a better fit he pushed Slade out (that was an asshole move on Ra’s part). Now Slade has returned and he’s come to take the League by force and in this plan Ra’s serves no purpose (scene here: //youtu.be/gT0wTweBSRw). Somehow Ra’s survives the 1st degree burns and the fall (barely but still come on) and Slade goes in for the kill but is stopped by Damian who puts up a decent fight and even gauges out one of Slade’s eyes (scene here: //youtu.be/i3wn5VguMK4, love the now your heart line and why does Ra’s look like a used up cigarette without the wrapping). After Slade and his men retreat Ra’s tries desperately to reach the Lazarus pit but he dies before he can get in. With Ra’s dead Tailia grabs Damian and heads off to Gotham so Damian can meet his father (Batman’s gonna owe her a lot of child support money isn’t he?).
We then go to Gotham where Batman not voiced by Kevin Conroy but instead Jason O’Mara (//youtu.be/MdSH0l9NMek) who is confronting Killer Croc who is stealing medical drugs and has a tail (props to the movie for doing that. I always wondered why they never did that in the animated series or in the games). The two fight where Kill Croc corners him but he gets saved by Tailia and she invites him back to her boat for drinks (and with the way she’s dressed I think that’ll be doing something more than just drinking). Back on the boat she tells him what’s happened and introduces Batman to his son Damian. She dumps Damian on Batman thinking he’ll be safer and better off with him (BWAHAHAHAHAHA. . .oh your serious) and the two get acquainted with each other (scene here: //youtu.be/eLTf_rfcXhw, and I thought you wouldn’t be a smartass but we can’t all be happy now can we boy? Also what was up with Tailia talking to Batman like that and trying to have sex with him when she knew her son was in the room with her? Hasn’t the kid already been traumatized enough with this whole assassin thing? Finally, he’s definitely Batman’s son alright. Welcome to the family kid. Where all you have to look forward to is a lifetime of traumatic events, gangsters, crazy people, freaks in mask, and psychotic clowns. If you have any complaints, please write them down and insert them in your anus because nobody gives a shit about your problems). Batman takes him back home where we meet the funniest character in this whole movie Alfred who isn’t afraid to bump heads with Damian (scene here: //youtu.be/UbEQegsAaAc, and just like that Alfred became the best character in the movie. I love you Batman but you learned from the best and the best is Alfred). While that’s going on we see that Slade and his men are harassing a scientist named Kirk Langstrom and his family for some chemical they want Kirk to make. They hold Kirk’s family hostage (with the daughter who I believe might be a lesbian. They don’t say it but the signs are there), taking them to a castle (quite the upgrade from their apartment) and forces Kirk to finish his work or his family will suffer. Tailia and the other assassins find Slade’s hideout and infiltrate it but they get taken out easily (*covers up face with hands and runs them down the face while taking a deep breath* League of Assassins. The greatest assassins the world has ever known. Can’t even infiltrate a fucking castle without going undetected. I’ve seen amateurs playing Assassin’s Creed do better at stealth missions than these guys). Back on Batman’s part we see him still have troubles with Damian such as him doing some lawn work while training (scene here: //youtu.be/gVw2DnJC9kU, I’m rooting for the elephant). Damian sneaks out of the house and follows Batman to work where he tells him that Slade’s right hand man Ubu is in town and they should go after him so that they can find Slade and kill him (find yes, kill no). Batman sends him back home telling him to stay put and out of sight (are you ashamed of him Bruce?). That night Batman goes to interrogate Killer Croc in the hopes of finding Langstrom’s whereabouts and this leads to the best scene in the movie (scene here: //youtu.be/mPjv1SB8rBo, holy shit he ripped the tail off I did not see that coming. Hopefully it grows back). Killer Croc tells them about Kirk and Batman goes to check out the place where it gets bombed by Slade but before it’s get bombed he does find a shiriken and a basement full of animals with batwings (kill them with fire).
While that’s going on we see that Damian has rebelled against his father’s rules and has gone out to find Ubu and get answers (okay I know parents today are against the whole physical punishment thing but back when I was a kid if I had did something like that it would been a whoopin and I think we can all agree that some kids these days need a good whoopin. Scene here: //youtu.be/5zXWANe4TcQ, damn look at the eyes on Damian he went psycho quick. I love it, you can just see the fire in his eyes). Damian gets taken down by Nightwing (though I do give the kid credit he did fuck up Nightwing a little bit) and gets taken back to the batcave where Batman goes off and Damian becomes the new Robin (scene here: //youtu.be/b2W4RVpj9A8?t=51s, the Boy Wonder has returned). After receiving a clue from Gordon they rush off to the condemned Gotham Coliseum where the two finally have a father and son moment that gets you right in the heart (the feels). After that they sneak into the coliseum (//youtu.be/Y5JxIrn4OVs) and locate Langstrum but at the same time Robin alerts the guards (scene here: //youtu.be/XtG00EhTXAs). Damian catches Langstrum and Batman comes in just in time to stop him from killing Langstrum (that kid is just a sadist waiting to grow up. Can’t wait to see who he marries). They take Langstrum back to the Batcave where we find out that Ra’s hired him to create an army of mutant assassins to be the ultimate assassins (good idea since the regulars suck). Using the information about where Slade is keeping his family they find out that Slade is holding them captive in one of Ra’s old castles in Europe and go there to save them. The daughter secretly hands Damian a video device that has Slade telling Damian to come and face him at an old oil rig off the coast of Scotland or he’ll kill Tailia. Damian sneaks out from Batman again (okay bug him or put an electric collar around his neck this has got to stop) and sneaks into the oil rig (finally actual assassin work) and makes his way down to the bottom of the rig to discover another Lazurus pit and Slade with Tailia. Slade begins badmouthing all of Damian’s shortcomings and faults (the force is strong with you young Damian, but you are not DC character yet) and tries to shoot him but Tailia gets loose and gets shot instead (like father like son). Batman comes in to fight Slade but unleashes the man-bats on him so Batman sets off a powerful soundwave which drives the bats crazy (no doubt it was a Bieber or 1D song). Slade uses this chance to escape with Damian right on his tail and Batman reviving Tailia with the Lazurus pit. Nightwing shows up with Langstrum in the Batwing to return all the mutated soldiers back to normal. Damian catches up to Slade and the two have their climatic fight (scene here: //youtu.be/b0XY1JibtlY, okay we need to do a few footnotes for this scene. First off, Damian pulling his skewed wrist through a dagger and the hilt and still being able to fight. That’s bulllshit. He should have been done right then and there. There’s suspension of disbelief and then there’s just insulting one’s intelligence. This is insulting one’s intelligence. Second, Slade losing to Damian in a one on one fight. That’s bullshit. Slade is pretty much the equivalent of Batman he should not have any trouble taking on Damian. This whole fight scene is ruined by that fact and the dagger bit making this whole fight unbelievable. If it had been Batman and Damian that he was fighting than this fight would be believable but no it’s just Damian. Third, Damian pulled his skewed wrist through a dagger and hilt and is still fighting. Bullshit. I know I already talked about that but it really bothers me. Now despite this bad scene the one thing I will say I like about it is near the end where Damian remembers that he is Batman’s son and that his father would never condone such actions as killing people. This shows that in the short time he’s been with Batman, Batman’s ideas and teachings are starting to take effect on him a little). So with Slade defeated Tailia heads off to rebuild the League of Assassins and Batman keeps Damian to end the movie (and Batman somehow got out of paying for years of child support money).
Final Thoughts
So that was Son of Batman and it’s okay. While the movie is decent it could have been better and it does make a few mistakes along the road. I do like Damian’s character, I heard a lot of people didn’t like him but I found him enjoyable. He’s stuck-up, overconfident, rebellious, prideful, intelligent and short-tempered but can you really blame him, he was trained by the League of Assassins to be the ultimate assassin so of course he’s gonna have an attitude like this and I think it’s nice to see a Robin who respects Batman but isn’t so submissive to Batman in the process. He has his own ways of doing things and needs his father to show him how to do things correctly. In the end the kid kinda grows on you. The one thing they could have improved on with him is give him more moments with Batman to show that father-son connection they’re trying to establish. One of the biggest faults with this movie is they made Slade look very weak. This has got to be the weakest Slade I’ve ever seen. I really don’t buy into him losing to Damian so easily like this. Yes I know Damian was trained by the League but still so was Slade and he was supposed to be the chosen one. Batman also comes off as kinda weak as well. While I understand he’s restraining from inserting his will on Damian because he’s in new territory and isn’t quite sure how to handle him I feel that he could have had better control over Damian through the course of the movie. The League of Assassins are terrible in this movie, I can’t believe how they keep losing so easily to Slade and his forces. The only Assassin who seemed good was Tailia and even then she’s only good at the beginning of the movie after that she becomes weak as hell. The side characters are pretty good, Nightwing had some good scenes, Alfred’s lines are guaranteed to make you laugh but I wonder where Tim is during all of this? I’m pretty sure around this time he was Robin.
The animation is alright. It’s a little cheap and at first it’ll take you a minute to get used to it but after the first 5 minutes you’ll get used to it. Fight scenes aren’t really that good and pretty unbelievable with the only one that I really enjoyed was when Damian was tailing Ubu because we see his psychotic side come to life here and I’m pretty pissed that they skipped over his fight with Nightwing that looked like a good fight. Music is decent matching up with the Batman but it won’t be all that memorable to you.
Final Score
Son of Batman earns a 5.5/10. The movie is decent and will keep your attention but it’s got a lot of faults and could have had improvements which would have made the movie better. Some scenes that they do show are good but in the end this movie could have been better and had more to offer us. It’s not the worst Batman movie as it’s worth checking out at least once but just don’t expect to be blown away by it. Thanks for reading, happy birthday Batman, and I’ll see you next time on Project Nitsuj.
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