Batman Ninja

I was late to the party, but I finally sat down and watched Batman Ninja an animated DC film created, as all DC films are, by Warner Brothers. All I can say is I have more than a few thoughts and feelings. When the credits rolled I honestly said to myself, "What the hell did I just watch?"

Firstly the animation. As an art style for a portrait or even comic it's beautiful, but as an animated movie it was a little difficult to watch and follow. The characters themselves appeared almost like parodies in some cases and a little too ridiculous in others. A specific case being the unreasonable size of Red Hoods "hood", which was almost the length of his body, even though I do understand the reference and its purpose. Little details that were over-dramatized like this pulled away from the overall enjoyment of the movie with their distracting awkwardness.

And then there were freaking megazord battles! Like some straight out of Super Sentai/Power Rangers nonsense! And the quickly transitioning story, jumping from one place to the next and dropping in characters it just assumed the audience would know without any explanation, which takes away its universal appeal without some background or history, especially to those who aren't familiar with Batman lore. And even some of these said characters were entirely out of character. Such as the case of Robin (aka Damian Wayne), who canonically is in no way the cheery, starry eyed kid making friends with monkeys on the sly that they attempted to portray in this film.

Which does bring me to one of my very few positive notes about this movie. Mad. Respect. For what? For having the stones, the gall, the gumption to include all four male Robins in one movie! This doesn't seem like something that should be much to ask from DC, especially with the many movies they put out on the regular, to involve more than at maximum of two Robins to a story. The only minor exception is Young Justice, but even then the third Robin was no more than a visual nod. So even with the odd style and sometimes off character moments, it was a breath of fresh air and a glint of hope for the future of the animated DC universe to see Nightwing, Red Hood, Red Robin, and Robin all in one scene and one movie.

Lastly I will admit that the fight sequences were aesthetically pleasing to watch and were in and of themselves entertaining, as to some degree was the plot of Batman Ninja. A plot I would love to read in a normal styling of a comic book. A plot which was lost heavily in the many mind boggling and confusing aspects of the overall show. I wouldn't recommend it, except to DC fans looking to see some Bat Family in action or who are looking for something very offbeat to sink their teeth into for an hour and a half.


~Revaliciousness