It really embraces the style and uses the animation narrative used in the DC animated movies and makes a unique film. But if someone is looking to get a definitive style without compromise they would be disappointed. Anyone who expects a Batman movie will also be disappointed. I love that DC greenlit something like this because this is not even in the same ground as their what-if projects. Funky is the word.
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betweentimeandspace-8020413 January 2021Overall, it's a decent movie. It's not DC's best animated movie and definitely isn't their worst, but it's solid for what it is. The plot is simple and straightforward: the heroes try to save the world from an evil cult, nothing more and nothing less. I appreciate the fact that they made it an homage to 70s action movies; mixing in elements from the martial arts, spy, and blaxploitation films of that era; especially given that the main characters in the film came from that same era. But keep in mind, like Assault on Arkham, it's a Batman movie in name only and focuses more on the other lesser known characters, as this movie is basically a "Richard Dragon, Kung Fu Fighter" movie featuring Batman. So if you're looking for yet another Batman movie out of the dozens we already have, you might be disappointed. But if you're looking for a movie that expands on a different corner of the DCU, this might be up your alley.
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MoistMovies13 January 2021Just read the other positive reviews, they sum it up well. This was really a surprise homage to all the 70's kung fu and spy flicks. Not something you see in live cinema anymore thats for sure.
Sure it wasn't perfect. But for anyone thats watched enough films from the 70's early eighties.. will dig this enough that its a good once watch. Some DC animated films I've rewatched a few times. But the stories were much more complex than this and they were better films. I've seen them all.. so in comparison from the worst DC animated films to the best this one sits at a solid 6.5 But I'll give it an edge to push back a little against negative reviews. Tho i can understand why a younger generation wouldn't like this one or understand the context as much unless they were a kung fu film fan. Also, No idea why this was rated R.. I've seen so many PG-13 films with tons more blood and violence than this had.. And I think if they did add more to the violent aspect of sword fights and killing by beating to death, it would have shown this was a film meant for the older DC animated film viewers. So far none of the R rated DC animated films have really taken advantage of that yet.. The Killing joke being the best example and the worst example of animation.. This film had the classic 90's animation but spruced up for the quality of animation standards today, same style tho. -
borism0713 January 2021Whatever reviews you read I hope you'll give this movie a try. Sure, it may not be a perfect movie, and it may be a mostly Bruce Wayne movie, or even a Bruce Wayne and Friends movie, but to say this is a bad movie would be a lie. So many different nods to different genres and history brought together with good animation that is reminiscent of 70s plus add 70s kung fu music to the mix and you have a really unique story with a unique ending that promises some amazing things.
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denuwan-2738212 January 2021Batman: Soul of the Dragon is direct by Sam Liu and written by Jeremy Adams. Batman, Bronze Tiger, Lady Shiva, and Richard Dragon join forces when they come to realize that they share a common acquaintance. The Martial Arts Master that trained them has been missing for a number of years and under mysterious circumstances. When a cursed relic resurfaces, the mystery of their dead master re-opens and Batman and his former classmates must face-off in the ultimate test of their Martial Arts skills to gain control of this dangerous relic. This movie set in the 70s and I love Asian Martial Arts. This movie is more focused on Bruce Wayne than Batman. This feels like a mix of James Bond and Bruce lee's movie. There are a lot of action-packed scenes but a lack of character development and feelings, which is one of the main negative points. Also, the story is very predictable and flat. When comes to Asian movies or dramas they heavily focused on feelings and this movie lacks feelings, live adaptation of Mulan also had the same problem. I do not strongly recommend this movie. If you are a fan of batman and animation it's ok.
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This was a mediocre Batman movie. Apart from the fact that Batman is barely in it (there's much more screen time with Bruce and the rest of the team), I didn't really care about the characters and story.
The one positive is that it shows some background on Bruce's martial arts training and elaborates on why he can beat up a lot of bad guys, but other than that it was pretty generic and forgettable.
It seemed like they just wanted to team him up with Bruce Lee and Jim Kelly, so they set it in the 70s. There's a move Richard does in the movie that makes it obvious they modeled him after Bruce Lee (with a bit of James Bond thrown in).
Ultimately I didn't care about the good guys or the villain, or even Batman himself, which is a shame because there have been much more interesting Batman animated movies.
Give this one a pass unless you're a hardcore Batman animated fan and want to watch them all. -
noawareness18 May 2021Why is everyone crying because batman wasn't in it enough? I've seen reviews that talk about how good it is, but not enough batman so it gets 3 stars... What? It's like saying that the first act of batman begins wasn't good because there wasn't a batsuit or a batmobile. Films can't be good until batman is dressed as batman doing batman stuff. I liked it. Really good throwback story, well acted and doesn't outstay it's welcome. Good stuff.
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Batman: Soul Of The Dragon is the new Batman film that is said to be a tribute to martial arts films of the 1970's (especially the ones starring the late, but great Bruce Lee) and is an Elseworlds story, not affecting whatever the DC Animated Movie universe has planned for Batman in the universe started by Superman: Man Of Tomorrow.
In this movie, Richard Dragon seeks Bruce Wayne's help after learning millionare and cult leader Jeffrey Burrhas possession of a gate and is now looking for Sword Breaker, a muramasa sword once wielded by O-Sensei, who was one of Bruce's teacher during his training to become Batman, now wielded by Lady Shiva, the crimelord of Gotham's Chinatown district. When the sword is stolen, the three must team up, joined by Bronze Tiger, to stop Burr, a.k.a. Kobra, from opening the gate and releasing a serpent demon whom he believes his is destined to be the early avatar for.
Yeah, while this is an okay martial arts tribute, the film is far from good. The title has Batman in the name, but sadly, this is not much of a Batman film, as Bruce appears for most of the movie, however, he does not put on the iconic Batsuit after assembling the team and preparing to enter the island, but even so, he still feels like he is more of a side-character, as Richard Dragon feels more like the focus (as he is the one who discovers the villains' plot), but Batman got top billing because Batman is more recognizable than Richard Dragon, which means more sales. Also, the voice actors are hit or miss (While Kelly Hu and Michael Jai White do a good job as Lady Shiva and Bronze Tiger, as those two roles are reprised from previous DC media, I don't get how David Giuntoli, an actor who is known for 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi, and Grimm, was chosen to voice Batman in this film, as his voice does not have the same charm as other VAs who voiced him in previous movies). As a martial arts film, this is okay (even though the pacing can be bad, as most of the film is basically flashbacks about Bruce training with the others under O-Sensei), but as a Batman film, it is a disappointment, as Batman is only there to add a recognizable name so the movie can sell. -
This is not a Batman-centric film!
But it's a 70s action-centric film and I love it for that!
As a fan of Black Dynamite, seeing Michael Jay White being here and the overall vibe, I was pleasantly surprised by this one.
Bruce Wayne actually has some character development so he is not just "one of the team" - Batman is not stealing the scenes here for a reason.
Just have fun with it. -
wkrpinlouisville13 January 2021I see what they were trying to do - make a 70's kung fu movie with Batman splicing Enter the Dragon, Shaft and Kung Fu Panda together. In some scenes it almost works - but here's the big problem. When I'm watching a Batman movie - I want to see Batman or Bruce.. and neither one is the star of this movie. The main protagonist is Richard Dragon. Bruce is a side character at best and Batman has a couple of cameos. The mantle of the bat is treated like dress-up time for Bruce who 'becomes a different person' while wearing it.. not really.. His fighting skills get slightly better for some reason - but there's none of the cold calculating detective to be seen. I didn't see - but wouldn't be surprised if this 'Batman' IS wearing hockey pants.. Such a shame because I know the creatives behind this are capable of so much better.
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landonkiltz13 January 2021Everything about this movie screams 70's! From the retro-style Warner Brothers animation logo I knew I was in for a treat. This movie is obviously very inspired by Enter the Dragon, 70's era James Bond, and Dennis O'Neil Batman comics.
Bruce Timm's animation style looks amazing as always.
The Kung fu sequences throughout are great, and the movie makes good use of flashbacks.
Also for a movie with Batman in the title, Batman is barely in this movie. This is very much a Bruce Wayne story which is also unique.
Glad the 2021 movie season started on a high note! -
hautullat27 July 2021As a Batman movie this is a two star experience at best. If you strip off the costume it isn't half bad. They shouldn't misuse the Bat brand this way - especially when the movie could stand by its own right.
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Paradox-Warrior21 January 2021Just read the title of this review and that's pretty much the entire review. That being said, the movie as a whole isn't bad. It's a fun throwback to the 60's and 70's kung fu action flicks a la Enter the Dragon (hell, one of the leads is basically a Bruce Lee clone) with some supernatural stuff thrown in. In and of itself, the animation is decent (though I've seen far better from DC and Bruce Timm) and the story was fine, but the fact that DC marketed this as a Batman movie is beyond a shameless cash grab and downright insulting towards Batman fans to the degree of a big middle finger.
Basically, Batman should never have been in this movie to begin with, and the movie damn sure shouldn't have his name as the titular character in the title. Basically, there are four primary characters and Batman ranks dead last on that list of what the movie does with all them in terms of story and character development. He doesn't even wear the suit for the vast majority of the running time other than less than 60 seconds in the beginning of the movie and about the last 10 minutes. That's it. That's how long we get Batman in a BATMAN movie. What's more, even going on the basis that this is a "young and not as experienced" version like the movie jacket says, the character doesn't feel like Batman at all. He doesn't possess any of the intelligence and investigative skills that Batman is known for, even if this is considered an earlier version of him. I'd be fine if he was just lacking in martial arts skills from the modern day equivalent because, yes, this is supposed to be a younger version of himself, but one thing that defines Batman is his absolutely incredible mind, deduction and reasoning skills, and his tactical ability. None of that is present in this movie whatsoever, even to a developing degree. Not only that, but his costume is treated like it's some kind of lame superpower, like he gets stronger or faster or deadlier when he puts it on... which he doesn't. There's the barest flash of the Batman we were praying to see at the end where he sets up a quick ambush, but that's it. But honestly, it's not the underperforming Batman that's so irritating, it's the fact that he's essentially a B or C list character in his own movie. The only two out of the four primary leads that get any kind of character development are Robert Dragon (aka Bruce Lee) and Ben Turner (who is a mashup clone of Williams from Enter the Dragon and Shaft). They are actually the primary leads.
The worst part? They end the movie like they're teasing a sequel is in the works.
Between this, WW84, and how bad I've heard Death in the Family is, I just don't know what the hell DC is thinking anymore with their films. Honestly, they should have left Batman out of this movie entirely and just done a fun 70's kung fu-style animated movie. He had no purpose being in it and his inclusion, as I said in the beginning, absolutely reeks of nothing more than an utterly shameless cash grab banking on one of their top tier superheroes that for some reason they seem intent on destroying any way they possibly can. -
Milk_Tray_Guy17 December 2022From the cheeky Bond-esque pre-credits sequence, through the Enter the Dragon pastiche theme music, to one character's very impressive Afro, this animated movie is a mishmash of (and love letter to) 1970s action/exploitation. Richard Dragon (voiced by Mark Dacascos) is now Asian - and a dead-ringer for Bruce Lee, Ben Turner/Bronze Tiger (Michael Jai White) looks like a cross between Jim Kelly and Shaft, whilst James Hong's O-Sensei looks and sounds like he should be offering enigmatic advice to David Carradine. It's also nice to see Sir Edmund Dorrance/King Snake (Patrick Seitz) making his first (as far as I know) animated appearance. For the rest of the featured cast we have Kelly Hu as Lady Shiva, Jamie Chung as Jade Nguyen (aka Cheshire), Grey DeLisle as Lady Eve, and Josh Keaton as Jeffrey Burr/Kobra, all of whom do a fine job. David Giuntoli however doesn't quite nail Bruce Wayne/Batman, sadly, compounded by the fact that whilst there's a good reason for Bruce Wayne being in this story, there's no reason whatsoever for Batman to be there (with every completely shoehorned Batsuit-up being eye-rollingly pointless). But the fight choreography is (unsurprisingly) very good, as is the score throughout.
This is a standalone movie, although the ending sets up for a sequel/resolution (to the extent that I'm surprised this wasn't marketed as a 'part one'). Interesting for a one-time watch, but not one I'd buy. 6/10. -
IamRage718 January 2021The title maybe is for the click bait purpose only, as they didn't even showed batman properly and everyone were overpowering batman like batman was cast as a cameo. Although the story was as pathetic as their animation. With every title instead of improving their animations, they're drastically going down with their animation. It was way better in back 90's.
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masonsaul6 April 2021It's barely a Batman movie and the ending feels really abrupt but Batman: Soul of the Dragon is still a really fun DC animated movie that's stylish, unique and fully embraces the 70s tone and setting. Mark Dacascos is great and David Giuntoli, Kelly Hu and Michael Jai White are all good. Sam Liu's direction is really good and once again, it's refreshing to have a different animation style to the one used for so many years. The music by Joachim Horsley is great.
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WeAreLive6 December 2021In the 1970s, a missing teacher of martial arts is the subject of a quest by his devoted and brilliant but distant students, who include Batman.
The animation was good.
The Fight scenes were cool.
The music was excellent.
Do check this out. If you haven't already, -
vincent-425-78272628 July 2021Bruce Lee/Shaft/James Bond + Batman more or less. Yes, Batman is not the central character but he still features prominently and the movie addresses his time training in Nanda Parbat.
Movie's fairly tropey and stereotypical but it's decent fun with some good action and Disco era nostalgia. Not amazing but undeserving of hate. -
Just to market the film, Batman is used in the film. Instead he his in a supporting role, to Richard Dragon playing the lead. A genre mix of 70s kung fu films, blaxploitation films, and a bit of Bond, but no Batman! Poor scriptwriting, bland voice dubbing (except MJW as Bronze Tiger) and weak character development, 2021 started with a bad DC animated film.
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AbhiSh4ke13 January 2021Warner Bros really need to show a little more love to it's animation team. The lack of budget and time constraint is very very visible. The characters are not fleshed out at all non dc fans will especially have a hard time. The movie just jumps to one fight sequence some reminiscing then to another fight sequence this makes it harder to connect to characters & the very straightforward story. Also the animation quality could've been a little more detailed atleast by the standard of most DC animated features. All in all its a cool 80s superhero team up movie good for one time watch.
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oZo6114 January 2021Watching this, ask yourself...if it was a different character than Bruce Wayne/Batman, would you even notice? I don't think so. It's like they just decided to make one of the protagonists Batman as an afterthought. The animation is up to par, the voice acting is good, the choreography of the fights scenes is excellent. The cast is, quite frankly, awesome! Especially Michael Jai White. He channels Black Dynamite, all over again. James Hong is, as always, a treasure. Mark Dacascos proves he is wonderful as a voice artist, and still sounds youthful. Kelly Hu ads a 70's self-sufficient women's lib vibe that is perhaps the most bad ass character in the ensemble. The only misstep is David Giuntoli (Grimm) as Batman/Bruce Wayne. Oh, he's good, but not a good fit for Batman. Or maybe it's that the Batman character is not a good fit for this story? Either way, something feels off about it. Don't get me wrong, it's a good animated movie, and a fun diversion in these trying times. But is it really a Batman movie? I don't really think so.
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007Waffles14 January 2022Want to see something other than a Batman origins movie? Or watch something other than Batman chase the Joker, or the Penguin, or ... blah blah blah..., been there, done that.
The animation and story are really interesting. You get to see Batman hang out with his martial arts piers. Any true Batman fan will appreciate this movie. I'm looking forward to the next part. -
tsimms-6408312 January 2021I have to admit I really enjoyed this Bruce Lee themed Batman. As you watch the movie you will see characters that are based on people that actually knew Bruce Lee in his life. That's if you know Bruce Lee and his history.
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dvsusmc13 January 2021The writer didn't "borrow" from Enter the Dragon he downright stole from that legendary film. If you've watched enter the dragon then you've seen this embarrassing copy of it as well. The level of laziness on the writing and it's recycled 70's exploitation film tropes really annoyed me.
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KDCarson29 January 2021Which in fact it does quite well. A dash of James Bond at the beginning, Followed by a helping of Bruce Lee. Followed by a second course of Chuck Norris, with a side order of Shaft! Followed by desert with a helping of Mortal Kombat!! Good stuff Maynard!! The trolls who don't like this movie aren't even trying to understand what the film makers are trying to do; make a light hearted homage to 70's exploitation films. The movie is certainly worth a one watch. Maybe it won't find your way into your film collection, but you'll have fun watching it one time for sure. The other reviewers are obviously kids who do not remember or have seen the kind of movies that inspired this particular Batman. Many of those who did not like this movie probably gave Batman vs Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles its 7.1 rating. Not realizing it's just a different variation on the same idea: having fun with the mythos!! That's all. Watch it, don't judge, and just have fun.