Batman: Bad Blood

While on a routine patrol of Gotham City, Batman (Jason O'Mara) encounters a mysterious new villain known as Heretic (Travis Willingham). However during his investigation of this new evil, Batman goes missing and Batwoman (Yvonne Strahovski), a new addition to the Bat tree, was the last one to see him alive. Due to the absence of Batman, Gotham plunges into chaos and Alfred is forced recall both Damian (Stuart Allan) and Nightwing (Sean Maher). In order to fill the void of the Bat and restore order to Gotham, Nightwing must wear Bruce's mantel. In addition to temporarily being Batman, Dick must not only solve the mystery of his former mentor's disappearance, but keep his crime fighting family cohorts together.

Though Batman was fairly absent throughout this movie, I thoroughly enjoyed the new roster of crime fighters added to the roster. As many of us know, Batman's vast universe is constantly evolving as well as expanding and Jay Oliva masterfully presents us with a daunting dangerous universe that requires more then just the presence of Batman. That being said, it would be nice to see a future Batman movie that primarily centralizes on just Batman. A great area to focus on for such a project would be the Arkham atmosphere portrayed in the video games. In the end, the story, animation and music of Batman: Bad Blood made this animated Bat film an excellent addition to the DC animated film series.

7 stars.

First things first: this film is good but some major flaws stop it from being among the best of its kind. If you enjoyed the other films DC's released since its universe restarted, this one is definitely a nobrainer.

The pros are definitely good animations with some really strong pictures, crazy ideas and an interesting story that allows some character development.

You could say the film tries to be an action film with story - unfortunately the fusion doesn t quite work. One reason for this is, that the film favors action over story. This wouldn t be as bad, if the protagonists wouldn t turn to punchline-swinging clichés while fighting, just seconds after they had some actually interesting conversations that drive a plot that is supposed to give them depth. This luckily applies a bit less to Batwoman and not at all for Robin.

The second major flaw for me is that I feel like the writers don t respect the motivations, aims or morals of the protagonists. Some other reviews also mention the ridiculously accidental dying of super-criminals. Your protagonists can t kill someone, so Karma has to do justice or what? If Batman would take his code of honor seriously, he had to kick all of them, due to them being unable to watch out.

A last minor flaw for me was Batwing. This guy got some clichéd background and then continued to just being there, well and kick major ass. Maybe he marks the point where the writers didn t have time for more plot, since Batwing really misses some dialogs to make his integration into the Batfamily somehow authentic.

On the bright side of characters there is Robin, who gets just little screen time but I think they got really a lot out of it. I think Batwoman also deserves a character-development shout out, even though I feel like she would have been more plausible if she wouldn t be the clear loser on the "Kick Ass-O-Meter".

I personally feel like if the film had given the story more room, it would be a contender for the likes of Batman and the Phantom. This way it s "only" a good film.

The loss of Bruce Wayne left a void in Gotham. Nightwing and Robin replaced Bruce by patrolling Gotham. Meanwhile, Batwoman tries to investigate Bruce Wayne's disappearance.

Showing and introducing members of the Bat-Family gives a special impression for this film. By bringing the story of Batman's disappearance, the existence of Batwoman, Nightwing and Batwing to replace Batman's position is actually enough to provide a good story. However, all of them do not have a strong motive so that the stories that are brought at a glance seem ordinary and overlap between them. Making Talia al Ghul a villain does not create an evil atmosphere. Likewise with Talia's group of villains who appear too much but don't add anything to the story. The threat as a villain also doesn't make the story in this film develop. That way, the ending of the film is also not interesting.

The appearance of Bat-Family members is indeed something interesting in the DC universe. However, too many characters enter into too many conflicts that are created without strong motives from each character. The main portion of this film falls on the characters Batwoman and Nightwing. Seeing the Batwing perform actually doesn't make much of a difference either. Not with Robin who does have a bond with Talia.

I wasn't very impressed by this one. I like the look of the characters, for the most part. They don't sport the enormous jaws that a lot of the animated superheroes have. That's perhaps the best thing I can say.

The movie was OK, but not great.

The fighting and action didn't really look that good. Especially the fighting, was just too quick, lacked any real impact. The story is, well, it's OK. The voice acting was decent, but nothing special.

Some of the animation was a little sloppy, I caught a few mistakes here and there, but nothing too serious though.

Too many of the heroes are just normal people, with all kinds of gadgets. Now, that can be cool, but it was just a little too much for my taste. When characters can fly because of some kind of technology, I just don't like that. Also holograms are stupid.

A lot of these animated superhero features have a lot of cool stuff in them, awesome scenes, cool characters, but Batman: Bad Blood just lacked stuff that make you go: awesome!

With that being said, lots of cred and respect to the animators! I know how much work it is.

The best possible end to the Son of Batman trilogy, with powerful characters of Batwoman, Nightwing and Alfred, and a relatively weaker Batman, but most of all, conflicting devastation for the new Robin.