Batman is both the best and worst dad ever.
What They Say:
Hidden atop a secret mountain stronghold lies the League of Shadows and its fearless leader, Ra’s al Ghul. Together with his equally dangerous daughter Talia, he oversees a trained army of assassins with plans for global domination. But an uprising from within the league now threatens to shift the balance of power and sends Talia and her young son, Damian, fleeing to Gotham City. With assassins on their trail, Talia seeks the protection of Batman, who, unbeknownst to him, is the boy’s father. With his son in tow, Batman wages war against the villain Deathstroke and the League of Shadows, all while teaching his headstrong boy that one can’t fight crime by becoming a criminal. With help from Gotham’s finest, including Commissioner Gordon and Nightwing, Batman will soon discover that his son and most trusted ally are one and the same!
The Review:
Audio:
The audio presentation for this release is toplined with the English language track that’s in 5.1 and encoded using the DTS-HD MA lossless codec. In addition to that, we get a number of Dolby Digital tracks as well for French, Spanish, German and Portuguese languages. The audio design for this release is one that’s pretty decent overall with a lot going on, but it’s not non-stop action so it works a good bit of dialogue throughout and some quiet scenes as well. The various aspects of the feature hits their marks well throughout. The dialogue side of it works in some decent placement at times and some of the quieter moments definitely works well to set the mood. The action side of it goes big in a few places, particularly the end, but it’s generally kept a bit more personal and hand to hand so there’s a lot to like there as swords, guns and fists all exchange with each other. The mix works well overall and it makes for a pretty enjoyable feature with some very good standout moments.
Video:
Originally released in 2014, the transfer for this feature is presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.78:1 in 1080p using the AVC codec. The feature is one that works a bit darker than some of the others that have come out, but it’s not mired in darkness. In fact, even when it works the night scenes such as the Batcave or the streets of Gotham, there’s enough light and material to work with that it doesn’t become a dark and murky piece. Unfortunately, the main flaw with this release is once again the banding side, but it is also once again a source issue instead of encoding. Having suffered through some really bad anime releases over the years when digital works started becoming more popular, banding doesn’t bother me as much as it used to, but it is noticeable here. Colors are generally pretty good and I like the look of the show and its design, but depending on your sensitivity to the banding you may have a love/hate relationship with this release.
Packaging:
Suckered into a steelbook case once again, this one actually works out a bit better for me as it has a good glossy coating to it that works well and keeps it looking like it won’t get scuffed easily. The front of the case has a decent illustration piece that has Batman and Damian leaping in action over Gotham city with a number of Man-Bats flying around them. The artwork is pretty good and I like the detail of it with the background and the character designs, as well as the general color tone of it. The back of the case uses the same style as the front cover as it pits Batman and Damian against Deathstroke with all the Man-Bats in the background. It has a good dynamic to it and I really like the colors and the detail in the illustration. While there are no show related inserts included in this release, the reverse side of the case zooms in on some of the artwork from the back and spreads it out with the left side giving us Batman and the right side Deathstroke.
Menu:
The menu design for this release works a familiar style as we get a static screen that uses the artwork from the front cover that’s expanded a bit along the right. I liked the artwork on the case itself but here it has a bit of additional light thrown on it so that it stands out a bit more and shows off a bit more detail. With the logo along the upper right in a simple design that has a nice hook to it, the rest is given over to the navigation strip along the bottom that has all the standard access points in an easy to navigate way. The look overall is definitely good and with the artwork standing out in a positive way here, it sets the mood and atmosphere well.
Extras:
Similar to other DC Universe releases, we get a good array of extras included in this release that brings in some good talent from the show and the comics side as well. A ten minute piece that delves into the League of Assassins is welcome since it has Grant Morrison among others talking about it, and with him having written the original work it makes sense to have him involved some. Another featurette clocks in at fifteen minutes and focuses on Damian himself, which can be a bit grating at times depending on how you feel about the character. There’s also a good ten minute piece that lets the character designer for the feature, Phil Bourassa, talk about how he went about transitioning it from the comics to the screen.
And similar to past releases within the DC Universe line, we get four episodes from other series that focus on some of the characters that populates this feature:
1: Batman Beyond, “Out of the Past”
2: The Brave and the Bold, “The Knights of Tomorrow!”
3: The Animated Series, “Showdown”
4: The Brave and the Bold, “Sidekicks Assemble!”
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Based on the 2006 story by Grant Morrison and Andy Kubert, Son of Batman gives us exactly what it is. A story involving Batman’s son. I haven’t read the original work that spawned this as my interest at the time with such stories was pretty low, particularly since it goes with a few ideas that just make me cringe. Directed by Ethan Spaulding based off the adapted story by James Robinson, Son of Batman reworks things from the original to keep it all a bit tighter and works its own logic in order to present a self contained story. Batman stories tend to sell the best when it comes to these DC Universe animated films and there’s a lot of good stories out there to do. And while this certainly isn’t my favorite, it’s definitely one with a catchy enough title that you can easily understand why they chose it. The imagination comes up with some interesting ideas when you hear the title if you haven’t heard of Damian before.
The focus here is on the League of Assassins itself as we’re introduced to Ra’s al Ghul as he continues to build up the group and work it towards its goal of taking over the world to install a proper order on everything. Lead by Ra’s, there’s also his daughter Talia who is raising a son that is being trained heavily to inherit everything someday and lead the league to greater things. League politics and intrigue is the catalyst for events here though as Ra’s has his ideas of how to best prepare for the future and having someone ready to take control of the League is important. His initial plan was for it to be taken over by one of his disciples, Slade Wilson, but when Talia met Batman, he realized that Bruce was far better suited for it. That cast out Slade, who has now taken on the role of Deathstroke with a plan to eliminate Ra’s, Talia and those that stand in his way to assume control of the League and move it forward under his vision. And that means eliminating Talia’s son Damian as well. Particularly since his father is Bruce Wayne.
Not that Bruce was aware of that and he handles it in a stone faced way when Talia whisks Damian to Gotham for safe keeping while she deals with Slade. Honestly, the idea of Bruce being a father isn’t a hard thing to think of in some ways, but if ever there was a man that would ensure that he would not have kids while taking on this role, it has to be him. That he had an indiscretion with Talia is no surprise since the two have had relations many times over the years in the comics. But to not take simple precautions to prevent such a thing for a man that plans for everything is just hard to look pat. Bruce does realize that it’s likely true what Talia is telling him as you can see a whole lot of Bruce in Damian and that makes it easy to take him for the duration, particularly since he has a grudging respect for both Talia and Ra’s and realizing what’s going on factors into that a lot. Of course, bringing Damian into the mansion and exposing him to that world isn’t going to go easily.
Not surprisingly, through a convoluted series of events that has Slade utilizing Kirk Langstrom on Gotham to create soldiers for him to expand his reach, there’s a lot going on as Slade’s business spreads across continents in his effort to get Damian and put an end to that bloodline. This draws in Nightwing along the way and we get some Man-Bat action as well which makes for some fun as it progresses. But a lot of the focus is on the growing working relationship that exists between Batman and Damian. Damian has spent his whole life training and being taught and focused towards the goal of taking over the League so he lacks compassion, going instead for the end results. Batman works a similar route but has some moral guidance to keep him on the right path, and that conflict does work well enough here even though you want to slap Damian a lot of the time since he’s a cocky little sonuvabitch. But the mentoring side coming from Batman as he goes through this, trying to nudge him in the right direction while being the stern figure that he is makes it pretty fun to watch.
Alfred, however, steals the show with his cutting remarks to Damian. Dick gets a few in as Nightwing as well that makes it work.
Son of Batman takes some convoluted steps to get to where it wants to be and while it can feel somewhat linear at times, there are those moments where things just don’t quite work. But part of the thing is that you find yourself distracted by Damian and his personality to the point where you don’t exactly focus on those other issues. Yes, there are obvious “continuity” issues with how they do things, timelines and all that, but you can basically put this in its own little bowl and just let it exist. But you can’t get past the way Damian is just an entitled little ass, albeit one that has worked hard. He knows his destiny and the kind of mandate he has ahead of him and it’s just a matter of getting to do it when others let him. There’s a weird conflict that arises from someone in his position and that can explain a lot of his character flaws, never mind being what he was to both Ra’s and Talia, but it puts the whole film in a kind of unusual tone. I liked aspects of him, but I disliked the quick pace of so many events, including him getting a variant of a Robin outfit. That just felt disrespectful.
In Summary:
Son of Batman wasn’t a release that I was really highly anticipating or anything because it wasn’t a story that even interested me with its comics version and the whole character of Damian has left a distaste for me within the Batman mythos. That said, I did have a certain kind of quirky and weird fun with this show, largely because I liked the action, the put-downs that came from Alfred and the stern side of Batman towards him while seeing what’s there. Ra’s is sadly underused for what little he’s here and even Deathstroke has a kind of unusual feeling, one made worse after totally adoring the live action interpretation in Arrow recently. I wish it had Talia more since I’ve always like the character, but she’s little more than either transportation or bait here. Or just some easy skintight clothed female material because there’s nothing else like that in here. I can’t see revisiting this title anytime soon, but it is one that has me thinking about it a whole lot.
Features:
English DTS-HD MA 5.1 Language, English Subtitles, Featurettes
Content Grade: C
Audio Grade: B+
Video Grade: A-
Packaging Grade: B+
Menu Grade: B
Extras Grade: B+
Released By: Warner Home Video
Release Date: May 6th, 2014
MSRP: $24.98
Running Time: 74 Minutes
Video Encoding: 1080p AVC
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 Widescreen
Review Equipment:
Sony KDL70R550A 70″ LED 1080P HDTV, Sony PlayStation3 Blu-ray player via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.
