Details From IMDB:
In 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.
Initial Thoughts:
It’s a good time to be a Batman fan. Battison will soon (next few years anyway) have a new movie, The Caped Crusader is on Amazon, Colin Farrell is going to get a Sopranos style show (as the Penguin) and we even have a musical Joker sequel on the way! I also got a Batman tattoo a few weeks ago, so I’ve been watching Batman more lately. I had some digital movie codes from Cineplex to use (which they are discontinuing) and this movie looked like fun so I got it and watched it a week or so ago.
Main Points:
This is very much a tribute to 70s action movies, Bruce Lee, James Bond and even martial arts/Asian movies (like Shang-Chi) and I had fun with it. Yes it’s certainly true that Batman isn’t in it much, it’s mostly Bruce Wayne but I have always felt that in most stories Wayne is more a character he plays than a real person, so even when he’s not wearing the cowl, he’s still Batman in his heart.
Bruce Wayne is his origin story often goes to some far off monastery to train and become the worlds greatest martial artist. For this film the idea is that Bruce Wayne was one of several students at dojo and was not the best but the most determined. So when the world is threatened, the gang gets back together including someone who is very much a James Bond/Bruce Lee character.
This was a fun movie, lots of great action scenes and I was impressed with how far they go with violence. One of the former students, who has become a crime boss, kills a guy by shoving her fingers into his throat like a knife! It’s the kind of scene that has never been done in a live action Batman movie, though I think it would be good to do someday (with the right story of course, I don’t want gore just for the shock value). I didn’t recognize any of the actors, though after looking it up I was pleased to see James Hong was there, but I did enjoy the voicework and I thought the story was pretty good. Nice animation, good music and good to see a different kind of Batman story.
Final Thoughts:
I’ll state right away, this movie is for ages 17+, please don’t let your kids watch it. I’ve seen better Batman animated movies but I certainly enjoyed this, I’d give it 7.5 out of 10. The ending was a little annoying as it just ended on a cliffhanger but that could be I haven’t seen enough 70s action movies and it was a tribute to them. I would recommend this to any Batman fan or someone who enjoyed 70s action movies. There is some graphic animated violence and some coarse language.