My Review of Batman: Death In The Family (2020)

 

Written And Directed by Brandon Vietti

Bruce (to Clark): "If I've learned anything over the years, it's that the impossible is just the unthinkable lying in wait."

Yeah, we did this already animated wise back in 2010 but if DC can give us two animated movies the same Superman arc, then why not another variation of Death In The Family/Under The Red Hood for good measure.

The first half hour of this interactive, fate choosing feature has Bruce Wayne (Bruce Greenwood) telling Clark Kent (Nolan North) the events of the previous movie and I got to be honest, while it's nice to get Bruce's perspective on how he failed Jason Todd (Vincent Martella), it's also the definition if paddling and easily could've been conveyed in about five minutes.

Still though, there's the nice banter between Bruce and Clark and once you get past the overlong, you can sail through the scenarios of how things would've played out had Jason not died during that fatal encounter with the Joker in Bosnia. Most of then are not as surprising as they could've been.

You can have Jason avenge a Batman who died, you can have him still become the Red Hood or even Hush. There's even a scenario where Jason gets to kill the Joker along with the options of either having Jason fight or kill Batman and even a battle with Two Face.

Overall, the options of either killing or spring the Joker seem to cover every aspect if Jason's personality - the volatile sidekick, the victim, the villain and the grudging antihero. There's really an ideal option for however you feel about the character and that particular in general as well as seeing as how other Bat family react to things. 

- I'm surprised they didn't try and get Jensen Ackles back for this one, but Vincent Martella does a good job voicing Jason Todd.

- Wonder Woman and The Flash make brief cameos here and Cheetah even winds up as one of Jason's victims.

- I see they managed to slip in clever reference to Joker's first ever appearance in DC comics as well.

- You need the BluRay version in order to access the interactive choices for this movie.

Batman: Death In The Family is a solid but unnecessary retelling of the 2010 movie and if you have that in your collection, you don't really need this. The alternative scenarios are fine, animation is great but I cant help feeling that this was little more than a cheap cash grab and a simple Red Hood story might have been the better idea.

Rating: 7 out of 10