Written by Jeremy Adams
Directed by Sam Liu
O-Sensei (to Bruce): "Life is meant to be lived with others. It is too hard to live it alone."
You really are never far away from an animated Batman movie but this time around, it really does seem the next phase of DC animated movies are showing a little more room for experimentation. This time around, it's not even the Caped Crusader in the present day as he finds himself teaming up with some old friends for a special mission.
Billionaire playboy Bruce Wayne/Batman (David Giuntoli) finds himself reunited with spy Richard Dragon (Mark Decascos), crime lady of Chinatown Lady Shiva (Kelly Hu) and martial arts trainer, also known as Bronze Tiger (Michael Jai White). Their mission is to find the Gate and stop it from being opened by Kobra of all organisations.
It seems that Kobra, led by the delusional Jeffrey Burr (Josh Keaton) is determined to become a vessel for the god Naga and will stop at nothing to achieve his goals. This also includes using children to open the Gate and when that failed, ultimately himself. The only problem is that Naga had a different vessel in mind in order to doom mankind.
Flashbacks (of which there are many here) do a lot to flesh out the relationships between the main four protagonists/antiheroes, as well as giving a good sense that O-Sensei (James Hong) was trying to mold their destinies but it was really Richard who was slated to be the one to hold Naga and he certainly tried, with a little help from everyone else here.
The fact that this story wasn't actually wrapped up here as our characters entered Naga's world genuinely surprised me. I was going we'd see Batman tea, up with Richard, Shiva and Bronze Tiger and now we have to get a continuation of this story. Will they all make it out alive? I bloody hope so.
The movie is brim with so many great characters. The main four work extremely well with each otner and in the separate moments they had as does their deadpan but wise Sensei and while Burr himself isn't quite the threat that he should be, his acolytes certainly were menacing enough as was Naga.
- Other characters in Nanda Parbet with the gang and O-Sensei included Jade Nguyen (Jamie Chung) and Rip Jagger (Chris Cox). The former was killed by the latter , revealed to be a Kobra agent.
- Both Kelly Hu and Michael Jai White have previously played their respective characters on Batman: Arkham Origins and Arrow.
- With the exception of Silver St Cloud, this movie refrained from having any other Batman related character in the mix.
- Chronology: This was set in the 1970s and they had a lot of fun with this era of choice.
Batman: Soul Of The Dragon was a the right tonic of playing around with classic 70s tropes, different genres and in general having a great mix of characters to bounce with. Thanks to the cliff hanger, I'm so glad we'll likely be seeing more of this world.
Rating: 8 out of 10
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