Written by J. M. DeMatteis
Directed by Jay Oliva
Batman (to Talon): "You and the Court tried to take control of my city and destroy my home... but worst of all, you messed with my kid. So this is gonna hurt and I'm gonna enjoy it."
Following the introduction of Damian Wayne/Robin (Stuart Allan) in the previous movie, the road for him and his father, Bruce Wayne/Batman (Jason O'Mara) was always going to be fraught. In this movie, they both came to blows big time.
In some ways, there's more empathy on Damian here because a lot of his acting out was fairly justified. His own father won't acknowledge his identity, both publicly or privately with suspicious new girlfriend, Samantha Vanaver (Grey DeLisle). It's enough to make any child want to act out.
On top of that while Damian does have that more knee jerk reaction to things, I actually don't blame him for losing it with Dollmaker ("Weird Al" Yankovic) at the start of the movie. However, it's all of these things that allowed the gap to be widened between father and son here.
It also gave the Court of Owls and their most faithful acolyte, Talon (Jeremy Sisto) an opening to further that gap between Batman and Robin. Talon certainly pretended to be the father figure Damian wanted and Damian certainly let himself believe the violent stranger had his best interests at heart.
As for the Court of Owls, it's the usual for them. They want to reshape Gotham into their own image as well as trying to intimidate Bruce Wayne and have Talon replace Damian for a sacrifice. Samantha being part of the Court of Owls and being Talon's lover was treated almost as an afterthought that even Batman didn't seem the least surprised by it.
As for Batman and Robin, I think the latter's breakdown of everyone being in his head and trying to find his own identity was nicely handled. It also allowed Robin the chance to take a trip to the Himalayas in order to find himself.
- This movie was partially based on the 2011 Batman: The Court Of Owls arc.
- Nightwing (Sean Maher) had to cancel a romantic get together with Starfire in order to babysit Damian.
- Kevin Conroy had a brief role as Thomas Wayne during flashbacks where a young Bruce first heard about the Court of Owls.
- Chronology: A few months since the events of Son Of Batman.
Batman vs. Robin was a strong follow up to its predecessor for Damian Wayne with the story bring pretty sympathetic towards him. I think the Court of Owls and Talon are also handled particularly well here too.
Rating: 7 out of 10
No comments:
Post a Comment