For those who've followed my blog, you may have noticed the decline of posts for the DC Universe animated movie line since "Apokolips War." Well, to put it bluntly, the current era of films since then just haven't captured my attention compared to how the line used to. "Long Halloween" is one exception, and I may have another "Tomorrowverse" (not a fan of that name) related post coming in the future. Today though, we have the latest DC animated film, "Batman: The Doom That Came to Gotham".
Based on the Elseworlds miniseries from Hellboy creator Mike Mignola, a 1920's version of Batman works to save Gotham from a Lovecraftian apocalypse. Since this story doesn't get talked about as much as other Elseworlds tales like "Gotham by Gaslight" or "Superman: Red Son", I went into this mostly blind. Regardless, I had a hell of a good time watching this film, so much so that I watched it twice in one day, with the horror mystery aspect making it fun to find the foreshadowing the second time around.
Much like "Gotham by Gaslight", it was fun to see Batman and elements of his lore transported to a different era, with how notable characters are adapted and catching the hidden references; one character that stood out to me was Kai Li, who I felt was an amalgamation of Carrie Kelly and Cassandra Cain. With "Doom", I particularly liked the Lovecraftian twists to the rogue's gallery. Some stories have played into the idea that something about Gotham creates the very madness it endures from the villains and Batman himself; "Doom" takes this further by having a more supernatural origin to the idea and it really works for this kind of story.
Giving life to these characters are a star-studded voice cast. You have reprisals such as William Salyers as Penguin and Brian George as Alfred, veteran voice actors like John DiMaggio and Jason Marsden as James Gordon and Dick Grayson respectively, and stand-out performances from David Dastmalchian as Mr. Freeze and Jeffrey Combs as Kirk Langstrom. Not to keep comparing the film to "Gaslight", but I found David Giuntoli's performance as Bruce Wayne similar to Bruce Greenwood's, which is a good thing. The two versions have similar looks and methods to their crusade, though I'd say Giuntoli's is more similar to the mainstream version, maybe due to being in more proximity to the character's debut year. What I love most though is that despite being in a different era and facing a different kind of evil, we still see the core of what makes Batman such a great character: someone who's willing to give it all for the city he calls home.
The animation makes this a real winner in my book, particularly with the lighting on Batman when he's on screen, making him pop out more in the darker scenes. It feels like a callback to how the DC animated films would be consistently great in that aspect. Apologies to fans of the "Tomorrowverse" films and despite the enjoyable aspects of them, but the animation just looks so cheap compared to its predecessors. "Doom" just hammers in that point, showing they're still capable of churning out good looking films. This might all be a moot though since the future of the line may be up in the air with James Gunn's plans to streamline the new DC Universe across films, live action and animated series, and video games, but time will tell. But back to "Doom", my only complaint is that the horror visuals could have gone a little further if it weren't for the PG-13 rating.
To sum it up, "Batman: The Doom That Came to Gotham" is definitely worth a watch. Couple it up with "Gotham by Gaslight", and you have quite a double feature for fans of Batman and the horror genre.
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