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Directed by: Curt Geda Starring: Will Friedle, Mark Hamill, Kevin Conroy For anyone who doesn't know, this is an animated feature film based around the Batman Beyond animated series, which features an old Bruce Wayne acting as mentor and guide to a new, young Batman in a dark, futuristic Gotham City. This is a decent direct-to-video flick. The animation is of good quality, with detailed backgrounds and great action sequences. Also the voice talent here is superb; Mark Hamill of Star Wars fame does a great job as the Joker, a role he's had since the original Batman: The Animated Series cartoon. A few other fairly well-known names, such as Dean Stockwell and Michael Rosenbaum of Smallville, also make voice appearances. The plot is nothing too special. It's not campy or poorly executed, but there wasn't really anything that made me jump out of my seat. Don't expect to be let down, but also don't expect to be really surprised. Despite all that was said in the movive, it's easy to figure out that Tim Drake is the Joker.An example of how it is at times predictable. But the one thing that I cannot forgive this movie for is that much of the content has been altered, make it more 'family friendly.' While some of it, such as the fight scenes, isn't so bad, many of the important plot points are changes. Such as the original Joker being electrocuted off-screen rather than dying on-screen from a gunshot to the chest, and Drake torture video being edited almost out of the movie. Not bad for what it is. RATING: 3.5 PROS: Nice voice acting, good animation, good characterization CONS: Average plot, heavily edited content ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0233298/
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May 30, 2004 15:50
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| # ? Apr 27, 2024 01:30 |
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I used to work in a toy store, and we had a TV in there so we would usually pop in some cartoon thing or random movie associated with products we sold (we were allowed to show up to PG-13 movies, so we watched XMen and FOTR a few times), this being one of them. I think I finally saw the entire movie over the course of around two weeks and I was pretty interested, but it was nothing too special. The animation was good, in fact it looked exactly like the TV series and the plot, as you said, was nothing special, but entertaining anyway. I am curious about your edited content remarks, however. Is there an uncut version avaliable, or are you basing it off an original script you found somewhere? 3/5 (for what it is)
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May 30, 2004 18:18
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Good movie. The uncut version is better, you can find it at Best Buy or on Amazon. 4/5
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May 30, 2004 20:42
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There is an unedited version out, guys, so be sure to catch that and not the family friendly one (and I suggest people hold off voting until they've seen the uncut version). What's bizarre is that the little things they cut out are more important than the big things. Whenever someone throws a punch or kicks someone, the screen is covered by a white flash at the point of contact. The sound effects of those hits are also cut out, which were really brutal. All blood is removed, references to the word "kill" are removed, and entire segments of fights are removed. If anyone who has already seen the cut version wants examples of the majors, I'll include some in spoilers: - Bonk was shot through the chest with the "BANG" gun, which actually fires the pole into the victim's chest, killing them. It does not fire Joker gas. -Joker makes cracks involving Bonk's corpse before getting Dee & Dee to drag the body away (or "take out the trash"). - Batman throws a knife at Joker's head when he first sees "J.J.", which he dodges at the last second. - Joker slices Batman's chest open and stabs him in the leg (resulting in his later gimp). The edited version makes it look like Joker beat Batman by punching him once. - More than half of the "Our Family Memories" is cut out, only showing Robin tied up and struggling. Cut scenes include Joker torturing and electrocuting Robin. - The Joker's death was Tim shooting him in the chest with the BANG gun ("That's not funny. That's not..."), not Tim pushing him to be electrocuted off screen. These edits castrate the movie in every possible way. The uncut version is very, very dark. So dark that the director's commentary is 90 minutes of Paul Dini, Curt Geda and Bruce Timm apologizing for how dark it ended up being. Years after Bruce Wayne has given up the cape and given it to a protege, Terry McGinnis, the Joker, whom Bruce insists is dead, has returned to Gotham. But this villian not only looks, sounds and acts like the Joker, he knows Bruce's secret identity, as well as what happened in their final confrontation. As the tagline says, the Joker is wild in this one. While the animated series has always used the kooky ex-mobster incarnation of the Joker, this is the vicious unbalanced career psychopath we've only seen in comics up until now. He blows up building full of people at random, shoots his own henchmen in the heart, stabs Batman, and etc. Some of the things Joker does can't be described without ruining the shock and awe of the flashback, but I will say that what he does both pushes Batman into the most violent rage we've seen of the animated character and taints the Bat family forever. The unedited version was tame and nothing special because it was defanged and declawed. The uncut version is second only to Mask of the Phantasm. 4/5, and a must see for Batman fans, even if you don't like Batman Beyond
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May 30, 2004 20:46
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