Movie Review: Batman: The Doom That Came to Gotham (2023) *Spoilers*

Movie Review: Batman: The Doom That Came to Gotham (2023) Spoilers

Batman: The Doom That Came to Gotham Poster

I don't know why I go into every WB Animation/DC Comics animated movie hopeful that it's going to be good. It almost never is.

You'd think my expectations would be so low by this point that it wouldn't take much to be pleasantly surprised but apparently not.

I can only guess that WB Animation's latest DC offering, Batman: The Doom That Came to Gotham is intended to be some kind of special release for Halloween with the amount of monsters and supernatural elements that lie within.

The trouble is, I don't know who this is for? Given the body count, it's not for kids and, with all the magic and supernatural elements front and center it's not really a detective story?

Set in 1920's Gotham, an ancient evil is awakened, and only Batman can save the city (I guess? I mean a good proportion of the city gets burned to the ground so... did he save it?).

Given the time period I was hopeful this could be something of an interesting take on Batman along the lines of Gotham by Gaslight (2018) but there's really no reason this needs to be set in the 1920s, other than maybe superstition, monsters, and magic were more of a mainstream concern in that era.

Beyond that we see Batman occasionally using some advanced gadgets for the time period. We don't see a heck of a lot of interaction with the citizens of Gotham, while all the main players seem like versions of Batman's rogue's gallery if their origin stories all began with ancient magic.

This is based on a year 2000 series of comics by Mike Mignola apparently. I don't read Batman comics and, quite frankly, if WB/DC Animation is anything to go by, I'd have a collection of disappointing comics to match my collection of disappointing DC Animated DVDs I own.

The sad thing is, the art, animation, voice cast, production quality is all really good for straight to video releases. I'd watch these DC animated movies all day. They just don't seem to be for me... there's some very niche Batman fans that probably love Batman fighting gods and monsters. I'm not one of them.

I don't mind Batman going up against weird, or even supernatural characters but he's first and foremost a street level detective, with a lot of money, and a whole set of toys that would make James Bond green with envy. I don't think we even saw a Batmobile in this movie?

Honestly this is bad in terms of the story. It starts out interesting with Oswald Cobblepot being on some kind of fatal arctic expedition. You think it's leading to some interesting versions of Batman's rogue's gallery but ultimately it all goes south and I found myself wishing it would just get on with it so it could be over.

It's just Batman following a convoluted prophecy that he's given in the first act but, of course, doesn't think anything of. As a story it goes nowhere. By the end, everyone of note is dead and Batman is now a literal man sized bat who didn't do anything that wasn't in the prophecy.

Sure it's an Elseworlds story but it's not really a Batman story. Better suited to Shazam, Black Adam, or even Wonder Woman since all their history is based in ancient mythology.

Just awful. Watch the first act and see how you go. It had potential to be something but then it forgot why it was set in the 1920s, and turned into a generic monsters and magic movie... and not a good one at that.

Can we please just get a good Batman and Robin detective story in Gotham with any of his A or B list rogues gallery?

Comments

Movie Review: Superman (2025) No Spoilers

T he one thing I like about James Gunn as a comic book movie director is that he leans into the comic book nature of the world and the characters. He's not trying to do a realistic take on any of the characters. He's simply bringing the comics to life. It's still his take on the characters, but he doesn't shy away from their comic book origins. James Gunn's Superman is very much a comic book movie in every sense. Nothing is off the table because it's too 'comic-booky' and might look silly in a live action film. To me that's incredibly liberating. It lets James actually tell a proper Superman story that isn't hamstrung by reality, or tip toeing into the fantastical just enough to allow Superman to exist in the real world. Superman begins in the middle of a battle. Metropolis is under attack by a super powered being known as 'Hammer of Boravia', however everything is not as it seems, and Superman (David Corenswet) must work with other s...

James Gunn's Social Media Monkeys Joke Was a Highlight of His Superman Movie For Me

B efore James Gunn's Superman Movie was released there was a whole rumor going around that the movie would feature monkeys on computers trolling Superman's social media, sparking much outrage. #supersh*t. I didn't know this was even a thing until just prior to writing this article. I did a search to see if anyone had posted a clip of the monkeys scene from the movie and got pages of discourse featuring videos and articles prior to the film. Most of it from Gunn detractors (let's say) seeing it as some kind of childish swipe at them... well not them specifically but, you know, those other people who have every right to hate on anything sight unseen. Anyway, I'm not going to give even one such example a link or air because it's kind of sad watching someone devote so much commentary to a throw away gag that is absolutely a nod to James Gunn's Superman trolls. The whole reason this post exists, is to say I loved the joke, because fourteen years ago, and I...

I'm Confused About Why People Prefer to Say Discombobulated?

D iscombobulated. Is a word that I think someone rediscovered about three or four years ago (maybe more because the pandemic years have thrown out my sense of time) and now I hear it a lot. It's not a new word by any means, but when I started hearing multiple celebrities using it in everyday sentences, I actively had to look up what it meant. Define it with as many synonyms as you like but essentially it's just another word meaning 'confused'. Seinfeld Quotes: Quotes.net The words are pretty much interchangeable. He was discombobulated by too many choices. He was confused by too many choices. My confusion is the length of the word. It's unnecessarily long with too many syllables. There are many other words that mean confused, and therefore also mean discombobulated. Most of them are shorter and easier to say. So why not just say 'confused'? Perhaps discombobulated sounds more intelligent, maybe? Hawaii Five-0 Quotes: Quotes.net I've noticed it gets us...

Movie Review: A Complete Unknown (2024) No Spoilers

Y ou would think the Bob Dylan story would be 'wind-swept and interesting,' to quote Billy Connelly, however, despite A Complete Unknown being quite an engaging film, it feels like it missed the years that really shaped him as a song writer/performer. The film starts in 1961, with a then unknown, 19-year-old Bob Dylan (Timothée Chalamet) arriving in New York City with his guitar. From there he forges relationships with musical icons on his meteoric rise, culminating in a groundbreaking performance that reverberates around the world. The problem being, according to this film, Dylan arrived in New York, for the most part, fully formed as a folk singer/song writer. In virtually no time he makes a very important connection that puts him on the trajectory of doing the work and becoming a name, before making his world changing performance. While there is some drama behind the scenes with his various relationships, none of it is particularly unique to any number of up and com...

I'm Joining the Illuminati Brotherhood By Personal Invitation of Hiltom Rothschild... Wait, What?

How special am I to have finally come of age (53 years young) and am now eligible to participate in building the world alongside other members of the Illuminati Brotherhood... Yes I've received the call by way of an email, which I'm sure is real because I had to translate it from the Dutch language and it was personally written by Hiltom Rothschild, one of the non-existent members of the Rothschild family (or perhaps deep undercover because Google has never heard of them?). A Transcript of the email below: To: etourist From: Illuminati Brotherhood Subject: Illuminati Broederschap (Illuminati Brotherhood) I am Hiltom Rothschild, a member of the Rothschild family, one of the 13 families of the Illuminati brotherhood. I'm here to let you know that you've come of age and are eligible to participate in building the 🌎 world. It is a calling and a privilege to honor him with pride and gratitude as not everyone will ever be chosen by the LIGHT, many are called but few are ch...

Australian Federal Election 2025 - World's Most Boring Government Re-elected by Landside - We're Even More Fine!

Anthony Albanese Victory by ChatGPT and TET. W hen I started writing about the 2025 Federal election the polls were suggesting the world's most boring government was crusing to a defeat . As it turns out, boring is good, and Australia wants more of it, handing the current government a landslide win with a majority vote. Anthony Albanese became the first PM since John Howard to win a consecutive term, and the first Labor PM since Bob Hawke to do so. Some of that comes down to the leadership revolving door both major parties had through the mid 2000s. Although Anthony is my preferred PM over Dutton the irony is Dutton sounds more like a leader with a fairly commanding voice and an ability to speak well, without sounding like he's waffling and dodging questions, even if he is. Anthony, on the other hand, does have the ability (and speech writer) to say a lot of inspiring things but it gets lost in the delivery. He doesn't seem to know when to emphasise a point for effect. In h...

Second Sunday Skateboard Session Episode 9, and 10 - Shuv-it Revelation and Did I Improve?

T he final two episodes of my ten part YouTube series documenting my process of learning the first seven basic skateboard tricks from Braille Skateboarding's, Skateboarding Made Simple. These are the links to Episode One , Episode Two , Three to Five , and Six to Eight , should you feel the need to see where I started or you want a bit more background on my personal skateboarding journey that began in 1988. I won't ramble on in this final introduction to my last two sessions, other that to say, episode ten is the highlight in terms of getting a direct comparison from episode 1 with side by side footage. Episode 9 - Frontside Pop Shuv-it Revelation The only episode not filmed on the second Sunday, thankfully due to the weather raining Sunday out and not my lack of willingness to continue. Monday was also very rainy but I managed to fit my session in during a small window of no rain late in the day. It was a little bit of a difficult session in that I could only uti...

TET.Life (The Extraordinary Tourist Life)

Search This Blog