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?
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