Batman: Under The Red Hood Early Review
Batman is at it again in this action packed animated movie based on Batman: Under The Hood where he is forced to go toe to toe with a mysterious yet all too familiar new foe The Red Hood, as he trys to prevent a gang war from taking place in the streets of gotham
The Good
every year dc seems to pop out another animated dc movie featuring its long list of prominent characters, while not all shine i can definetly say this movie is gold. the voice acting is top notch, despite the obvious dissadvantage of not having Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill reprise their roles as the voices of Batman and the Joker, Bruce Greenwood fills the shoes rather nicely as the caped crusader and John DiMaggio gives us an excellent show as the Joker. Joining Greenwood and Dimaggio are Jensen Ackles (well known for playing Dean Winchester on supernatural) and Neil Patrick Harris (best known as Doogie Howser) both of which do excellent jobs voicing Batman's ex-robins.
While i've had a problem with DC's decisions for character designs in their past movies (particularly Public Enemies), the character designs for this movie are wonderful. The dark knight looks great in this film, and they manage to make the Joker look truely warped simply by adding a little black around the eyes. Red Hoods design is wonderful making him look like a true bad-ass. Nightwing would have looked better with a little more hair, and Black Mask...well he looks like black mask.
The action and fight scenes for the movie are excellent to a degree where john woo would be proud. The movie trys its hardest and succeeds at focusing on the amazing acrobatic talents of the the cast, and definetly shows off some of Batmans cool little toys.
Although this movie is shown in a serious light in the trailers and previews, the movie has a very decent amount of comedy (duh whats a movie with Joker in it without comedy) from many of its characters, ranging from just plain amusing to absolutely hilarious (one part about a crowbar in particular will have most fans laughing till milk comes out their noses).
The Bad
like most animated movies of this genre the movie is simply to short, running only about an hour and 15 minutes including about 4 minutes worth of credits. Because of this at many times i felt that the plot was rather rushed in order to make up for the lack of time. One major problem i had was that of the caped crusader himself, i understand batman is supposed to be a dark and brooding character, and its his movie he's allowed to be. Unfortunatly due to this his character in this movie sadly for most of the movie seems bland and lifeless, only showing true emotions at small intervals as the plot unviels itself. Black masks portrayal is another little tif i had with this movie, for the most part he comes off throughout the movie as a whiney businessman who can barely hold his "business" together.
All in all I give it a 4.5/5
Every movie has its ups and its downs luckily this movie doesnt have many. The plot is wonderful, truely forcing the viewer to focus on the thin line that seperates batman and the red hood. John Dimaggio does an excellent job portraying the infamous Joker, and the action scenes are excellent. the only major problem with the movie is the fact that it feels rushed because of its short run time, but that is no reason for you to avoid this movie. It may only be about 75 minutes but its a damn good 75 minutes.
