Batman: Caped Crusader

After having heard so many good things about this, I was very excited to watch it.

Alas, it wasn't working for me at all. Action scenes were kind of boring, dialogue wasn't compelling, and sad to say that the voice acting didn't jump out at me as being particularly interesting, either.

The idea of an animated noir Batman series sounded great. But yeah, I couldn't get into it. Couldn't even make it through the first episode.

Don't care about the gender switching of a certain character, nor do I care what ethnicity certain other characters are. None of that makes any difference to me.

But when even a half hour show starts to feel like a slog, it's time to call it quits. I know I'm apparently in the minority on this, and that's fine -- don't mean to yuck anybody's yum, just giving my honest opinion of the show. I wish I liked it.

While exploring some interesting themes and with some really cool art-deco conceptual artwork, I found the animation itself to be really static and uninteresting. The opening shot of the entire series had a guy tied up in a chair, completely unmoving other than his mouth.

Since this show is being marketed as adult animation, I expected the quality of the animation to be higher. It feels like a kid's show that's peppered with more violence than usual - interesting but lacking the genuine emotion and higher quality animation that I would expect from a more mature show.

I do appreciate the art style, voice acting, and imaginative take on the characters we know and love. The music is also well done - sort of a classic orchestral noir vibe. However in my opinion it could do with less music overall, as well as an approach to the music that was less leading and manipulative.

As a Batman fan in all forms, it pains me to say this. Considering the talent and pedigree behind this version of Batman, it is easily the worst. 30 years after BTAS, you'd think they could do better than this. Stiff limited animation. At this point a more fluidly animated version is more than possible along the lines of a Blue Eye Samurai, but Netflix then Prime didn't want to spend the money or make the effort. Generic art design and pseudo-art deco design. It's not entirely clear what decade this is supposed to take place in. They took some of the best and most innovative ideas from BTAS and squandered them. Unnecessary character gender swaps and incoherent villain origins. We deserve better than this. Absolutely awful!

The first episode was promising. I didn't have a problem with race or gender changed versions of some character. But when I'm watching a Batman show with his name on it, I prefer to watch him or Bruce Wayne for most of the time rather than Gotham PD or Dent. The show focuses lot more on Gotham PD, corruption, Dent's moral compass but not on Bruce Wayne. What made him turn into Batman? Where did he learn to fight like this? Investigation skills? Also he addresses Alfred by "Pennyworth" (though by the end of the series he calls him Alfred) and talk in his Batman voice with him! Even in his House! The only two episodes I enjoyed the most were the one with Gentleman Ghost, bringing in the supernatural corner of the Batman lore and the seventh episode where Dent is on a revenge ride. Hamish Linklater did a good work on Batman, sometimes he feels too closer to Kevin Conroy. Animation is very poor in some places, specially the background structure. Gotham isn't properly shown in any shots. Overall this series could have been better.

It's certainly not the worst Batman show, but there are a lot of things that work against this project. The portrayals of all the characters come off as poor/boring versions especially the villains. All characters lack chemistry with each other as well.

With Batman/Bruce Wayne there's no depth or character development it's just the same bland and tiresome version of this version of the caped crusader.

I would say the biggest issue I have with this show is that it struggles trying to decide if it's for more mature audiences or if it's kid friendly. One second it's showing PG styled phrasing and cookie-cutter action, the next it's showing murder and serious dark topics yet holds back on showing any blood or graphic depictions. At the end of the day just pick a lane and stick to it.

Negatives:

• The Voice Acting
• The Writing
• The Soundtrack
• Modern Politics

Positives:

• The Animation
• The Release date

At the end of the day I would just stick with watching the Batman Year One animated movie. As it does a much better job of representing the origin of Batman becoming a true crime fighter while learning how to navigate through corruption and justice.