Batman: La malédiction qui s'abattit sur Gotham

The Doom That Came to Gotham is almost a companion piece to Gotham by Gaslight (2018). Here we have a turn-of-the-century Dark Knight investigating a cult who may be trying to summon up ancient forces of evil (spoiler: they are). Forbidden books, vast tentacled monstrosities and madness abound.

Lots of the usual Bat cast are thrown in - some given horrific make-overs, some don't make it to the final credits - and the voice work and animation are all above average. David Giuntuli is a terrifically fierce but impassioned, human Batman - he might be one of the best of the many voice actors in the role. This is a truly dark night for the Dark Knight, who at one point just stands in the Batcave and announces Gotham is doomed over and over again. To the wall.

As much as the movie uses such classic tropes and conventions from HP Lovecraft's stories, the biggest one - the overwhelming sense of unknowable dread - is something that just can't be conjured in a 90 minute animated action adventure. Slow-building tension and increasing unease are something it just doesn't have time for - also the problem with the first Hellboy movie, which Doom That Came to Gotham is very similar to.

However, as an atmospheric period superhero adventure, tinged with nightmarish horror, this is a winner.

Batman: The Doom That Came to Gotham doesn't live up to the potential of a lovecraftian take on the world of the Dark Knight but it's still good thanks to a reasonably engaging central mystery and a period setting that allows it to have some fun with the pre-established characters and events.

David Giuntoli is a good batman once again, he isn't given particularly memorable material but he certainly has the required gravitas for the character. The rest of the voice cast are all fine, with some DC animated veterans in fine if forgettable form.

The animation is good overall, it's nowhere near as stylish as it could've been but it looks nice enough. The music by Stefan L. Smith mostly goes unnoticed but does have a few fun moments where it does come to life. The longer run time is also appreciated, even if the ending feels rushed.

If you are a fan of Batman and want to see what this entire universe would be like in the early 1900s, you are in the right place, however, if you want to watch good animation with an incredible script, you are in the wrong place. Throughout the film several characters appear and this is the coolest part of the film. The curiosity to know what the characters are like in this universe is really cool, the problem is that the characters are just thrown into the movie and that ends up making the script worse precisely because it doesn't know what to do with so many characters. The only reason the movie isn't terrible is because of these references, which are really cool to catch, but by the end of the movie, it's already tiring that this happens so much. The film is quite mediocre, at times it is tiring and most of the time the action doesn't work so well. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone, just Batman fans who are curious about this type of situation.

When it comes to horror I can be a bit biased due to my love of the genre, but that aside I thought this was really good. While I enjoyed the color grading in Gotham by Gaslight a bit more as it truly invoked that story's era as well as the steampunk vibe it was going for, The Doom That Came to Gotham also looks stellar and the animation as well as the artwork is some of the best

Overall Batman: The Doom that Came to Gotham has a solid premise set to a tight pace that never lets up, with fresh takes on both Batman's allies and adversaries and artwork that makes it stand out from the crowd of animated DC films that exist. It's adult themes (and actual life and death consequences) coupled with smart narrative choices makes this worth seeing and as Batman stories go it deserves to sit up high with some of the best we've got from this medium thus far.

For DC animated films, it's often hit or miss on quality and unfortunately, The Doom That Came to Gotham is the latter. While it has fresh ideas and is visually entertaining by introducing new designs for some classic characters. Other than that, I found myself bored and waiting for the already short runtime to hurry up. The voice cast does their best to draw you into the mystery at hand and they are all fairly enjoyable in their roles. As an adaptation, it does the source material justice, but just because a comic exists, does not mean it needs to be adapted. It is by no means the worst of DC Animation, but in this case, boredom definitely came to Gotham.