Son of Batman

... could have done.

The execution, the voice acting is indeed below par in places. This is true.

But I confess the story got to me. Usually any production that starts with the words "SON OF" is doomed. Literally.

But the story hooked me so I tolerated the subpar production values and actually had a fairly good time.

More than once I even wondered if somewhere out there was a producer who would find the cash to do this live action but given the audience expectations for a live action BATMAN, especially after Dark Knight, I guess that REALLY WOULD BE A FANTASY.

DC's shared direct-to-video animated universe enters its second chapter with SON OF BATMAN. Taking inspiration from Grant Morrison's Batman and Son comic story arc, SON OF BATMAN reveals the illegitimate love child of Bruce Wayne and former nemesis Talia, daughter of Ra's Al Ghul, leader of the league of assassins. When the league , is betrayed by its deadliest member, Deathstroke, Talia sends her son Damien to his father in Gotham city. But Batman has much on his hands, fighting crime and handling his company's falling profits, to take care of a 10 year old. A 10 year old who hacked into NORAD when he was 6, was trained in every art of combat, and who has no qualms about bloodshed.

These clashing values and personalities should have made an intriguing study of this father father/son relationship. Here is a man who is suddenly saddled with the responsibilities of fatherhood, of balancing is double life of swinging billionaire/crime fighter with a new life of a parent which he never had. The comics delved into Bruce's lingering insecurities of a man who had his childhood taken from him on tragic night. How is he, who's own younger days were filled with grief and hatred, able to deprogram me this vengeful, angry kid that is his son?

SON OF BATMAN (the film) fails to offer any glimpse into the head of Bruce Wayne. Character study is overshadowed by wanting to move the whole ninja/assassin hostile takeover story forward. As such, we get the character development taking a backseat to the action. We do get some nice chemistry in the few scenes between Damien and Alfred, as well as budding rivalry with Nightwing. But between Batman and his son? Disappointingly flat.

Thankfully, their voice actors do their best to bring out their characters' personalities. Jason O'Mara's Batman is a nice blend between Christian Bale, without being too raspy, and a young Michael Keaton. Those who prefer Kevin Conroy's deep Batman voice would no take some time to get used to this new portrayal. Stuart Allen as Damien is the star of this show, bringing a level of professionalism to the role despite his young age. On the other hand, our villains, Ra's Al Ghul and Deathstroke, are horrible. Deathstroke especially sounds like acting in a bad school play.

Visually, SON OF BATMAN boasts artwork very reminiscent of Avatar: The Last Airbender. Not surprising since the director Ethan Spulding directed a good number of Avatar episodes. Here, he truly revels in the new PG13 rating of this film, bringing the violence to whole new levels bordering on absurdity. Characters are literally roasted, get their eyes gouged out, impaled, and blasted to bloody bits

The character designs maintain that Japanese anime look consistent with the previous JUSTICE LEAGUE: WAR feature. Level of detail is strong with deep shadows, metallic sheen and creases. TheAnswerStudio brings their "A" game to the animation production, giving generally smooth animation and character movements while maintaining the level of art detail. The only shortcoming is in crowd scenes such as the massive ninja battle that opens this movie. Animation short cuts are very obvious here.

All in all, SON OF BATMAN works better as a set up for bigger stories. Assuming BATMAN UNDER THE RED HOOD is still canon, and with Warner Premiere turning to DC's New 52 for animated adaptations, we could be seeing a whole slew of Bat-family titles on the horizon. An animated "Batman: The Court of Owls" would be epic and "Batman: Death of the Family" would serve as a powerful conclusion. An adaptation of Grant Morrison's final Batman inc chapters would be an emotionally powerful epilogue bringing the entire Damien Wayne saga to a close.

One can only hope.

The things that some characters do are so ridiculous you can't really get into the story. The story itself is all pretty rushed and there's hardly any emotion or connection between characters and plot events. Could have been so much better.

Animation was pretty decent. Nightwing, as always, is awesome.

Son of Batman is certainly less epic than the preceding two Justice League animated movies, but it does a fine job of introducing Damien Wayne as the new Robin. There is nothing special here and the stakes are somewhat low, but it is still a solid 80 minutes of entertainment.

This was a terrible addition to the Batman movies series. I was not very impressed, I felt this movie was rushed. Unrealistic in various aspects, not how the typical Batman movies are suppose to be.

Part of why Batman is so popular is because viewers enjoy watching a man using his intellect and natural resources to solve crimes and ultimately capture the villains.

The almighty "trailer" makes any movie look hype and all the rave. Which it did justice for this movie, but 30minutes into the movie I could already tell I was in for disappointments.

"Damion" was way overpowered, being able to take on the world's top assassin within the DC universe? That's absurd! Slade or Death-stroke is an entity to be feared and not to be so easily defeated by Damion who has not even reached his prime yet.

Also the character Batman was ineffectively orchestrated, he did not have the mysterious, lone-wolf, and independent personality which stays true to the Comics and previous movies or series and original concept character for that matter.

Overall the movie was lacking and I think a fair appraisal is, 5-5.5 out of 10. This move will keep you entertained, but not worth a second watch.