Batman vs. Robin

Thanks to a more personal and emotional story for its title characters, Batman vs. Robin is a stronger sequel that's emotionally satisfying, dark and surprisingly violent even if the court of owls are kinda wasted.

Jason O'Mara and Stuart Allan both give even better performances this time around due to their characters relationship and struggles being front and centre. Jeremy Sisto is a solid villain, mostly because of his extremely imposing voice.

The animation has also improved slightly with some really impressive fights throughout that are undoubtedly some of the best in the animated department. The music by Frederik Wiedmann is once again good without being too memorable.

I must say that i was a little bit skeptical before watching this one. "Batman vs Robin" is a Sequel to the 2014 DC animated movie "Son of Batman" and while i definitely enjoyed watching that one i didn't really think it was good. The sequel is also based on parts of the comic book " Court of Owls" from the "Night of the Owls" Storyline and as someone who read the comic i must say that it combines those two stories pretty good.

The biggest difference to the source material is Damian who, once again, seems more to be the protagonist rather than his father. So the writers realized that it would be better to make him more likable than in the first movie where he was basically an almost unbearable prick. But here he's a little more like an actual child and it works for the most part especially when Bruce tries to build a relationship with him. Their scenes together are the best in the movie along with the good action which extremely profits from the great animation.

The writing, in general is pretty decent and the voice actors do a great job portraying these characters especially Jason O'Mara who is probably my second favorite Batman by now, after Kevin Conroy of course.

I won't spoil it, but i want to mention that i really like the ending of this movie. It's not written in a way that this type of story normally ends with and it's also a bit emotional showing that Bruce and Damian really care for each other. It also leaves a bit open ended to set up a sequel which i normally don't really like that much but i'm okay with it here because i'd like to see another movie from this series especially when the third one improves as much on the second one as this one did on the first. Because then we probably could talk about the best animated Batman movie up to this point.

Taking influence from The works of Scott Snyder as well as Grant Morrison, this film is well put together. It's Honest about what it is, and executes a father and son conflict well, in the context of Batman. This makes the story on a different level, relatable to viewers.

Love animation and have really enjoyed to loved many superhero films, animated and live-action. Of the DC animated films, there are some good ones out there as well as some disappointments and ones that fall in between.

'Batman vs. Robin' is neither among the best or worst of the DC animated films. To me it's somewhere around high middle. Despite the somewhat misleading misnomer that is the film's title, the versus being more of the conflict between father and son over what Robin's path should be rather than some kind of action showdown, 'Batman vs. Robin' is vastly improved over 'Son of Batman' (good idea, weakly executed).

It is not perfect by all means. It has the same faults that quite a number of the DC animated films have, that it needed to be about 10 minutes longer in order for the many characters and the many things going on in the story to be effective. What 'Batman vs. Robin' has over a lot of them is that the story is always compelling and surprisingly dark, darker than usual, and the characters aren't one dimensional, with for example a far more conflicted Damian than portrayed in the other films he's featured in. Talon and the Dollmaker are two of the series' better villains for instance.

Sure, 'Batman vs. Robin' is a little rushed in places, complicated occasionally and Talon's real motivation is anti-climactically handled. On the other hand, the father and son relationship is handled much better here. It's not neglected, while not taking over too much of the story that it neglects the conflict, and has the heart, emotion and tension that 'Son of Batman' did not have so it was easier to invest in it. Batman is more interesting here while Damian is nowhere near as annoying and is more a realistic depiction of a conflicted teenager.

The animation is very good, often great. There are some very nice detailed backgrounds, the characters are designed well and the colours are dynamic and atmospheric. The music is both haunting and rousing, a good fit for the film's mood.

Writing is far from simplistic or childish, quite the opposite, while the story has a few issues but is compelling with some exciting and thrilling action. Saying that the villains are among the best of the DC animated superhero films is saying a good deal, DC have had a very hit and miss track record with their villains (an example of a hit being Joker in 'Assault on Arkham' and a miss being Deathstroke in 'Son of Batman'). The Court of Owls provides very believable, sometimes creepy conflict.

Voice acting is very well done. Not just Jason O'Mara, Stuart Allan and Sean Maher but particularly Weird Al Yankovic and Jeremy Sisto.

In conclusion, doesn't blow the mind but not bad at all. 7/10 Bethany Cox

The story is good, Damian's troubled personality is an interesting problem, the "eyes-wide-shut" Court of Owls is a great collective member for Batman's rogue gallery, and Talon's suit is nice. In my opinion, the script had some bad decisions in its final part, but the outcome was positive anyway.