Batman: Gotham Knight

Review by Loc

Remember the Animatrix? That was the collection of animated shorts set in the world of the Matrix films. These ancillary stories were designed to flesh out the Matrix universe, to give depth and background to the world of Neo and Trinity. Produced in Japanese-animated style, each story helped add texture to the unwieldy Matrix world and helped expand the mythology. For the most part, the Animatrix was a cool little side project, not vital viewing to the movies, but kinda, sorta neat. Now, imagine if you were to do the same exact thing with Batman, offering anime-styled shorts to flush out Gotham and the Dark Knight shortly before the release of the new feature film starring Christian Bale and the late Heath Leger. What would you get? Quick hit: for the most part, kinda, sorta cool.

If there’s a comic book character that lends himself perfectly to stylized, moody interpretations, Batman is thy name. There isn’t another character on today’s bookshelves that can be portrayed in so many ways: straight-up action hero, genius-level detective, shadowy urban legend, athletic vigilante, and so on and so on and so on. With Gotham Knight, creators have taken to the anime style with enthusiastic vigor. The exaggerated style poses Batman as a shadowy monster, a demonic warrior, a chiseled hero, and an archetypical superhero. The animation moves fluidly and looks magnificent throughout the production. Mainstream American characters rarely get the anime treatment, and in the case of Batman, there’s no skimping in delivering this art form to the masses.

Gotham Knight is actually a collection of 6 short stories, semi-related and interlocking, but self-contained pieces for the most part. Aimed to bridge the gap between the Batman Begins and The Dark Knight films, Gotham Knight showcases a relatively experienced Batman dealing with street-level crime as well as comic-inspired villainy. However, much like the Animatrix, these stories are relatively mundane. Given 90 minutes to build out, any one of these shorts could be great in this subdued and subtle style. Yet, with each story running around 10 minutes, the pacing of the stories is uneven. Even with the more action-oriented pieces, these stories leave little depth to the characters. The one stand-out is the Working Through The Pain short, which chronicles some of Batman’s training through flashbacks during as he battles to survive the aftermaths of an earlier battle. This short mixes characterization, action, and builds depth with skillful precision.

As far as bridging any gaps, Gotham Knight doesn’t do much to fill in the blanks. These are basic Batman stories that build the myth of the Caped Crusader. Sure, you get the story where kids retell their encounters with the Batman. Or you get the one where Batman takes out gangsters as disbelieving onlookers begrudgingly watch. Yet, for the most part, these are stories that you know or would expect. Is there anything about the growing menace of the Joker? No. Is there any reference to Harvey Dent? No. So what this really aims to do is build the myth, a myth that we’re all familiar with already.

Overall, Gotham Knight is an interesting visual feast. You get an anime styled Batman, which is very cool. You also get the definitive voice of Batman in Kevin Conroy, famous from his portrayal of Batman throughout the last two decades in the Batman and Justice League animated series. Yet, the stories are a bit too slow and feature more stylized moodiness than substance. Considering you have to pay twice as much for the DVD as you do to go to the live action movie, you might be better off waiting to find this on cable or sticking it in your DVD queue. Out of 6 short stories, Gotham Knight swoops its way through 3.5 shorts. It’s OK, but may not be worth extreme effort.