Review of Batman: Gotham Knight (2008) by Eric J — 21 May 2010

RATING (0 to ****): *1/2.

Warner, knowing that they had the hottest sequel on their hands since "The Matrix" trilogy, has commissioned a similar straight-to-video compilation of tie-in anime, exploring concepts within the film's universe. Last time, we had "The Animatrix", which was wildly hit-and-miss.

In stark contrast, "Batman: Gotham Knight" is very consistent. Unfortunately, what's consistent is not its artwork (Batman is anywhere from what you see on the cover, to "delightfully" bizarre monster renditions, and "Fatman"), but that all six segments in this interconnecting narrative are thoroughly lame and lifeless. As it treads along in backstory for minor characters we could really care less about, we wonder how we could have been so stupid to waste our money on something where Batman scarcely appears.

Don't get your hopes up. The only segment remotely worth it is the last one, "Dead Shot", where he battles a sniper assassin on a train. This is all a lot better than it sounds, of course, since the film is so effective at draining all potential excitement. If you want to see a film with assassins shooting from a train, you only need to see "Wanted", the ticket price of which should cost $5 less than a purchase of this lame flick.

Actually, come to think of it, everything in "Batman: Gotham Knight" sounded better on paper. But don't think its being animated is the reason it turned out so badly. Rent "Batman: The Animated Series" instead, which not only packs more excitement in one episode, but should last you a lot longer in that excruciatingly long time before Christopher Nolan's sequel comes out.

I do not expect time to be kind to this flick. It's only there because we don't have "The Dark Knight" yet, and in the months to come, its lameness should be recognized. If you make the same stupid decision I did to purchase this, it will definitely cause you to re-evaluate your opinions of "The Animatrix", which at least had a few dazzling segments worthy of repeat viewings.

Don't even bother adding this stinker to your rental queues, which is sure to be one of the biggest used DVDs of the year.

MPAA: PG-13 (stylized violence, including some gratuitously bloody images).

Runtime: 1 hour, 16 minutes (71 minutes of "real movie").

[size=1][u]Minor gripe[/u]: Warner has usually been great about DVD presentations, but this time, they've pulled a "Ghost in the Shell 2" on us. Just because we want to watch an anime in Japanese does [b]not[/b] mean we're hearing impaired.[/size].