Review of Batman: Mask of the Phantasm (1993) by Ryan H — 04 Dec 2012

I agree with everyone that visually this film works on a higher level than I expected for this style of animation. The timeless city of Gotham rests somewhere in the 50's and present day. I liked how they started on black and added color to work with the noir.

And intellectually the film works on a great level. We see Futureworld introduced early between Bruce and Andrea, then present day it's no longer functioning except when The Joker decides to use it.

So evil has literally taken over the future, which works really well for Andrea's character, and the deterioration works well with the theme behind Bruce Wayne's character for this film. My problem lies within the emotional connection.

They really try hard to make you care about Bruce Wayne and his relationship with Andrea, but in all honesty I didn't care that much. There aren't any moments where we linger and see some real emotion between the two.

All of the film works on the "remember this" type thing and nothing that shows why we should care now. I understand there were production budget issues, which is why it feels rushed in the relationship and emotional area, but to me that's some really important stuff.

You have to find a happy medium no matter what when trying to present story, action, and character development. Most of this film is action, which is totally fine if they weren't trying to play it off like we should care about the relationship between Batman and Andrea.

The reveal of Andrea had more of a purpose than the reveal of Talia. It was interesting. I wanted to know how she moved around in the smoke! She disappears without a trace and even gets shot! She's a ghost somehow, but then once she reveals her face then she becomes vulnerable.

Another problem I had with this. Batman: Mask of the Phantasm has so many problems that it was hard for me to really get into it. They nail the imagery and music, but lack in so many other places. It's a shame that they didn't have more time/money, or else this could have been something really great.