Review of Batman: Mystery of the Batwoman (2003) by Aslum K — 04 Jan 2009

This is what a Batman movie should be.

[u]Batman: Mystery of the Batwoman[/u] introduces us to the elusive title character (Kyra Sedgwick) as she busts up Rupert Thorne (John Vernon) and the Penguin (David Ogden Stiers)'s latest dastardly plot. This time they're teaming up with gangster Carlton Duquesne (Kevin Michael Richardson) to smuggle or something (I forget), much to the chagrin of Duquesne's daughter, the sexy Kathy Duquesne (Kimberly Brooks). Batman (Kevin Conroy) is not pleased with another, more reckless vigilante invading his turf, and at the urging of Commissioner Gordon (Bob Hastings) begins an investigation into who this "Batwoman" is, while, in his Bruce Wayne persona, trying to keep Kathy Duquesne from getting herself killed. The two storylines naturally cross and the result is a really exciting, well-paced, well-directed, well-acted, well-written extravaganza. Many fans consider "Batman: The Animated Series" to be /the/ definitive take on Batman, and that crew does this film, making it really hard to argue against that. The movie is flawlessly brilliant, exciting, and shows what that team was really capable of. Can't fault this film.

[u]Mystery of the Batwoman[/u] is what Anime fans would call an OVA - "Original Video Animation," which is a feature length version of an animated series, much like the Dini and Timm (creators of this series) feature [u]Batman: Mask of the Phantasm [/u](Eric Radomski and Bruce W. Timm, 1993). My guess is that [u]Phantasm [/u]was unsuccessful in its theatrical release, despite great reviews, which is why they decided to send this one straight to video. Big mistake, as I personally had the same reaction to this movie that most people had to [u]The Dark Knight[/u] (Christopher Nolan, 2008). Simply put, this is the Batman and kind of Batman story I think of when I think of this character. He's a true pulp hero, but a hero nonetheless, with James Bond like escapes, femme fatales, a noirish city - the whole nine. It's action packed from teaser to climax, and there are no wrong-headed attempts at drama or worse, a stupid "Scooby-Doo" voice for the lead. It's straight-forward, balls to the wall action for boys, with enough sex mixed in to make it interesting, and I can't praise it enough.

When it was over, the thing I thought about the most was why you couldn't do this as a feature length live action Batman movie. Admittedly, there's no explicit sexuality, no cursing, or anything like that, as "Batman: The Animated Series" still has primarily a kid audience, but in terms of the story and story-telling, it really is in the same category as a Spielberg film. Why couldn't you make a feature length film like this? All I could think of was [u]Conan The Destroyer[/u] (Richard Fleischer, 1984), the sequel to Oliver Stone's [u]Conan the Barbarian[/u] (1982). Roy Thomas, old school comics writer, wrote [u]Destroyer[/u], and while it's fun, it feels like a movie for little kids. Whether that's in the story or the direction I honestly couldn't tell you, but [u]Mystery of the Batwoman[/u] is also written by respected comics writer Alan Burnett, and perhaps it would feel the same way. While I can't quite put my finger on the difference, there has to be one, because this and [u]Dark Knight[/u] really do feel really different. For me, this is the better film, but then, I've been a fan of Batman since I was a little kid. How someone else encountering this material for the first time would feel I don't know. All I know is that I think [u]Mystery of the Batwoman[/u] is a great film, while [u]The Dark Knight[/u] is not.