Batman: Under The Red Hood Review

Hey everyone, Jason Todd here once again for another animated movie review, this time I'll be taking a look at Batman: Under The Red Hood, the animated movie adaptations of "Under The Hood" and "A Death in The Family." I plan on giving you guys an in-depth, impartial review based on what I thought of this movie, regardless of my fondness of the Red Hood/Jason Todd characters. Also, below the review are the poll results from last week, and of course, don't forget to vote on this weeks new poll as well. So, without further hesitation, I present to you, my review of Batman: Under The Red Hood.

Batman has fought crime in Gotham City for years, with his former Robin, the now Bludhaven based hero known as Nightwing dropping in every once in a while, Gotham crime knows to fear the Dark Knight. So when a new vigilante moves into town, one that will cross the line Batman won't by killing villains and drug dealers, Batman plans on stopping him. Batman tries to stop The Red Hood but he always seems to be a step ahead. Batman eventually comes to believe that Red Hood may be the murdered former Robin, Jason Todd. Meanwhile, The Red Hood is quickly making enemies, the biggest being Black Mask. So when Black Mask enlists the help of The Joker, we have a three way battle between Batman, The Joker and The Red Hood himself. Will Batman take out his former partner? Will The Joker kill again? Will Red Hood kill The Joker once and for all?

Likes

The Story: As a fan of the original story, this story captures it well and adds it's on spin. While A Death in The Family is classic, the story is sub par, and gladly the film knew this and omitted most of it, only the Joker beating Jason Todd with the crowbar and blowing him up was taken from that comic. Everything else was given it's own spin for the movie, instead of randomly throwing Superboy Prime in and having him punch a wall to bring Jason back, Ra's Al Ghul and his Lazarus pits were brought in instead, which made a hell of a lot more sense. The ending was changed as well, as in the comics you may recall the final showdown between Red Hood, Batman and The Joker never ended because of the explosion in Bludhaven, and luckily this couldn't happen in the animated film and it's better for it.

First Appearances: This movie was monumental in many ways, portraying the debut of Jason Todd, The Red Hood, and Black Mask in animated form for the first time ever. Also, making their DCU Animated film debuts were Nightwing, Ra's Al Ghul and the always illusive and A-List character of Al Ghul's bodyguard Ubu! Oh yeah!

The Voice Acting: This film had an AMAZING cast, a truly great cast. Bruce Greenwood (Christopher Pike in Star Trek of 2009) portrayed Batman and did an fantastic job as The Caped Crusader. He did so well that he's going to voice Batman in the upcoming "Young Justice" cartoon that debuts later this year. Simply said, if Kevin Conroy were to step down as Batman, I would accept Bruce Greenwood as the definite Batman voice with no problem, that's how good he is. The Red Hood's voice actor, Jensen Ackles (of Supernatual and Smallville Season 4) gave Hood's character the voice I've always envisioned him having and did a great way of portraying his snarky humor and comedic timing, while still coming off as serious in the heavier scenes of the film. Throw in the amazing voice talents of John DiMaggio (Bender of Futurama) as The Joker, Neil Patrick Harris (How I Met Your Mother) as Nightwing and the scene stealing Wade Williams (Prison Break) as Black Mask. If you aren't a fan of Black Mask, you will LOVE him by the end of this film.

The Artwork and Choreography: The artwork in this movie is great, it's crisp and comparable to the artwork in Superman/Batman: Public Enemies, yet it has it's own style. The fights are choreographed perfectly, there's even one scene where The Red Hood and Batman fight side by side, and it looks amazing, there are no words to describe it, but what I love best is you can see the obvious teammate influence when Batman and Nightwing fight side by side. Also, throw in the fact that no two fights look similar, so there's always something enjoyable.

Dislikes

Nightwing: This is honestly the only thing I disliked in the film. Don't get me wrong, I didn't hate him, and Neil Patrick Harris voices him perfectly, he just had no purpose. He pops up, helps Batman when bats really didn't need his help, then shows up again and has no bearing on the end of the movie. Really, it's not a big complaint but him randomly popping up telling bad jokes was kind of annoying, because while Dick does joke around and lighten the mood, he also knows how to be serious. Also he had a weird buzz-cut, where's my traditional Nightwing with long hair or a ponytail?!

Final Rating: Honestly, I enjoyed this movie a lot. I watched this film three times, and there was nothing I could find wrong with it. It's enjoyable by comic fans and non-comic fans. I even had a friend watch it, one that believes all Superheroes should have powers like Superman or The Flash, and by the end he'd changed his position on that and decided he really liked Batman and Red Hood. The actors are great at their roles, and portraying the necessary emotion, whether it's the Joker's psychotics, Red Hood's attitude and jokes or the deep scene with Jason and Batman, it comes off the way it should when you read the comics. This is, without a doubt my favorite DCU Animated Film and one of my favorite films in general. I'd love to see a continuation to this, and more voice work by this amazing cast, especially Greenwood, Ackles and DiMaggio. I'd recommend this to anyone, comic fan or not, because it's a great story, with an amazing cast and it's action packed, as well as an emotional story. Definitely a 10/10 rating for this great movie.

Well, that's it for this review guys. I didn't get SUPER in-depth because while the story is reused it's still interesting because things have been added to enhance the story so it's not rehashed. I hope you guys found it informative and enjoyed it. Also, below I've included a link for the next DC Animated Film, Superman/Batman: Apocalypse. It's based on the second arc of Superman/Batman and will feature the two title characters along with Supergirl, Darkseid, Doomsday, Granny Goodness and even more characters. And under that is last week's poll results. So, I'm outta here, I'll be back this week with another edition of Ratings and Rantings, as well as the topics for next weekends "Top Five 5", so until then, I'm your friendly Neighborhood Blogger-Man, Jason Todd!



Last week's poll question asked "Whose Comics would you like to see crossover and lead to a team-up?"

Last Place with 11.1% - Tie between Superman/Lex Luthor and The JLA & Deathstroke's Titans.
2nd Place with 33.3% - The Femme Fatales of the Batfamily and House of El, Supergirl and Batgirl
Winner with 44.4% - The Gotham City Sirens and The Birds of Prey. Dini, Simone, make it happen!

Taking A Look: Under The Red Hood

Hey everyone, Jason Todd here with some big news in my opinion. But first, just letting you guys know I picked up a few comics today so expect a Review a Few tomorrow or Saturday, because I'll be busy Friday. For those wondering I picked up Blackest Night 7, Black Lantern Green Arrow, Teen Titans #80,  Flash Rebirth #6 FINALLY, and Gotham City Sirens #09. Really looking forward to the Blackest Night stuff and finishing Flash Rebirth, and Sirens and Titans should be cool.

Now back to the title of this article. As most of you know I'm a huge Jason Todd fan, hence the name. I've blogged about how I think he's been misused a lot, from when he was killed and then he was used pretty awesome after his return but once Bruce "died" he was made a C-List villain and someone no one has taken seriously. The fact that most casual fans don't even know who Jason Todd is, only knowing Dick Grayson and some knowing Timothy Drake, I've always felt like Jason doesn't get respect. Hell he's looked at as being the one time Batman couldn't get there in time to save someone he cares about since donning the cape and cowl. So Jason deserves respect. And he's finally going to get it.

In the release of JLA Crisis On Two Earths (In stores now), we are treated with a preview of the upcoming Batman: Under The Red Hood animated movie. It's based on Judd Winick's graphic novel and it will feature things about Jason's past including his beating by The Joker with a crowbar and being blown up. Apparently it will feature his return, as well as the Lazarus Pits as Ra's Al Ghul has been confirmed to appear as well. It even will feature the showdown between Batman and Jason with Joker in the middle right before Bludhaven was blown up by Chemo. Oh and did I mention it also features the Animated Debut of Black Mask? So without further adieu I present to you guys, a preview of Under The Red Hood.





For those that don't feel like watching the entire video, I believe around the two minute mark of the second video you can hear a little of the voice over work. I'm really looking forward to this, we have Bruce Greenwood as Batman. I don't know a lot about him but having heard some of his work Batman I will say that if we couldn't have Kevin Conroy who is the voice of Batman, then he's a damn good second. He gets my vote for a great job. Jensen Ackles (of CW's Supernatural and Jason Teague of Season 4 of Smallville)  as Jason Todd/Red Hood was a great choice. Having seen him play both joking roles and serious roles I know he can give Jason some well needed clarity with his voice. And with the always entertaining Neil Patrick Harris as Nightwing and John Dimaggio (Bender of Futurama) as The Joker I'm interested in seeing how he does as the Clown Prince of Crime. Also, Jason Issacs (Lucius Malfoy of the Harry Potter films) will play Ra's Al Ghul so that alone should be worth the price of admission.

All in all, it's still early to tell but I'm really looking forward to this animated movie. I'm hoping this is the first step to introducing Jason Todd to the non comic reading fans and also redeeming him in the eyes of many fans. Hopefully this is everything I hope so and I'll be reviewing it the second I get a chance to see it. I'm also interested to see what you guys think about it and also what other comic storyline's you guys think would make awesome animated movies. Until next time, you've been gobsmacked by The Red Hood. :P

- Jason Todd

Salvation Run Review

Hey everyone, Today's review will be on Salvation Run as the title of this post just gave away. I came down to the wire and decided to go with Salvation Run because I'd just watched the movie Cannonball Run and thought they'd be similar. No, I'm joking, I've never seen Cannonball run. Basically I had to choose between reading about Marvel vs. DC which sounds awesome or reading about The Flash's Rogues, Batman's Rogues featuring Catwoman, Poison Ivy and Joker and Lex Luthor and at the end of the day thats too much evil to be contained so I chose Salvation Run. So we're gonna jump right in to the seven issue mini series that is Salvation Run.

Our story starts with Amanda Waller and Rick Flag Jr. discussing a plan to do away with all of the villains. After noting Black Adam's World War III after the loss of Isis in Kandaq, The attack by the Amazonian women on the free world, and the murder of The Flash (Bart Allen) by The Flash's Rogues. Rick informs the Rogues that they along with others will be sent to another planet with no materials but their powers and weapons. They are allowed this planet, they can try to rule it, they can establish a government but they are no longer a problem for Earth or any of it's inhabitants. Fast forward two weeks to where The Rogues are on some seemingly deserted planet fighting for their lives only relying on each other to make it through day by day.

Without giving away any pivotal information lets just say some of the people who show up are a given like Joker, Lex, Metallo, and Cheetah, but some other people surprised the hell outta me. I mean really who expects to see Ibac, Man-bat, or Crazy Quilt? Or freaking Kid Karnevil who wants to grow up to live his life like The Joker and honor Mister J by skinning his body to make a suit or a cape? WHAT?! That Kid is insane and it works so well on this planet of crazy villains. Plus guys like Catman, Deadshot and Bane just make the story even more rich. And what Joker did to Psimon...one of the funniest things I've ever seen in a comic book. Gotta love The Joker.

All in all I loved this story. The villains were represented perfectly, no one was out of character and it made a very fun story. It's awesome watching these villains plan, backstab and murder one another just because it's in their nature. I will say the final two issues slowed the momentum down and I didn't care much for the Vandal Savage plot but everything else was top notch. I gotta give this mini series an 8.5 rating and I recommend it to anyone who hasn't checked it out yet. The artwork is also very nice looking and accentuates the characters perfectly.

Before I get out of here I wanna link a video that someone made to a song I had never heard before, It's called "The Ballad of Barry Allen" by Jim's Big Ego. The video has clips from Teen Titans and JLA/JLU that featured Wally West but I'm not picky. Anyway I think it's a great song and the video does it justice. Anyone interested in checking it out can watch it below.

- Jason Todd