Batman: Gotham Knight Reviewed!

Gotham Knight

Written by: Brian Azzarello, Alan Burnett, Jordan Goldberg, David S. Goyer, Josh Olson, and Greg Rucka

Directed By: Yasuhiro Aoki, Futoshi Higashide, Toshiyuki Kubooka, Hiroshi Morioka, and Shoujirou Nishimi

Based on characters created by Bob Kane







Gotham Knight is being described by some people as a bridge of sorts from Batman Begins to The Dark Knight. That's not exactly accurate.

Gotham Knight consists of six separate stories. You've seen this type of thing before if you saw The Animatrix. It's pretty much the exact same thing, an Anime take on a popular film (or comic icon in this case).

The difference is that The Animatrix did it better.


The animation is fantastic. It is a pleasure to watch the film. Batman is presented differently in each of the six stories.

The problem is that the stories aren't that great. None of them come close to the quality of Batman Begins or even Batman's previous animated exploits in Batman The Animated Series and Justice League.

There is one exception and that is "Working Through Pain". That short captures Batman, Bruce Wayne, and his mission perfectly. His strength and his dedication and perseverance are on display here and it hits the mark perfectly. The rest seem a bit off to me. They're not bad exactly, just not great. Not satisfying in some way.

It was nice to hear Kevin Conroy voicing Batman again. As far as I am concerned he is Batman, at least in the animated world.

As a whole, Gotham Knight doesn't really work for me. It seems a bit pointless. There isn't a real cohesive link to Batman Begins, at least that I picked up on, and I can't see how it will link with The Dark Knight outside of some characters showing up. At least with The Animatrix it felt like part of the lore. The world of The Matrix was fluid enough for this type of experimental storytelling to fit in with.

Gotham Knight just didn't feel authentic to me. It felt like a cash in to be honest.

Overall, Gotham Knight is a beautifully animated series of shorts with underwhelming stories. It has some interesting takes on Batman but for the most part it's pretty forgettable. At best it's a weak Bat-fix to keep you from crashing before The Dark Knight hits theaters on July 18. It's worth picking up for Anime and Batman fans looking for something visually cool. If you want a great story though, you're better of with the brilliant Batman: The Animated Series.

Gotham Knight is in stores on Tuesday. You can get it on DVD in single or 2-disc collectors edition as well as Blu-Ray.