Jul
10
Shortly before “The Matrix: Reloaded” opened in ‘03 and bored the ever-loving hell out of audiences, Warner Bros. released “The Animatrix,” a collection of animated short films set in the Matrix-verse. Japanese Anime was clearly a major influence on the first film — from the meticulously framed action sequences to the dystopic theme of man married to machine. That said, “The Animatrix” was an opportunity for some of today’s leading animators to bring their own sensibilities to the world the Wachowskis Bros. (um, I dunno if they’re still technically brothers because one recently had gender reassignment surgery or something) had created.
I vaguely remember watching “The Animatrix.” Yeesh, that must’ve been some 5 years ago now. I know I must have seen it at some point. The DVD’s on my shelf with all three, dust-gathering “Matrix” films. But I’m not what you would consider the world’s biggest fan of Anime. I like it to some degree, I guess. “Akira,” “Ghost in the Shell,” “Vampire Hunter D” — those were all gateway drugs for geeks like me into the world of Anime. I just never really graduated to the harder stuff, the ones with titles that make no sense whatsoever, like “Bubblegum Crisis.” What the eff is a bubblegum crisis? Is the war in Iraq affecting our supply of Hubba-Bubba?
Maybe this disconnect I seem to have with Anime is why I found “Batman: Gotham Knight” to be one great big yawn. In anticipation of next Friday’s “The Dark Knight,” Warner Bros. has just released a new DVD with a half-dozen animated short films about a certain Caped Crusader. As such, I got duped into another blind buy.
“Gotham Knight” bridges the year-long gap — in movie continuity, anyway — between “Batman Begins” and “The Dark Knight.” It doesn’t explain how Assistant District Attorney Rachel Dawes went from looking like Katie Holmes to Maggie Gyllenhaal; my guess is she’s really Clayface! At any rate, what “Gotham Knight” does do is remove about an hour from the viewer’s lifespan.
The shorts are fairly interchangable as far as their flimsy stories go. Stylistically, they take a hard left turn from the universe Chris Nolan established in movie one; the Batmobile from the friggin’ Tim Burton films appears in an episode. Lessons in human anatomy appear to have been skipped by the animators. Yet the greatest crime of all is that Batman is given precious little to do. Too much time is devoted to people talking about him. It’s odd that they brought back Kevin Conroy — the voice of Batman in the infinitely richer animated series from the ’90s — when he’s not given very much to say.
“The Dark Knight” needs to hurry up and open already. I’m tired of living on breadcrumbs. And you really can’t get much crummier than “Batman: Gotham Knight.”
-Brad Lohan
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