"Under The Red Hood" Should Please The Fanboys
I've gone on the record as an enthusiast for DC's animated DVD releases. Most of the times, they're a great platform for synthesizing various strands of continuity to give the audience a unique superhero tale that can be both fan-pleasing and entertaining for those less emotionally involved. It should be a bonus, then, that Judd Winick wrote the "Under the Red Hood" movie, given his previous and ongoing work with the resurrection of Jason Todd. What we get with this movie is an oddly disfigured retelling of his death and rebirth, paying more attention to the dynamic between characters, namely Jason, Batman, and the Joker, that will entertain most but certainly not all of its viewers.
You get a wide range of skillful presentation within the three main characters. John DiMaggio's take on the Joker has just a touch of Bender's depravity mixed with some smooth crime-boss tones that left me stunned. Yet with the villainy required from the Red Hood, Jensen Ackles really struggles to deliver the more hard-boiled lines, they're weighed down by this gruffness that Bruce Greenwood as Batman is able to more subtly convey. A lot of fault can be attributed to the script, which always calls for the right scene, but falters because of the dialogue within. Nameless thugs will jarringly break into exposition-speech in the middle of being interrogated, Ra's Al-Ghul happily spills his heart for the Batman; It's a little too much to count as credible dialogue for me, and left me convinced that there were better things that could've been said to move the plot forward.
But color me far from disappointed, "Under the Red Hood" still has its moments of relevance. It's a movie aware that some fans have already had their share of Batman overcoming his "biggest failure", and gives you the option of watching Jason Todd subvert Gotham's crime scene through Black Mask and enacting his revenge on the Joker. There are moments of tenderness, like the ghostly flashbacks playing themselves out in front of a reminiscing Batman, from the encounter with the original Red Hood to Jason's first suit-up as Robin, and they play off well against the action that bookends them. Missions with Nightwing, voiced by Neil Patrick Harris, are action-packed glimpses at how Batman interacts with his other Robin with a penchant for explosions and witticisms, and mark the high-points of the film. Ultimately the delicacy with which the story is handled hampers any over-arching message it's trying to give off. It ends with a Batman victorious as he always would be, finding an uneasy peace with himself, without making much out of Jason's fate, thus failing to forge a resolution to all its plot-points. As he speeds away in the Batmobile, Bruce's last lines are "This doesn't change anything. This doesn't change anything at all," which is a too true account of the story here; It's more than just mindless action, and there are clearly some ideas posited throughout, but the film doesn't strive to expound of them, or frankly say anything about the importance of these events. Top-notch cartoon gunslinging may be found here, but the fall and rise of Jason Todd could've been much more.
Rubber Justice
Posted to DVD, Review on 5 August 2010
Other stuff like this: batman, dc animated, dvd, judd winick, Neil Patrick Harris
