Movie Review: Son of Batman

Damian Wayne is a polarizing character. There's no "meh" about Damian Wayne, the test tube baby of Bruce Wayne and Talia Al Ghul. Most people hate him, a few people like him. Personally I love the little brat because I can't get enough of him trying to prove himself to everyone. Also he's the only one who will go toe to toe with Dick Grayson and his sass. Son of Batman covers Damian's origin story, although it's a little different from the comic book version. There aren't many major differences. Dick Grayson is used instead of Tim Drake, Deathstroke plays the main villain instead of Talia but most of the story remains the same.

The story starts with Deathstroke attacking Ra's Al Ghul's and killing everyone except Damian and Talia. Talia takes Damian to Gotham to stay with Bruce while she tracks down Deathstroke. The fun begins the moment Damian tries to drive the Batmobile. Damian continues to take things into his own hands as a trained killer. He's also attempting to track down Deathstroke. Damian is beating up Deathstroke's goons, Talia is attacking his compounds and Batman is doing his detective thing.

One of the best moments in the film comes when Damian attacks one of Deathstroke's top men and beats him almost to death after an intense fight and chase. Before he can kill him Nightwing shows up to put a stop to the madness and bring the comedy relief. He gets attacked by Damian in an unseen fight. Fast forward and Dick is covered in cuts (Damian was using a sword) and Damian is hanging from a light post. Dick calls Bruce and drops a few hints about having his kid. Before Bruce picks him up.

At this point Bruce finally lets Damian be Robin after Alfred makes him a more suitable costume. Damian continues trying to be the boss because despite what Talia told him he doesn't think much of Bruce, even after he got disarmed and tied up by his student Nightwing. Bruce starts pointing out all the ways Damian is stupid and doesn't think before he acts.

Eventually the final showdown comes. Despite the fact that Damian wants to kill Deathstroke he doesn't. He leaves with Bruce and Talia. Now, here's the thing, they barely escaped an exploding oil rig when water was rapidly flooding in. They barely got saved by Nightwing. They left Deathstroke knocked out under water in an exploding oil rig to die from explosions or drowning, yet Bruce spends a ton of time scolding Damian about not killing. Is he saying it's wrong to kill but okay to leave people to die? Are we serious Bruce?

They all stand together on a cliff over looking the ocean. Talia proves she's mom of the year by demanding Damian get on the plane to leave. He stands by her side looking sad and you see the glisten of a tear forming in his eye. She sighs and just leaves him there with Bruce. Without a goodbye the plane flies off leaving the new Batman and Robin. They watch the sunset and Damian asks to drive again. That's the gist of it.

Now this film displays why I love Damian. He's a little bottle of rage. He's a killer. He thinks he knows everything. But, he's really a caring kid. He almost cried when he was going to be taken away from Bruce despite all his talk about being a warrior. He attacked Nightwing and after he lost he still talked about how he couldn't take it. But he realized Nightwing went easy on him because he was a kid and starts to respect him. Damian acts out for attention and he's a brat, that's why most people hate him. But he just wants the attention he didn't get from his mom. Sure he's a killer, but he's been trained to kill since age 8. It's hard to break the habit, but he eventually does and even becomes a vegan, word to Bat-Cow.

The one character I didn't like was Deathstroke. He was portrayed way out of character. Deathstroke does things for two reasons. Money and his family that hates him. Here they portrayed him as a student of Ra's who was passed up as a successor due to Bruce. They also stripped him of his healing factor and made him seem like a coward. I understand they needed a recognizable name but Deathstroke isn't the best if you wanted to portray him this way.

In the comics Talia actually plays Deathstroke's role but they wanted to make her a loving mother in this one. Completely understandable. I actually liked Talia's character in the film but it forced them into some odd positions. Speaking of odd they've got the time continuity all messed up. Dick is Nightwing, and they mention Tim being out of the country. They don't mention Jason which is understandable. But, we've established that all three previous Robin's should exist. Except, they only have Dick's Robin costume in the Batcave. Did Bruce have a fight with Tim and excommunicate him like he keeps doing Jason? They could have easily just put the costumes in and not mentioned Tim as Red Robin to keep things simple.

Overall it's a great film that once again proves that Marvel may have the live action movies locked down but DC will always reign as king in the animated department. A movie with minor adjustments to the comic story and very few flaws. A great film to watch any time.

You can hear Darrell on the CP Time and Powerbomb Jutsu podcasts. He also plays classic arcade games on The Cabinet
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