Believe it or it's been TWO years since we last got an American direct to DVD DC animated movie with the last ones being released being Watchmen Chapters 1 and 2. Believe it or not its actually been longer then that since we last got an American direct to the DVD Batman movie as the last one of those came out THREE years ago and while we did get Aztec Batman that's a Spanish film not an American one and well now we have a new direct to DVD DC film and well you all just know that had to check this film out the very chance that I got and so then join me as i review the film that is the first of a three part story with the film in question being called simply just "Batman Knightfall Part 1: Knightfall" enjoy.
The plot of this film is when Arkham Asylum is blown up and every criminal escapes Batman and Robin have to round up every one of them whilst also working out who blew it up and to what end. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty really good. To be frank here whilst this films plot is indeed really good as the plot of the film is one that is really fun to watch and is one that could very easily please alot of people due to the fact that it does feel like a plot that would be done in Batman: The Animated Series. However tho it should be noted that the films plot is rather thin and while this is something that does make alot of sense as the film is telling one story across three films there should have been more of an effort into giving us a more tighter and a more focused plot as alot of the time it is hard to make out just what the main plot of this even meant to be alot of the time as while sure we have the basic premise of Batman and Robin trying to recapture all of these past villains and that is a good premise to have but that's not enough to carry the plot for a movie and while this film does have the excuse of there being two other parts to be released hopefully this year there should have been an effort to give alot of the films plot some focus and not spend alot of time on scenes that might add something to either parts 2 or 3 but add nothing to the plot of this film as a whole with the plot of this films also being really rather entertaining and as well as being really rather engaging as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Starring in this film is Inhumans star Anson Mount as Bruce Wayne / Batman and Spider-Man: Homecoming and Spider-Man: Brand New Day star Michael Mando as Bane. Also starring in this film is Orange Is The New Black star Pablo Schreiber as Jean-Paul Valley / Azrael , Jack Giffin as Tim Drake / Robin , Bruce Boxleitner as Commissioner Gordon , Late Night With The Devil star David Dastmalchian as Edward Nygma / The Riddler and James Bond Jr. star Simon Templeman as Alfred Pennyworth.
Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty really good. The fact that this films acting is as good as it is in the first place really isn't all that shocking due to the fact that the film does have alot of really good actors in it and granted all of these actors that well known with perhaps the most well know at the very least to main stream audiences being David Dastmalchian and that's really it but even so if you've seen these actors in anything then you'll know how good tat they can be and all of them really do bring it in this film. With the best actor in this film being Michael Mando as Bane as he does get more of a chance to show off just good he is at being evil more so then what he does in any of the Spider-Man films that he's in and he really does nail it as this character so much so that you actively look forward to seeing him on screen as as an actor he is just a force of nature as this character so much so that I really would be happy if he became the official voice actor for this character as he is just so good to watch in this film with him having this natural nact for being evil that really does shine through in his performance in this film. With the acting that's in this very film really being helped by the fact that this films script is just so good that all this films actors have to do is just say the lines as they are written and a good performance will com out of them naturally which is something that really does help to raise the overall quality f the acting that's in this very film.
Doing the animation for this film is the legend and the really greats that really are currently over at Studio Mir. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual animation that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual animation that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty really good. To be frank it was both shocking and at the same time not all that shocking to find out that we have some really good animation in this film as direct to DVD DC animated films do typically have some really good looking animation in them but it was still shocking as alot of the more recent films had animation that whilst it was still really good was also quite lackluster and to be frank uninspired. Yet here with this film you can tell that there was a lot of genuine thought and effort put into this films animation with the animation at times looking like the comic books brought to life only with there own unique touch with the thing that helps to make the animation in this film be as good as it is being the fact the characters d have these really cool looking designs to them with Batman looking like how he did in the nineties only now he's got a cape that at times has spikes that look like bats and while he does look a bit to muscular that was also true for the comic books as well with it being made clear as day that the makers of this film are taking inspiration for the comic books, with the thing that does let the films animation down being the fact that the characters do have a lot of shadows on them which is something that does always look off putting as it takes your eye away from where it should be that being the film as now your looking at something that's hideous to look at.
This film is based on the thirst part of the Knightfall arc with the entire arc being published between April 1993 and August 1994. With the arc itself being one of the more famous comic book arc that Batman has been in due to the fact that in part one of that arc we do see Batman getting his back broken by Bane something which we had never seen before then and might not have seen since then as that moment is so iconic that there is no way to do it again without drawing comparisons to how it was done in this comic book arc with it even forcing Batman to grow as a character as now he has to learn to trust someone else something which due to the fact that he had just lost Jason Todd he wasn't able to do due to the fact that he was scared of loosing not just another Robin but another friend. While it is hard to say if this film is a good representation of the first part of the Knightfall arc what can be said is that just by going off of a very qu9ick read from the books Wikipedia page it does seem as if this film is just covering up until the part where Batman does get his back broken as there are more things that does happen in the first book that isn't in this film which is quite fair enough as these films don't typically last all that long but if your going to be doing three films in the first place and have all three films adapt each of three parts of the arc then why not adapt all of it as you have more then enough room to do so and it's something that the die hard comic book fans would love to see as the whole point of doing films based on these comic books is to give us the same stories but done in animation. Granted alot of what happens in the rest of book 1 might not have work in a film format which is a fair case to make but then why not just find away around that and only adapt the parts from book 1 that would work in a film format.
This film does carry on the trend of them adapting the comic book as multi-part films which in all fairness is a really good way of giving the comics in a new format. However this film does end suffering thanks to that approach as for a long portion of the films running time there is nothing of interest happening as all we are seeing is Batman work himself into the ground as he spends two nights without sleep chasing every single criminal that escaped from Arkham which is fine for a scene or two as that gets across the state of mind that Batman is in right now but the film barely does anything with it and while the film doesn't really set up all that much for the other two films it doesn't also pay off anything that it sets up in this film either. This is kind of double edges sword when it comes to doing films in more then one part as of course you want to give your audience a reason to come back and watch part 2 but you also want to make part 1 feel as close to a complete film as it possibly could be and in some ways this film does that as you do get the iconic moment in this film that will force Batman to change as a character but due to the fact that we only see Batman acting out twice in the film and don't really get any hints of him loosing his edge at any other point in the film only when it's for other characters to call it out which does make the idea of Batman starting to loose it feel wasted as of course with the comic book they can and did do more of that by showing Batman getting weaker and weaker with every passing issue this is of course something that you really can't do with a film this is despite the fact that the idea of Batman going nights without rest without sleeping and without food and water is a good idea and it is a good way to show us that much like with GCPD in this film Batman is spreading himself far to thin and does need to take a step back.
This films main villain is of course Bane with the character looking like he just stepped right out of the comic books. Heck even how the character is presented in this film is so good as unlike in Batman & Robin this version of the character is always the smartest person in a room full of villains with him having this inner strength and desire to survive something that was tought to him by his mother and it is something that we see him use in the film as he refuses to let his captures from when he was a kid get the better of them and stays alive for years just to spite them and when he gets injected with the venom he lasts longer then anyone else that has taken it and with this ne found power he goes nuts killing everyone. The character is also quite smart as without first meeting either Bruce Wayne or Batman he deduces that the two of them are one in the same and because of that he is able to draw out Batman and his allies alot more easily with him letting Batman weaken himself for Bane which is such a smart move and it is something that does make this character be one of the more easier characters to adapt for a film or whatever as this is a character that you can use as this unstoppable force of nature and yet there's only been ne film live action film thus far that has gotten this part right about the character that being The Dark Knight Rises, with the villains plan in this film being to fix Gotham by removing all of the things that he deems to be wrong with it and given the fact that Batman doesn't kill anyone he's deemed as being one of the things that's wrong with Gotham as according to Bane he's allowed it to get into the state that it's in with this being plan that whilst yes it is a simple plan but it's also one thats affective due to how simple it is.
Now then this film has / had an exact grand total running time of exactly one hour and eighteen minuets and thirty seven seconds. This was kind of running time that to be frank I wasn't expecting this film to have as alot of the direct to DVD DC animated films usually run for around about one hour and ten minuets and this film is almost ten minuets longer then that and it really didn't need to be as you very easily could have cut down ALOT of the pointless Bane origin story at the tart of the film to just it's bare essentials as we didn't need to see his mother giving birth to him and then showing her being put in jail as that's just pointless filler that would have been better of being left out of the film with the film having more then enough plot thee to really cover that amount of running time. The film really doesn't use it's running time all that wisely due to the fact that the film really doesn't take the time to fully develop what little plot that it ha this is something that this film really should have done or layed the groundworks for the other two films to do and yet this film does neither one and therefor should the other films develop the plot it would feel out of place as the groundwork hadn't been layed this is something that could easily have been done just by cutting down on the pointless flashback origin for Bane and using the time freed up from that to add things to the films plot with it being made clear as day that the makers of this film put alot more thought and effort into showing us Bane's full origin story then they did into giving the plot some actual plot development. The same thing is also kind of true for the films character development as while it is understandable as to why the characters in this film don't et any character development and they do lay the groundworks for Batman to get the same character development that he always gets it would have been really nice to see one of the smaller known characters get some character development in this film with the makers of this film instead putting more thought and effort into showing us alot villain cameos then they di into giving its characters some character development but I really will admit that this film really does have some really good pacing to it tho.
So now then as this is an action film that really does mean that I have to actually talk about the actual action that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual action that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty really good. With there being alot of good looking action scenes in this film all of which are helped by the fact that the animation in this film does help to sell you on the action as the animation makes all of the kicks and punches land harder and it makes all of the action cool to watch with the film giving us alot of cool moments with really all of the heroes and villains in this film with them all getting a time to shine which was a nice touch. With the best action scene in the whole entire film being of course the fight between Batman and Bane at the end of the film as we get to see a weakened Batman who has several injuries at this point in the film struggle to even land a decent hit on Bane with Bane just beating the heck out of him and destroying huge parts of Wayne Manor with Bane even destroying a huge part of the Batcave and while that moment would have been better save for part 2 it was still effective in this film as it does lead to the most iconic moment in recent Batman history as Bane taunts a near death Batman and lifts him up into the back his back over his knee with that whole action serving to show us the audience just how strong that this version of Bane is and how easily he could and in this case does break Batman with the rest of the films action being just as good as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Overall whilst this film really is the first American direct to DVD DC animated film since Watchmen Chapters 1 and 2 this film does show that when it comes down to it DC really does still know how to make a really good animated direct to DVD film as while this film isn't as good as other solo Batman films it's also alot more better then what it really had any right to be in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. Now then i've talked about all of the good and as well as all of the bad things that are in this very film in this very review and as such that really does mean that this very film really does earn itself a grand old score of exactly a 7 out of 10 from me.
Now then as for where I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review well then boys and girls and as well as ladies and gentlemen I personally got all of the images that I personally used in his very review from Amazon . Co . Uk , IMP Awards . Com and Google Images. With my personally preferred website to use to get the images from this very episode that I used in this very post being the really great Google Images really simply just due to the fact that really alot of if not really all of the images that are all really from this very episode with alot of them really being really better quality then what you'd really think of and all of the images are really of course up and really on Google Images really are also really all fairly high in quality and as well as them all being really fairly freaking high in definition.