“Knightfall” and the follow-up “Knightquest” is still one of the most popular stories in Batman’s history, despite not being canon in the comics anymore due to DC’s reboot obsession. Or maybe it is, because they try to keep things, not really doing a full reboot. It’s kind of a mess really and you never know what’s still canon from one creator to the next. Odds that this more recent encyclopedia is half retconned away in five years? Pretty high.
While DC Studios is still playing games with what Batman movie is coming out when, a new trilogy has been created based on the Knightfall event. Thankfully not all of the animated productions are canon to the Gunnverse like Creature Commandos, and this isn’t set in the Amazon Caped Crusader continuity, either. It’s going back and adapting the comics like how anime will adapt manga. Is it any good?
Well, to promote the currently available digitally, with a home video release coming soon and presumably will be on HBO Max eventually, Warner Brothers Animation dropped the first 10 minutes of Batman: Knightfall Part 1, the first in a trilogy to properly cover the event and do it as much justice as possible. Or at least it’s up for now, so watch it while it’s still available to promote the movie. I made the mistake of putting this one on when I had supper the other night, so I wouldn’t do that or let the kids watch this one. With that warning in mind, does the preview make it look any good?
Like I said, not the movie to watch while eating.
Personally I could have gone without the graphic nature of the kills by Azrael. Yes, he’s supposed to be shown as a killer. It’s part of his story in the arc. I’m not complaining about that. I just don’t want to watch guys bloodily torn in half. I think that’s my right. Then we have the credits, I’m thinking I can finish my supper, and then cut to a woman giving birth in a prison. Bad timing indeed.
The scene is important otherwise, as is the scene showing Bane being born in the prison and the fast forward to what his mother taught him versus how he was. Bane actually cared about his mother and could have been a good person despite his surroundings. In that country the mother keeps the kid in prison and raises him there, and he’ll be forced to continue his mother sentence as a twisted version of a ward of the state. This is not a good country. Bane became the monster he is as much from his mother’s “advice” as the tortuous experiments he’ll go through later, which couldn’t have been fit into the first 10 minutes (less than 10 if we’re honest, since the opening credits are left in the preview). She could have been instructed him to be hard enough to survive prison but a good enough heart to change things from within, or to escape and have a better life once she’s gone. That’s now what she did, and it factors into what Bane becomes.
With Azrael, there isn’t time to go over the history of St. Dumas, but it does show his place in the trilogy as the more murderous vigilante, not afraid to kill. How the cult will work into this movie or the greater trilogy I couldn’t tell you. I still think they could have shown that without dudes being split down the middle like a dinner roll (again, I was having supper at the time). What we get is a look at the two antagonists of the story: Azrael, a killer who wants to be better but as we’ll see if they follow his arc in the comics is a man plagued by psychological brainwashing by the Order Of St. Dumas to be judge, jury, and executioner. Dumas was a saint only in his own mind in the DC universe, never titled by the Catholic Church due to his extremist views on sinners. So he started his own order. I hope the movies remember this and doesn’t try to use this to paint Christians or Catholics specifically as nut cases, like we see with the Templars in things like the Assassin’s Creed franchise or The DaVinci Code. It’s modern Hollywood, so I totally expect the later.
So in the first 10 minutes we established both of the threats in this story to Batman, though not quite set them up as threats. This will be the first exposure of Jean Paul Valley out of comics and one would assume a more accurate take on Bane than the DCAU or Christopher Nolan versions. Maybe they showed up in a game. Plus they have to set up the three part story of Bruce being broken, recovering, and coming back as Batman because his replacement is ruining the symbol Bruce worked so hart to create and give the citizens hope while the criminals cower in fear.
The animation looks amazing, the voice acting and dialog are quite good. My only complaint is a personal one, the graphicness of the deaths. I’ve heard reviews from those who watched the digital version and they had nice things to say about it. The home video comes out in September, but if I do see it I’ll probably wait for HBO Max or YouTube free with ads before I even consider adding it to my library. I might even wait for a full movie. I’m trying to deal with an oversized library as it is, and I don’t want to add something else I’ll probably not rewatch if all three come out and fail to impress me. I can easily see this being more of a fan favorite than what’s been coming out of DC lately, though. Given how badly DC Studios is botching adaptations (including hiring people who don’t know what that means), seeing people who at least appear to want to get it right is a step up.
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