Batman: Bad Blood is a fun movie that I’ve actually watched twice in the past week. The movie begins with Batman (voiced by Jason O’Mara) crashing the party of a turf war battle with help from Batwoman (voiced by Yvonne Strahovski). This version of Batwoman was unknown to me, as she actually uses handguns if it suits the situation, a method Batman despises. A tense battle with some new criminal elements including the mysterious Heretic sees Batman apparently killed, with his final act having been to save Batwoman by forcing her out of the building moments before the Heretic’s explosives destroyed it.
Over two weeks go by and there is no sign of Batman. Gotham turns on the Bat signal to no avail, and even Alfred doesn’t know where he is. Alfred impersonates Bruce Wayne from the Batcave with a holographic projection of Bruce under the guise that he’s in a far off country studying some minerals. Voice-masking technology helps sell the illusion, but it’s not something that can last forever. Running out of time and growing evermore concerned that the Bat has stayed out of contact longer than he ever has before, he contacts Nightwing for assistance.
Nightwing reluctantly agrees to don the Batsuit and together with Robin this new duo attempts to keep the criminal uprising in Gotham in check. With the Bat seemingly out of the picture, you can imagine the underworld of Gotham seeks to capitalize on the opportunity. Nightwing and Robin do an admirable job, but their efforts are simply not sustainable nor sufficient. Meanwhile, Batwoman’s history is revealed and she too decides to join in the search. Lucius Fox’s son becomes Batwing, donning a high tech Batsuit that Lucius made after his dad is nearly fatally wounded by Heretic. Together, with help from Alfred, this combination of crime fighters will seek to get to the bottom of the Heretic’s plans, reveal who is really behind this criminal onslaught, and discover the whereabouts of Batman. Family ties and histories for multiple characters provide the majority of the plot lines, hence the subtitle Bad Blood.
Bad Blood features a lot of interesting characters but it choses pace and quantity over depth, hence the relatively scant seventy-four minute runtime. This isn’t just a raw action movie though — there are plenty of slower, more deliberate scenes that move the story and characters forward in interesting ways. I wouldn’t have minded a bit more time spent on some of the characters, but ultimately I admired the pace of Bad Blood. Furthermore, the action is top notch with some beatifully animated hand-to-hand combat.
The home release of Batman: Bad Blood includes a Blu-ray, DVD, and a Digital HD copy via Ultraviolet in one release. It’s well produced and everything from the box art to the menu and technical quality are on par for what you’d expect from a quality release in 2016. Expect a crisp 16:9, 1:78:1 image with DTS-HD MA 5.1 audio. Several extra features round out this release as well, including:
-Sneak Peek at the next DC Universe original movie, Justice League Vs Teen Titans that runs over eleven minutes.
-“Putting the Fight in the Gotham” – One of the highlights in Bad Blood, heck, in the Batman universe in general including the videogames, is the fighting. This twenty-six-and-a-half minute feature features various animators talking about the choreography of the impressive fights.
-“Expanding the Family of Batman” – Nearly fourteen minutes in length, this feature focuses on Batwoman and Batwing but touches on several other key characters in the Batman mythos. Good stuff.
-DC Comics Vault – Two complete Episodes – Nice to see these included and in 1080p, too. You get one episode of Batman: The Brave And the Bold entitled “The Knights of Tomorrow” and Batman: The Animated Series’ episode “Avatar.”
Overall, this is a fine release and a fun movie that offers great replay value thanks to its brevity and fast-pace. It’s not a very deep movie, but it doesn’t need to be to have good value. It’s fun and WB did a great job with this release. To the summary…
