Batman: Hush was a dark journey into why Batman exists, how easily his world can crumble, and what's at stake for him when it comes to going up against these villains. It does an interesting job of showing the vulnerability of the villains as well, which is a twist of sorts for this type of storytelling. I can see why people enjoy the Hush storyline and I would love to see this in a live-action capacity, should Warner feel so inclined.
DC Animation knocking it out of the ballpark again.
Official Synopsis
An adaptation of the seminal DC classic tale, Batman: Hush centers on a shadowy new villain known only as Hush, who uses Gotham’s Rogues Gallery to destroy Batman’s crime-fighting career, as well as Bruce Wayne’s personal life – which has already been complicated by a relationship with Selina Kyle, aka Catwoman.
I didn’t know what to think about this movie when it was first announced. An all-powerful supervillain that can take down the Batman, as well as others, but doesn’t have a backstory? That’s a tough sell. It’s essentially inserting a stranger into the mix with no context and announcing that they can’t be stopped. It’s what made Doomsday kind of cheap when he showed up in the Death of Superman comic back in the 90s. We didn’t have much context about why he existed, only that he was super powerful enough to take down the Man of Steel. Now, after some background and build-up, we know more about Doomsday, which gives his character a bit more depth. Snyder took it one step further with his interpretation in BvS, maybe the best thing that came out of that film (Doomsday’s backstory — not anything else).
Anyway, back to Hush, it was a tough sell on the surface, but a worthwhile one by the end of the journey.
Without further delay, let’s get this going.
Batman: Hush starts out like every good Batman film (animated and otherwise). You get some villains showing up, a sprinkled dash of mystery when something begins to go wrong in a sideways sort of manner, and then by the end of act one you’re thrown into a bigger mystery that reveals itself as something of substance. Easy to follow with that ‘detailed’ description, right? Let me break it down better.
For this film, you have Batman seeing major activity with supervillains, such as Bane, who has kidnapped a boy to lure the Batman out from his comfortable darkness. The really unusual part of the kidnapping is that Bane has a more powerful venom running through his veins, which gives Batman some trouble. In addition to more pain fro Bane, the new venom gives the greatest detective something to think about, as it is not par for the norm. The venom eventually leads back to Poison Ivy, who is revealed as controlling/bankrolling Bane’s revenge machine on Batman. To take the story even deeper, Ivy is also being controlled by someone else in the shadows (spoiler — It’s Hush), who is fools her into thinking there is money to be had by taking down Batman. A simple motivator for the villain, but the shadowy figure has more complicated intentions in mind. At that point, the story shifts to the second act.
The first act was incredibly complicated — in a good way. The story throws you some bones here and there, but it never really lets you get comfortable about what exactly is going on (unless you’re familiar with the story). Throwing in villains that act out of whack or that are doing things that don’t make immediate sense helps to keep the audience completely off track from the main story, though it tip-toes on frustrating/turning off the viewer in the process (ballsy move by the writing staff). I admire the technique here and think that it’s a beautiful woven first act because it forces you to look forward to act two for answers, which is where things get ‘real’ quick. The rising action in the second act certainly does pay off, especially with a good side story (that I want an entire movie dedicated to) of Batman/Catwoman’s love affair. That is one heckuva story piece.
The second act begins with Batman having a terrible accident during a fight (precipitated by outside forces), which forces him to go to the doctor, who happens to be Bruce Wayne’s life-long childhood friend Thomas Elliot. Wanting to do more with his life as Bruce Wayne, Batman does his best to try and ‘get out there in the world’ with Elliot’s support and help. His real push to do this is from Selina Kyle, who becomes actually involved with Wayne’s life. There is a bit more complication to the story, but as you can imagine this part is just setting you up.
Wayne and Kyle go to the opera with Elliot and his gal, only to find themselves looking down the barrel of a gun held by Harley Quinn, which forces Wayne and Kyle to shed their norms and have Batman and Catwoman make an appearance. Things end up going haywire, the Joker makes a brief cameo and Elliot ends up dead. Of course, this drives Batman back out and creates an unstoppable obsession to find Hush before something else occurs. And act two doesn’t take long to bring out the big reveal of Hush. The rest of act two leans on Hush’s promise to Batman that Hush will take out Batman’s loved ones and eventually take down the Batman from the inside out. It’s a helluva way to end a second act and to bring up the rising action that doesn’t disappoint when act three comes barreling into the picture.
Act two is brilliant. It sets up and places all the ducks you need in a row to thoroughly enjoy the last act of the story. It keeps you glued to the story and captures your attention without apologizing for the confusion of act one. To help this, the movie has a good relationship build-up and montage between Wayne and Kyle, which adds some stakes to Batman’s decision to pursue Hush, who has fulfilled all his promises to this point or to run away from him and hang up the cape. The second act does a superb job of laying out everything that is on the line for our caped crusader, internally and externally. It even throws in a heaping help of Superman, though I have to admit that his introduction is a bit oddly built, as well as his exit. His presence feels like a mechanism to progress the story and nothing else.
Anyway, act three puts everything at peril and doesn’t truly show its cards until the final fight. The fight is certainly worth the wait, but we’re not going to get into that because we don’t like spoiling stories (well, not all of it). On that note, let’s wrap it up.
Overall, Batman: Hush was a dark journey into why Batman exists, how easily his world can crumble, and what’s at stake for him when it comes to going up against these villains. It does an interesting job of showing the vulnerability of the villains as well, which is a twist of sorts for this type of storytelling. I can see why people enjoy the Hush storyline and I would love to see this in a live-action capacity, should Warner feel so inclined.
Regardless, it’s a fun journey and another feather in the DC Animation department’s cap of success. Also, the film is one gorgeous 4K transfer, for those of you obsessed over the value of the picture. You should be in this day and age.
On the special features side of the tracks, you get some good stuff. Featurettes showcasing Catwoman, commentary from screenwriter and director, as well as an animated short featuring Sgt. Rock. You will certainly feel like these are value-added, but the feature film speaks for itself.
