Batman: Soul of the Dragon Review

 

Batman: Soul of the Dragon is an animated direct-to-video comic book movie and the fortieth film in the DC Universe Animated Original Movies series. The movie is produced by Warner Bros. Animation and DC Entertainment and distributed by Warner Bros. Home Entertainment. Batman: Soul of the Dragon is written by Jeremy Adams and directed by Sam Liu.

The story is it's the 1970s and everything seems fine for Bruce Wayne (aka Batman), until a former classmate of his brings some horrible news. A sinister organization has stolen an item called "The Gate". If the gate is opened it will unleash an unspeakable evil onto the world. Now Batman, Richard Dragon, Bronze Tiger, and Lady Shiva must join forces and put a stop to this plan before this evil reeks havoc.

Initial Reaction

Now being a DC fan it was only natural I would be looking forward to the newest DC animated movie. But what peaked my interest with this is not only was it going to be an original story but they were going to do a 1970s setting. Sure we've gotten DC animated movies set in past setting before such as Justice League: The New Frontier obviously being set in the 1950s. What I'm saying is it's always fun to see DC characters in different era whether the movie bet set in the modern times or in the past.

Cons

I've got nothing to say. Let's move on.

Middle Ground

One mix bag with the movie is character development. We get to a lot about Batman, Bronze Tiger, and Lady Shiva but the one character who doesn't really get much attention in this department was Richard Dragon. Sure he was cool but we don't get know much about his origin. He's mainly just sharing flashback scenes with the other three characters. The other grey area with the film is Batman's placement. He's still cool and everything but it almost felt like the writer didn't known what to really do with him. It matter of fact there are some people wondering if he even had to be there at all.

Pros

Now let's move to the more positive aspects of Batman: Soul of the Dragon and one of those are it's 70s vibes. I mean it this movie definitely goes full blown 70s. And it's not just the fact that it feels like a tribute to old 70s action films, or the hairstyles, clothing, but even the music sounds like it came from the 70s. Another thing I liked about the movie was the animation. Sure it's nothing spectacular but with a lot of DC's direct-to-video animated movies it's fairly good compared to say some random animated direct-to-video film you would find at your nearest store. What also made Batman: Soul of the Dragon a fun watch was the action. I really think the animators were having a blast with the more kung-fu, karate, whatever the marital art was because those were probably my favorite scenes. The last thing I'll give the film credit for was the voice acting. But I especially want to give credit to Kelly Hu and Michael Jai White. Kelly really gave Lady Shiva a aloof personality and Michael Jai White was yet again just being awesome. I think even he was having fun voicing the character just because of the tone in his voice with some of the dialogue he was saying.

Batman: Soul of the Dragon is a pretty decent DC animated movie. It was a good tribute to the 1970s, had good animation, fun action scenes, and the voice cast did really good. The only mix bags with the film are character development and Batman's role in the movie.

My final rating is Okay

Alright I'm all done here. Come back on Saturday, Jan 16th for my review of the newest HBO Max feature film, Locked Down. Until then enjoy the rest of your day.