Batman: Bad Blood (2016)

Batman: Bad Blood (2016)

Dir. Jay Oliva

Bad Blood features the 'extended bat-family', which changes the tone considerably from how it is when Batman works alone against the horrors of the night. Personally, I prefer the latter model, but it's nice to see the filmmakers try other things.

The 'family' in question are Nightwing (Sean Maher), Robin - the Damian version (Stuart Allan), and Batwoman (Yvonne Strahovski). Though separate ordinarily, the different personalities must work together to discover the whereabouts of Batman (Jason O'Mara), who's gone missing.

The lack of any proper 'team dynamic' was perhaps intentional, to illustrate how the individual personas felt about each other, but the layers of stupid that exist outside of that were no doubt conceived to work in a more direct way. Alas, "high tech" villains with rocket wings, a bat-styled antagonist with a secret origin, ropey CGI vehicles, and a soldier with expert control of experimental tech that he's never used before all register high on the dumb-as-shit meter.

Conversely, exploring how each character's personal trauma not only defines them but also functions as a source of strength and drive, and making that relevant to the story, is interesting. The Crime Alley scene and its associated symbolism is excellent. There's a decent balance of mystery and reveal. And a number of the dramatic set-ups and combat scenes seem to be inspired by anime, like something you might see in a series made by Production I.G..

Overall, Bad Blood is a mixed bag, with meritorious subtext ruined by some stupid actions.

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