Batman: Soul of the Dragon (2021)

Batman: Soul of the Dragon (2021)

Dir. Sam Liu

It would be natural to assume that Soul of the Dragon is an actual Batman story, seeing as how it's got his name in the title and he's on the cover art, but it's more accurately a story that just happens to feature Batman a few times throughout.

It's more of a Bruce Wayne (David Giuntoli) story, showing via flashback the time he spent in the Himalayas learning martial arts, honing skills that his Batman persona relies on in the modern era.

At the same time, training under the same sensei (James Hong), are five other students, all of whom are lesser-known DC characters, namely Richard Dragon (Mark Dacascos), Ben Turner (Michael Jai White), Shiva (Kelly Hu), Jade Nguyen (Jamie Chung), and Rip Jagger (Chris Cox).

You can see now why they put Batman in the title. The others may be familiar to long-time comic fans, but for many movie-only fans they may be total unknowns, except for maybe Shiva.

Batman: The Long Halloween (2021)

Batman: The Long Halloween (2021)

Dir. Chris Palmer

The 'Deluxe Edition' of TLH comprises the third and fourth instalments of DC's stupidly named Tomorrowverse continuity. Originally released in two separate parts, the total combined running time is 2:48:18. [1]

That's pretty long as it is, but it felt even longer to me because the pacing is bad, the story is a bit of a mess, and the animation is in the same ugly style as previous instalments.

It's based on a 1996-97 thirteen-issue limited series written by Jeph Loeb and illustrated by Tim Sale, but there are many changes, courtesy of Tim Sheridan, who gets primary writing credit, for some reason. [2]

The original story isn't perfect, either, but the pairing of Loeb and Sale was something special, with Loeb's taut situations brought to life wonderfully by Sale's fluid, dynamic linework and super-dramatic angles. The animation has none of that power. It's bland and has the 'cardboard cut out' feel that I alluded to in a previous review. (E.g., note the bottom of Batman's cape as he walks toward camera - just awful!)

Justice Society: World War II (2021)

Justice Society: World War II (2021)

Dir. Jeff Wamester

An animated tale that's set mostly during WW II, unsurprisingly. In addition to forcibly occupying as much of Europe as they can, Hitler's Nazi forces also hunt for magical items that could sway the tide of war in their favour; e.g., things like the Lance of Longinus, or the Ark of the Covenant, etc. But America send a group of skilled and/or superpowered US citizens under the radar to prevent that from happening.

[If they thought they could feasibly get away with it, I sincerely believe that the US military would want the rest of the world to think that they won that war all by themselves.]

Like the superior JL: The Flashpoint Paradox (2013) movie, the events in JS:WWII occur because of Barry Allen / Flash's unique abilities.