Sorry, another Batman movie - I got Batman Gotham Knight a few days ago on DVD and finally watched it last night. I don't think there's a cinema release.

Basically it's a collection of six short animated films, all about 10-12 minutes long, dealing with Batman from a variety of viewpoints.

The first was a delight - some skateboarding kids have separate encounters with Batman while he's fighting a high-tech psychopath, and as they tell their stories it becomes apparent that their ideas of who or what he is are wildly different; one sees him as a ghost moving through shadows, another as a literal man-bat, the third as some sort of robot. They're arguing about this when it becomes obvious that the fight isn't over - to say more would be too much of a spoiler.

The second covers the police reaction to Batman as two officers escort the villain from the first story back to prison, and get caught up in a shoot-out between rival mobs that attracts Batman's attention.

The other stories include Batman's resolution of the mob war, an encounter with the villain Deadshot, and another with the Scarecrow. There's also a story told mostly in flashback in which a seriously wounded Batman remembers how he learned to withstand pain.

All of the stories are well-written, in a range of styles that range from Anime to extremely dark horror. It's currently on offer with a 16-page "DC Comics Character Guide" describing Batman, his equipment, and the main villains of the stories, and a free Bat-logo memory stick containing about 30mb of images - the stick is 128mb, a bit teeny by modern standards, presumably they bought up someone's old stock cheap and had them rebadged for this release.

It's well worth a look if you like Batman, somewhere in between Batman Begins and the more recent animated series in tone.


Marcus L. Rowland
Forgotten Futures, The Scientific Romance Role Playing Game