Batman: The Doom that Came to Gotham

The latest movie from DC Animation is a standalone movie based on the Elseworlds imprint comic book of the same name.  The source material was written by Mike Mignola and Richard Pace and illustrated by Troy Nixey and Dennis Janke.  The plot borrows heavily from H.P. Lovecraft and in fact the title is a take on Lovecraft’s “The Doom That Came to Sarnath”.  The story takes place during the 1920s and features many friends and foes of Batman but with altered backgrounds that fit into this time and universe.

Adventurer Bruce Wayne (David Giuntoli) and his crew, Alfred (Brian George),Dick Grayson (Jason Marsden), Sanjay “Jay” Tawde (Karan Brar) and Kai Li Cain (Tati Gabrielle) return to Gotham from an expedition to Antarctica, where the team encountered Grendon (David Dastmalchian) who seemed to be possessed by some being.  Bruce Wayne begins investigating what has happened to Grendon and unravels a plot that ties back to his father’s history and his own prophetic destiny.  Can Batman and his friend, Oliver Queen (Christopher Gorham) stop the sinister Ra’s al Ghul before he can awaken an ancient evil buried beneath Gotham?  The two must fight monsters with supernatural strength and powers and can they save the city, even if it means burning it to the ground?  Who will survive and how far is Bruce willing to go?  Watch and find out!

No matter how you feel about the DCEU, the DC Animation department continues to put out quality animated films that are not just visually fun to watch, but full or excitement, humor, drama, action and sorrow, and this movie is no different.  I had not read the three issue comic miniseries, so I cannot compare the film to the source material, but I loved the look and feel of a kind of Steampunk version of the DC Universe with Lovecraftian overtones.  The artwork is full of muted tones mixed with splashes of vibrant reds and blues highlighting the supernatural elements of the story.  The animation is quite good, and the overall feel of the art matches the source material very well.  The dialogue flows well and the storyline has a good rhythm and moves at a good pace. David Giuntoli’s deep voice works well as Bruce Wayne / Batman and the rest of the cast is well chosen.  Christopher Gorham’s Oliver Queen has some great scenes and hidden depths to his feelings that he masks with his alcohol consumption.  I enjoyed how they changed the classical characters to fit into this universe’s timeline.  Kai Li Cain for example is a nod to Kate Cain and it is alluded to that Kai Li will become Batwoman, as Kate Cain had and it could have been fun to have seen Dick Grayson and Jay Tawde become Nightwing and Robin, but the only characters to “suit up” in this movie are Batman and Green Arrow who sports more of an Arthurian Knight’s armor than the classical Green Arrow garb.

Overall, I really enjoyed this film, as I have enjoyed all the DC Animated films and although it doesn’t fit into the existing timelines, these standalone movies can sometimes be more enjoyable, as you don’t need to hold its continuity to any particular scrutiny. That being said, I should add that the person I watched the movie with did not enjoy it as much as I did and found it a bit slow and boring.  To each his own.  Watch and decide for yourself!