Not enough Nightwing. I loved how suggestive the whole movie was about sex though. Just subtle enough so kids won't notice it...

This movie was pretty action heavy, and whilst some people like that, it ain't super impressive to me. It also had issues where the main character was Damien, a bratty kid who wants to murder his enemies. And it's fine to have an annoying main character at the start of a film, as long as they learn they are shitty and change their ways before the end, but this just doesn't really happen. This is probably the fault of the fact that everything was action heavy, and the plot was secondary. The action is great, and everything else is only good enough.

Okay, for those that don't know, the DCAU (DC Animated Universe) is leading the way as far as superhero cartoons go. Marvel has the cinema, and had a few cartoon hits, but not so much in recent years. Whereas DCAU with Batman the animated series, justice league, young justice, and now the animated films, is top dog in my opinion. After his grandfather is killed, Damian is taken to his father, Bruce Wayne to train and learn. This leads to the expected conflicts we often have with Batman, namely revenge versus the old no-killing rule. My main concern with any Batman animated part is that Kevin Conroy was not doing the voice. For those that don't know, he was the voice throughout Batman the animated series, and through Justice League, and many other mediums afterwards. The story has to be good to not be constantly noticing the voice difference. Thankfully, whilst I was noticing that at the beginning, I did start to get used to Jason O'Mara, who did a very good job of it. Damian though gives a new edge to the 'no-killing rule' storyline, as the idea of killing is not new to him (being from the league of assassins), and would not scar in the same way as it would many of our other heroes, so in a way we empathise with the restrictions on him, which is no small thing to manage to do. Empathy aside, he is still quite annoying, granted he gets much less so throughout the film, and eventually becomes a character you could see appreciating. But the Damian/Batman scenes are frustrating most of the time. Although, if he hadn't been so annoying, the first Nightwing/Damian scene would have been nowhere near as enjoyable to see and listen to. And there it is, one of my big pluses of the film, Nightwing. He is an excellent character, and brings a very interesting depth to the Batman story, being the first robin that is now grown up. The series (and fanbase) now accepts Dick Grayson as an adult, and not the early Nightwing either with the ponytail, but someone to be taken seriously as one of the top tier heroes (well nearly). Overall, this was a good animated batman, and I hope that do the others in the modern batman and robin run that they did in the comics, which would include some interesting Grayson stories too. Sidenote: On a sidenote, whilst on animated films from comics, give the mignola films a chance such as the 2 hellboy films, and amazing screw-on head. Well worth the time.

> "The psychos just keep getting younger." Damian is a good addition to the team. At first I thought his attitude would get old and usually characters like this do, but somehow the writing and scenarios made me like him. Nightwaing is always great to see and I wish we saw more of him since the banter between him and Damian is pretty funny. Batman is great as usual.

This movie went smoother than I expected. The first bit was disappointing but as it went on there were some great moments. The fight with the man-bats in the stadium was pretty sick. Robin’s character development wasn’t the best but it got the job done.