Review of "Batman: Under the Red Hood," DVD version

Review of

Batman: Under the Red Hood, DVD version


Five out of five stars

 This is an excellent animated adventure involving superheroes. It opens with the Joker beating Robin (Jason Todd) to a pulp, blowing up the building before Batman can get there to rescue him. To Batman, that iteration of Robin is now dead, and he blames himself for letting it happen.

 There is a new master criminal in Gotham City, and he calls himself the Red Hood. Using an incredible ability to move, many gadgets and deadly weapons with no reluctance to use them, he begins to force the leaders of nearly all criminal enterprises to pay him a significant percentage of their revenue. There is one remaining holdout, a master criminal known as the Black Mask.

 It is a battle to the death between the Red Hood and Black Mask, with Batman often on the sidelines trying to determine what is really going on. Both sides possess powerful weapons and the battle scenes are fast, furious and full of sound. Batman is also aided by Nightwing, although he is reluctant to accept it. The Joker reappears to play a major role towards the end.

 The animation action is incredible, in many ways superior to the superhero movies that have actors and actresses. There are many times when I am watching a live action superhero movie that I get bored with the punching and crashing version of fighting. Not in this case, I was reluctant to stop watching, even when my personal biology intervened.