George Taylor
This, based on the excellent Batman cartoon by Bruce Timm, is simply brilliant. Batman faces a villain who is almost as smart as he is. The voice cast is one of the best for any cartoon (WB spends money on their voice casts) and the story is engrossing. I could see littler kids being a little creeped out at parts, but this is definitely a love letter to fans.
ANUNAY SHARMA
This screen adaptation of the Cape Crusader is far from good, let alone great. The screenplay is average at best. The direction has mediocrity written all over it. We have seen better stories of Batman than this overvalued piece. Despite being good on paper, the pace hardly picks up until the third act. The revelation of Phantasm, in the end, is not as shocking as it should be due to its tactless handling of the narrative. The predictability of the story is another off-putting thing about it.The portrayal of the Batman is gawky. He has been transformed into a desperate romantic guy from being the world's greatest detective, and that really feels offensive. While some people argue that it portrays the more human side of Batman. OK, well then how about making a romantic movie with James Bond and a family movie with Deadpool. Come on man! seriously... These guys are what they are cuz we love them doing what they do best. Not everyone can digest Indiana Jones into a family drama just because it shows his human side. Similarly, Batman is all about what he does. He is the greatest detective and tactician of the world. And he adores what he does, so do we. If not then what's the difference between Batman and other vigilantes? While It is an interesting character study, it surely isn't the best portrayal of Batman on screen.Voice cast is good. Mark Hamill is good as Joker. Andrea's character was ruined by a defective scripting. The character needed some more time to breath and hence feels one-dimensional.All in all, a strictly average affair...5 out of 10
Leofwine_draca
BATMAN: MASK OF THE PHANTASM is widely regarded as one of the finest of the animated BATMAN films, but having just finished watching it I'm rather surprised as I didn't think it was up to much at all. As an early 1990s production this looks and feels rather cheap and dated, and only the efforts of a talented voice cast tend to make it watchable.Sadly many of the actors are reduced to giving gratingly over the top pronunciations, with the exception of Mark Hamill who does a very good job as the Joker. Otherwise, it's business as usual, with Batman on the trail of a vigilante whose brutal murders are being blamed on him. I found this rather slapdash in places with barely any effort having gone into the characters or the backdrops; the result is distinctly underwhelming.
SlyGuy21
Well, if you've seen "The Animated Series" this shows pretty much all the positives of it. Think of the best episodes from the show, and what comes to mind? "Two-Face Part 1"? "Perchance to Dream"? "It's Never Too Late"? While I wouldn't say this movie is as good as those episodes, it comes very close. If you're a fan of the series like me, you'll enjoy it. I liked the story, the new characters, the twists, etc..., but I have two problems that keep this from being as good as "Under the Red Hood" or "Batman: Year One".Problem one, how does The Phantasm teleport? Obviously The Phantasm is supposed to be a ghost-like figure, but he's able to teleport seemingly at will, even bullets and sharp objects pass right through him. They don't bounce off or anything. Now this wouldn't be a huge concern if The Phantasm was a ghost, but he isn't, so how does stuff phase through him? It's never explained and it seems kind of random that they wouldn't write in a reason.Problem two, what happened to Joker at the end? So it turns out that Joker was a gangster that killed The Phantasm's dad years ago, and now The Phantasm wants to kill him. So during the climax, The Phantasm grabs Joker and disappears in a cloud of smoke. We see what happens to The Phantasm after the climax, but what happened to Joker? Did he get away? Did The Phantasm let him go? Did the whole thing just not happen? It's never explained. You'd think with a character as iconic as Joker, they'd have a solid conclusion for him in the movie. Maybe it was supposed to be left open to interpretation, but it comes off as more lazy to me than anything. And don't tell me he's dead, he shows up later in the series.In the end, even though I had some problems with it, the movie is essentially an extended episode of the show, and that's cool. While I still prefer episodes like "Feat of Clay Part 2" and "Heart of Steel Parts 1 & 2" over it, it's not hard to sit through, and pretty enjoyable.
AD
