Review: Batman goes for broke (and gets broken) in first part of Knightfall trilogy

Each year, we normally get a few animated releases from the DC universe, including the occasional dip in multi-movie story arcs. It's a smart play for the brand. Mining their vast library of stories, they have a lot to pull from, and some of the larger-scale stories lend themselves easily to being broken up into distinct chunks. It sucks a bit for the viewer, having to shell out money to see each part. Especially when the parts are quite short. I, for one, wouldn't mind plopping down to watch a 3-hour animated epic. But, I think DC has found a sweet spot, in that these movies tend to feel appropriately straight-to-VOD; they might collapse under the strain of a larger ask, time-wise.

Anyways, the newest multi-parter focuses on Batman, and adapts a popular arc from the early nineties. The clumsily-named first part, Batman: Knightfall Part 1: Knightfall, is now available to buy or rent digitally. It's a solid watch, one that does exactly what it sets out to do, and is a success and a frustrating endevour because of that. As a Part 1, it has the job of setting the table for the rest of the trilogy, and it succeeds on that front. But also as a Part 1, it has the feeling of ending right when things are really getting interesting, leaving viewers on a cliffhanger. 

That's how these things go, and at least with something like this, you go in expecting it. This isn't an Across the Spider-verse deal where you put more than two hours into a movie just for it to end without resolution. And we've been waiting for the next part for years at the point. Pissed me off...

Knightfall tells the story of a Batman who is a bit older, wearier, starting to show his wear. He's haunted by past mistakes that have cost him meaningful relationships, particularly with a couple of his former Robins. Dick Grayson left him. Jason Todd died under his watch. Now, Tim Drake is the new "intern" in the bright red uniform, and Batman/Bruce is adamant that he won't lose another of his wards. 

But at the same time, he's stretching himself too thin. Arkham feels like it's descending into unprecedented levels of chaos and violence. Gotham PD can barely keep up; nor can Batman. And it's tough, because hte police often rely on him to handle the bulk of the work, waiting outside crime scenes for their caped crusader to arrive and clean up most of the mess before they charge in for the assist. This rubs one cop, the headstrong Detective Montoya, the wrong way. She bristles at Commissioner Gordon about his over-reliance on Batman, and asks him what he's going to do when he's no longer there to save the day. Then, Gordon says, Gotham will already be lost.

It's this over-reliance on a billionaire superhero's protection that is the crux of this story. We get a lengthy backstory for Bane, who was born and raised in a prison, tortured and put in isolation. He used that time to grow strong, eventually got experimented on, and became the hulking monstrosity we know and fear. Bane's whole ethos is that living is a prize, not a right, and only the strong deserve to live. Let's call it "survival of the fittest" taken to its extreme. Young Bane reads about the Waynes in a magazine, and when he eventually arrives in Gotham, he's disgusted that Batman's protection has allowed the weak to flourish and survive. He becomes determined to break Batman, to force the weak to fend for themselves.

The way Bane is presented in this movie is one of its greatest strengths. He is a truly imposing figure, so massive that he makes the Hulk look dainty by comparison. Once his plan is fully set in motion, and he sets his sights on Batman, it's genuinely scary. Especially as this movie does not hold back on its violence and gore. We watch people get their spines pulled out, get sliced in half, have their eyes gauged out. It's nasty, gnarly stuff, and lets Bane's power get shown in all its gory glory.

I love this version/vision of Gotham. It's dreary, cold, severe. There are a lot of striking backgrounds, particularly of the cityscape. Batman's costume is awesome-looking, too. I'm no comic historian, so I don't know if it's pulled specifically from Knightfall or is paying homage to some other story/era, but the horn things on the mask are extra long, the cape has dramatic pointed shoulders. It's very cool.

Knightfall really does its job of setting the table. Alongside the story points, characters, and themes I've already mentioned, there's another important figure who gets introduced here: Jean-Paul, a man who had a number done on him by some kind of secret order, and now is fighting against his violent episodes. When he's in costume, he's known as Azrael, and after Batman intervenes in a violent crusade, Jean-Paul asks him for help with his rehabilitation. So, Jean-Paul becomes another ward, and thus another consequence of Bruce's status as "a control freak with a messiah complex," as his therapist puts it. Bruce is so focused on protecting his loved ones, as well as Gotham City as a whole, that he never slows down to take care of himself, or to even assess if he's always the best man for the job.

After watching Knightfall, I consider the trilogy's table to be very well-set indeed, and I'm excited to see what comes next. The film ends on such a high note (well...I guess a low note), a dramatic turn with a fantastic, haunting final shot. I just hope we don't have to wait too long for the next part.