Review: Batman vs. Robin (2015)
★★★★
These DC Original Animated Universe movies tend to have disappointingly rote animation but the voice acting and scripts often make for wonderful little installments in the ongoing stories of these ageless characters. Cleverly picking and choosing disparate elements throughout the comics, the creators behind this one incorporated the Court of Owls storyline into a narrative that is ultimately a complex exploration into the relationship between a father and son.
Building on the relationships and themes established in “Batman and Son,” this movie positions Damian as a young boy trying to find his way in life and who is faced with a variety of father figures who compete for being his main influence. Damian likes to think of himself as the son of Bruce but the latter’s increasingly controlling parenting becomes alienating. Damian also finds father figures in Dick and Alfred, who are much less controlling, but it’s ultimately a new character, Talon, who becomes a major influence on Damian by encouraging him to embrace all the warrior-out-for-vengeance instincts he’s been trying his best to resist.
Since the main plot thread here is the relationship between Bruce and Damian, there is not as much time to explore the complex history of the Court of Owls. But perhaps this movie is all the better for it. By retaining such a mysterious aura, the Court of Owls seem even more threatening and more controlling. And ultimately “Batman vs Robin” is driven by its focus on *fatherhood* not secret societies. In the Court of Owl’s Talon, this movie finds a perfect foil for Bruce: a competing father figure with the exact opposite approach to parenthood and who pushes Damian to kill.
Talon makes for a fascinating character. Himself the victim of his father’s physical abuse, Talon seems to have never moved on from his hatred for his father (which eventually drove him to get him killed) and now seeks approval from the cult that indoctrinated him. He then becomes a surrogate father for Damian but he really has no idea what being a good father looks like and it’s later revealed that he had all along wanted Damian to replace him in the Court’s risky scientific experiment.
On the way to a surprising climax, “Batman vs. Robin” employs some touching flashbacks of Bruce’s childhood and some disturbing, surrealist hallucinogen-induced nightmares of Damian growing up to become a vengeful killer. Bruce realizes that if he continues down the path of control, Damian will just hate him and become the new Talon instead of the new Batman.
The climactic, arc-culminating moment is Bruce finally accepting his lack of control, granting freedom to his son, and even pointing him in the right direction for a young man looking for some meaning in a trauma-filled life: a Himalayan monastery that Bruce once visited as a young man. “Batman vs. Robin” ends triumphantly, with Damian making the trek we’ve seen Bruce make many times over and arriving at the monastery, looking more fulfilled and content than we’ve ever seen him before.
