Movie Review - Batman: Hush (2019)

[Dave Gray]

Batman: Hush (2019)

Premise: A mysterious vigilante, known only as Hush, rallies Batman's rogues gallery to take out the Dark Knight.

Rating: Enjoyable enough scene to scene, but with an overarching story and comic-book delivery that doesn't hold together.

I read this comic years ago and enjoyed it.  But I enjoyed it mostly because it features prominent roles for so many known characters: Superman, Catwoman, various Robins and just about every bigtime Batman villain.  They all get time, so it's a pretty good overview.  And unlike a more timeless story like The Long Halloween, Hush seems to be set in a more updated version of Gotham: Catwoman is an ally, Lex Luthor has some status in the Justice League, etc.  It is not an exact retelling of the comic.  There's one major change (the ending), but also characters are swapped out that serve similar roles (Bane for Killer Croc) and certain characters were replaced because of deaths that occurred in the modern DC comic line, called the New 52.

I think that these Animated film versions of comic are hit and miss, in general.  A pane in a comic book is supposed to interpreted as non-literal, in my opinion.  You have so few words to your advantage, that you can have characters say exactly what they're doing, or the dialog can be ultra-direct.  It's the way you have to use that art form.  In a film, that comes across as clunky and I think that this particular re-telling suffers from that.

The big plan that Hush has is paper-thin...there isn't really one.  He's just kinda after Batman.  ...it's fine, I guess.  Bad guys do bad stuff because they're bad guys is a comic staple.  Again, it's just weird to have that be at the root of a film.

Still, I enjoyed the film for much of the same reason I enjoyed the comic: it's good to see everyone.  The performances are good, and the art style is modern.  Not a bad Batman story.

[Pappy13]

I quit watching superhero movies several years back. There's too many of them and most of them are not worth my time. My grandson did talk me into watching the final 2 installments of the Avengers but it pretty much just reinforced my feeling that I wasn't missing anything important.