After watching the latest DC original animated movie, "Batman: Under the Red Hood," my wife gave her customary one-word review: "Dark."
It is. The movie revolves around a gang war between Gotham's underworld kingpin, the horribly disfigured Black Mask, and a newcomer wannabe, Red Hood -- and it isn't pretty.
In addition to many murders by those two worthies, as they shoot, hijack, knife and blow up each other's minions, one gang lord attempts to use the Joker against the other, with predictably unpredictable -- and lethal -- results. In one scene, the Clown Prince of Crime beats a trussed-up Robin with a crowbar; another has him trying to set fire to a group of people doused in gasoline.
It's not for the kiddies, obviously. And not just for the violence; the film is dark thematically, too. For example, the audience is asked to question whether Batman is a noble hero or a moral coward for allowing the Joker to live -- and, inevitably, kill again. The movie also deals with love, estrangement and loss between a father and his sons, and is emotionally raw.
This is more like a Turgenev novel than a Batman movie, but is familiar turf for Batman comics. The film lifts elements from, or refers to events in, several Bat-epics from the past 20-odd years. Comics fans will nod knowingly.
In fact, when I read the premise for the film, I feared it might be a little too inside baseball for a general audience. The movie must cover the careers of two Robins (there have been five), including the Nightwing business; explain Ra's al Ghul and his Lazarus Pits; reference the origin of the Red Hood disguise (the Joker wore it first); show us Arkham Asylum and get the Joker out of it; and much more.
That's a lot to pack into a movie, and throw at an audience, and still have time to tell a story.
But "Red Hood" manages to get all the exposition out of the way fairly painlessly, and tell that dark, dark story. Credit is due writer Judd Winick, a veteran comic-book scribe who wrote the bulk of the Red Hood story in the comics. He's adapting his work, and that's like having a Sherpa while climbing Mount Everest.
