Just forget the words and sing along

Wednesday, August 11, 2004

What I love the most about being home alone is I can rent all the weird movies I want to see and watch them without parental objections. There's none of Dad's heavy sighs, I can just enjoy the show. Tonight, I finally rented Batman: Mystery of the Batwoman.

Batman: Mystery of the Batwoman kind of slipped in under everyone's radar. When it had its premiere screening at last year's San Diego Comic Con, everyone said, "What's that? They made another Batman straight to video movie?" And yes, they did. It finally came out in October of last year to little to no fanfare. Heck, it took this long for a local video store to finally get it in. And so, I finally got to see it.

The plot is simple enough. Gotham's three biggest gangsters - Carlton DuKane, Rupert Thorne, and the Penguin - have joined forces to manufacture and sell illegal weapons. But, they find they have an enemy: a new crimefighter in Gotham City calling herself Batwoman. Batwoman seems to have a real vendetta against these gangsters, and goes on a very destructive rampage to bring down their criminal empire. Naturally, with such destruction on her mind, it's only a matter of time before an innocent gets hurt. So, in comes Batman to figure out who Batwoman is and why she's hunting down these mobsters. Our three prime suspects: Kathy DuKane, Carlton DuKane's daughter; Roxanne Ballantine, a rising star in Wayne Enterprise's R&D division; and Sonia Alcana, a rookie detective in the GPD. Things escalate when the mob brings in Bane to hunt down Batwoman. So, the question becomes, who will unmask Batwoman first: Bane or Batman? And who is Batwoman?

All in all, this is not bad. It's no Mask of the Phantasm or Return of the Joker, that's for sure. But it's just fun. An entertaining hour and fifteen minutes. I forget how many eyeballs this warrants on Mr. Anderson's rating system, but it's the rating that says, "If you see it on your friend's coffee table, borrow it." For me, that'd probably be about three nibs.

And hey. You just gotta love a Batman story where 90% of the characters are female.

And I have to mention the best bonus material on the DVD: a 6-minute long Batman animated short entitled Chase Me. It's completly silent. That is, no dialogue. And all it is is Batman chasing Catwoman. It is just very cool. That short in itself is worth 4 nibs.

Oh, and I also rented the special edition of E.T.. You can really tell where the new special effects are because, suddently E.T. gets very, very animated. Other than that, it's still a good movie.

Next Issue...Mystery of the Batmark

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