Movie Review: Batman - Gotham By Gaslight

Batman: Gotham By Gaslight [2018]

The...  thirty-second entry in the DC Universe Animated Original Movies, we take a break from the New 52 series of Batman/Justice League movies for a good old-fashioned Elseworlds-style story, featuring the 80's award-winning Elseworlds story Gotham By Gaslight. It's an adaptation of the Batman story in the Victorian era, where Batman has to solve the mystery of the serial killer Jack the Ripper. 

And it's competently done, for sure. The animation in these DCAOM movies has always been on point, and the voice acting's pretty decent. And it's a pretty loose adaptation of the actual Gotham By Gaslight comic, borrowing mostly the aesthetics and the themes instead of the main storyline, but that's standard fare nowadays. And while the themes of both animated and print version of Gotham By Gaslight has been more about the mystery and the atmosphere, I'd argue that this animated venture ends up missing the mark more than hitting it. Don't get me wrong -- it's entertaining enough to see this Elseworlds story, and I think there's always going to be an appeal of seeing familiar characters thrust into an unfamiliar setting, but the animated feature ends up beefing up a lot of the story by turning the movie's main focus to the ramping up of Selina Kyle as this noblewoman-lion-tamer who's doing her own crusade after Jack, as well as introducing a lot of familiar Batman villains to populate the Victorian-era world as possible suspects. And... I think it ends up being more distracting instead of making the world feel richer. 

(Spoilers ahead for anyone who's not watched the movie.) The main intrigue about the plot is the whodunnit aspect, since both Batman and Selina end up being pretty generic. Batman's serious, Selina's serious, and the two don't really have much of a character arc beyond the assurance that the audience is at least somewhat familiar with the iconic DC characters of Batman and Catwoman to know how they'll act. We've got a bunch of suspects all around, with the always-devious Hugo Strange who runs an asylum in a none-too-ethical manner; we've got Harvey Dent, pissed off at Bruce making off with Selina, the woman he wants to impress... and, of course, both turn out to be red herrings. We've got an injection of other familiar Batman supporting characters too, with three Robins (Dick, Jason and Tim) being a bunch of street urchins, Leslie Thompkins as a nun who gets killed halfway through the movie, Poison Ivy as a burlesque dancer who gets killed in the cold open, "Bulldog" Bullock as Gordon's aggressive second-in-command, Solomon Grundy as just some random inmate, and Alfred as Alfred.

And Jack the Ripper's identity, of course, is Commissioner Gordon... and while the twist was well-delivered, once it's done Gordon the Ripper is just a very flat villain. There's also no real buildup that makes you go "duh, it makes sense!" and more of a "well, yeah, he's the only character left". His weird and prolonged rants about putting women in their place and how harlotry is the greatest sin also feels a bit too over-the-top for my tastes. Plus, having the action scene between Gordon and Selina, and later Gordon and Batman, take so long feels a bit weird because Jack the Ripper's a serial killer, not a combatant. I'm also not a big fan of the weird red herring dream of Gordon dreaming of his wife Barbara being killed by Jack, which is just somewhat contradictory evidence to make Gordon not a suspect and later brushed off with the insanity clause. 

Still, it's a pretty fun watch nonetheless. The movie doesn't run too long or overstay its welcome, and the 19th Century aesthetic is enough draw to justify watching this movie despite its rather slim plot. Ultimately, it's a quintessential example of an Elseworlds story -- the appeal is the setting and seeing what's different, while simultaneously seeing familiar characters traipse around in an unfamiliar setting.