To start, big shout for HBOMax for introducing their “Batman Takeover” section recently. It’s been a blast to scroll through all the various Batman movies both live action and animated. I didn’t even know half these movies existed.
During my scolling, I came across Batman: Under The Red Hood. I’ve seen it before, and honestly forgot how much I enjoyed it. It’s nearly impossible to talk about this particular film without spoiling it, so if you haven’t seen it, just stop reading now.
The movie was great for two reasons. First, because the argument the Red Hood makes in terms of “fighting” crime, and two, the fact that Batman is playing defense a lot of the movie.
Let’s start with the Red Hood’s plan to control crime; kill all the crime bosses and have their underlings report to him. He set’s certain guidelines they all must follow or else being murdered, and as a result, violent crime actually decreases. As you can imagine, Batman still dislikes this because it’s essentially deciding which crime is good and which is bad which is not their job. But Red Hood has a strong argument, creating only one “gang” means there is no violent turf wars. And the evidence speaks for itself, Batman even says that violent crime is down.
The other thing I love about this storyline is how the twist catches both the audience and Batman off guard. Here’s the spoiler, the Red Hood is (or was) Robin. I won’t go into all the details but The Red Hood is Jason Todd. It’s not often that Batman goes up against somebody who he trained and knows all his secrets….especially when Batman doesn’t know he knows. As a result, you see at Batman who is a little flustered by the situation, and gets even more flustered when he does find out.
And there’s an important third reason why this movie is great….as is usually the case, the Joker is awesome! This version of the character is one of my favorite because he’s extra crazy.
So to wrap up this blog, if you have never seen Batman: Under The Red Hood, go see it. If you are a Batman fan, you are doing yourself a serious disservice by waiting. By far one of my favorite animated films.
On a side note, and this will probably be a future blog but I don’t think the DC writers get enough credit for their creativity with the Robin character. Normally, sidekicks are lame and very one dimensional, but Robin is anything but that. From the different people who have actually worn the mask (Dick Grayson, Jason Todd, etc.) to the characters evolution once they hang up the cape, Robin has proven to have quite the various story lines.
