Batman: Death in the Family [Blu-ray] [2019] [Region Free]

The film makers have presented a dramatic illustration of the consequences of moral decisions in the case of the death of Jason Todd as the second Robin. This "interactive film" is also some of the best DC animation to date. As the story unfolds, at the first key point in the action you are presented with the choice of whether Robin lives or dies. Then you choose. The dramatic consequences follow. He dies. Or he cheats death and recovers. Or Batman saves Robin and he lives, but Batman dies, and more choices follow. The film promises seven possible endings. Actually there are eight. The whole film with viewing all the alternate choices takes about three hours, if you go back to the beginning each time. Some terms used in the dialogue may be unfamiliar, so activating the subtitling feature at the beginning can be useful (for example, "parcour"). If you read the rest of this review be aware that there are a few spoilers. Also included are four additional DC Showcase Shorts: Sgt. Rock; Adam Strange; The Phantom Stranger; and Death.Batman: Death in the Family. PLAY does not begin the movie, but gives instructions. You are given the choice to skip instructions. When you choose BEGIN STORY, the story doesn't begin. The standard "intro" to each of the DC Showcase Shorts starts, with the comic books store, and the rotating comics rack in the back with the title comic book rotated into view close up. Then the action begins with the titling sequence as the beginning of the story line. Each time you select to go back to the MAIN TITLE to view a different alternate story line from the beginning of the action, the same instructions or skip Instructions and the BEGIN STORY with the "Showcase intro" occurs all over again before the action of the titling sequence begins. If you don't want that, then at the end credits choose the INTRODUCTION from the "scenes" menu offered, which skips the beginning action in the main titling sequence and plays to the first choice, ROBIN DIES, BUT YOU CAN SAVE HIM. I will outline here what I found to be the best sequence of viewing all the alternate story lines.MAIN TITLE SEQUENCE Action. A heavy industrial case with radioactive emblem is handed by the laughing Joker to Ra's al Ghul in Serajevo, Bosnia, and next is being transferred in a van guarded by terrorists. Batman pursues on the Batcycle, dodging RPGs and bullets, disables several of the terrorists with batarangs, and demolishes one of the vans with an explosive device, and retrieves from the broken-open case the radio-active device.INTRODUCTION. Batman speeds toward the town, where, in a warehouse, the Joker is beating Robin/Jason with a crowbar. Intermittant flashbacks as Batman speeds on the Batcycle reveal that Robin while apprehending criminals with Batman, broke the collarbone of one of them, sending him into shock, ruining a chance to get him to talk. Bruce tells Alfred that Jason is not ready, that he himself had the help of Alfred as he grew up, but Jason, whose parents died tragically, is still in pain and not ready for action in the field, that he is a danger to himself and to their mission, and Bruce was going to take him off active duty immediately. Jason heard this and left in anger. Later, Jason is found by Bruce in Bosnia. Jason was going after the Joker, and Bruce was after Ra's al Ghul, not Jason. They share info that Joker had acquired stolen uranium to sell to terrorists, and that Ra's is planning on building "dirty bombs" to poison thousands, millions of people. They have tracked the uranium shipments to Joker and Ra's in Serajevo. The terrorists are in vans on the way to cross the border and need to be stopped. Robin points out that the Batcycle only seats one, and he himself will check out the warehouse while Batman pursues the terrorists. Batman forbids Robin to confront the Joker, because he is too dangerous to confront alone. Robin disagrees, but Batman orders him to wait until he returns. Robin sullenly says he will wait. This references the chase scene at the beginning of the film. Interestingly, the film does not offer the option that Robin waits, so that choice is not available. Batman speeds off in pursuit of the terrorists. But Joker is now beating Robin, who obviously ignored Batman's warning. He leaves Robin seriously wounded, saying as he prepared to depart, "When you see him, tell him I said 'Hello'." He leaves and Robin painfully drags himself to the door, but finds it padlocked, and a timer wired to explosives ticks off nine seconds. The film pauses at this point. Three choices are offered. Robin dies, but you can save him. Choose one. Robin cheats death. Robin dies. Batman saves Robin.1. ROBIN DIES. The warehouse explodes. Batman is too late. Jason is buried in a cemetery. Later, in a diner, Bruce relates what followed. Ra's al Ghul secretly recovered Jason's body out of regret over his death, and resurrected him with the Lazarus Pit, but it made Jason insane. Jason later recovers and becomes Red Hood. Bruce Wayne relates an abbreviation of the highlights of the events in the film, Batman: Under the Red Hood. Bruce finishes the story. He is talking to Clark Kent/Superman. They agree the Red Hood must be found and stopped. END CREDITS follow, with a "scenes" menu displayed at bottom of screen. MAIN TITLE, INTRODUCTION, ROBIN DIES. click on one. Choose ROBIN CHEATS DEATH.2. ROBIN CHEATS DEATH. The warehouse explodes. Batman finds Robin in the rubble. During a long and painful convalescence and recovery, Jason refuses to believe the support given him by the Wayne/Batman family and the Justice League is sincere, but only hypocritical lies. He secretly plans to kill the Joker, and to find him he becomes Red Robin. He takes over the criminal element of Gotham with violence. Joker traps Red Robin's gang leaders in a semi-trailer, soaks them with gasoline, and burns them to death, surrounded by the police and commissioner Gordon. Red Robin taunts Joker with fact that challenging him was the only way to bring him out of hiding. He kills the Joker and escapes the police. On the top of the Wayne Industries Building, Red Robin is confronted by Talia al Ghul, who seeks to recruit him to the League of Assassins. Jason refuses, until Talia reveals that she is holding an infant, Damian, the son of Batman/Bruce Wayne. She proposes that Jason raise her and Bruce's son and train Damian to lead the League of Assassins. Jason now agrees, silently vowing to use Damian to bring down both the House of Wayne and the House of Al Ghul "from the inside" and take over. END CREDITS follow, with "scenes" menu. MAIN TITLE, INTRODUCTION, ROBIN DIES. Click on one. Choose BATMAN SAVES ROBIN.3. BATMAN SAVES ROBIN. Batman speedily arrives at the warehouse with eleven seconds remaining (instead of nine) ticking off on the explosive. He quickly opens the door (apparently not padlocked) picks up Robin and gets to the door at the moment the warehouse explodes. Robin regains consciousness, and finds Batman mortally wounded. Before his dies, Bruce begs Jason to promise he will not kill the Joker, but work for justice for the sake of Alfred, Dick, and Barbara, and the Joker, because killing will not make the internal pain stop, and is the only way to heal. He dies before Jason says yes or no. BATMAN DIES: CATCH THE JOKER or KILL THE JOKER. Choose KILL THE JOKER.KILL THE JOKER. Funeral for Bruce Wayne. Jason returns to the Batcave, and silently resolves to kill the Joker. He resents stories of Batman's nobility, and the emotional support offered by the rest of the family and by members of the Justice League, but he lies about his own personal recovery going well. He later happens to go into a diner, where the newscast is talking about Batman, and gets into a conversation with a man who says he used to know Batman. This man says he's in recovery, and keeps a journal, in which he tells himself and his therapist that he's a different man, now. He tells Jason a joke, which Jason recognizes is a documented part of the case record Jason had seen in the files in the Batcave computer (as seen at the end of Batman: The Killing Joke), and he realizes that this man is the Joker. Jason remembers the video files of Joker's crimes of violence and his own beating, and he says to him that he decided to "say 'Hello'." The man smiles with the sudden realization that he's talking to "The Boy Wonder". Jason immediately stabs him in the right eye with a table knife. Joker dies, laughing, and two police officers arriving on the scene order Jason to surrender, he's under arrest. JOKER DIES: ATTACK or SURRENDER. Choose SURRENDER.SURRENDER. Jason is convicted and sentenced to life. In prison, Jason believes he was totally justified in killing the Joker. Murder. Execution. Justice. His hands are now tattooed with a Batman symbol on the back of his right hand, a Robin symbol on the back of his left, and on the back of each of the four fingers of his hands are individual letters spelling out "JAIL BIRD". He is resolved to continue executing "justice on the inside". He smiles. END CREDITS follow, with "scenes" menu. MAIN TITLE, INTRODUCTION, ROBIN DIES, BATMAN SAVES ROBIN, ROBIN AT CROSSROADS, KILL THE JOKER. Choose KILL THE JOKER.4. ROBIN AT CROSSROADS: KILL THE JOKER. The same story as above in 3: BATMAN SAVES ROBIN. Jason kills the Joker, and two police officers arrive. JOKER DIES: ATTACK or SURRENDER. Choose ATTACK.ATTACK. Jason attacks the nearest officer and holds off the second. He leaves and eludes capture. Jason becomes Red Robin, terrorizing the criminal community and Gotham. He confronts Two-Face in a Mall, who defeats him in an attack, with Red Robin/Jason knocked down by a falling display stand, without his weapon at hand, his gun tossed aside. Two-Face presents the dilemma of life or death. He flips his coin. IMAGE OF THE COIN: SCARRED SIDE OR UNSCARRED SIDE. Choose the image of the SCARRED SIDE.SCARRED SIDE. Two-Face, seeing this, says "death", and confronts Red Robin with the violence of Red Robin's crimes of murder in the criminal community, that he is far worse, and decides to let him live with the paralyzing guilty knowledge of what he has done, a dead soul, and he leaves. "Live with it". END CREDITS follow, with "scenes" menu. ROBIN AT CROSSROADS: JOKER DIES: ATTACK: TWO-FACE'S COIN: SCARRED SIDE or UNSCARRED SIDE.5. UNSCARRED SIDE. The story is the same as above 4. Two-Face takes the unscarred side as his decision to do good, and kill Red Robin for his crimes in terrorizing Gotham. The moment he is about to fire, he is fired-on, by a young boy holding Red Robin's gun. Red Robin takes back his gun, but he is urged by the boy to not kill Two-Face, and reminds him of the ideals of Batman and Nightwing, telling him that killing is not the way. Jason relents and agrees, and he tosses away the gun. letting Two-Face go. The boy is Tim Drake. Red Robin decides he will train him. Meanwhile, Jason seeks reconciliation with Dick Grayson, Alfred, Barbara, and her father commissioner Gordon. He becomes a crime-fighter like the original Batman, as Red Robin reformed, together with his partner Tim Drake in training as Batkid. END CREDITS follow, with "scenes" menu. MAIN TITLE: INTRODUCTION: BATMAN SAVES ROBIN: ROBIN AT CROSSROADS. Choose CATCH THE JOKER.6. CATCH THE JOKER. Story is the same as above 3: Batman saves Robin, up to the point of choosing to Kill the Joker or Catch the Joker. He resolves to catch him. But he has to find him. Jason becomes the Red Hood. This time when Joker has Red Hood's gang leaders soaked in gasoline in the semitrailer, surrounded by police, his lighter won't light, and Red Hood taunts him with fact that challenging him was the only way to bring him out of hiding. Jason comes down, sets off a smoke bomb, and in the cloud of smoke handcuffs and confronts the Joker, who confronts Red Robin with being a pathological killer. Jason. holding a gun on Joker, denies that he has killed anyone, keeping his promise to Batman. But Joker cites every instance of Red Robin murdering every one of those Red Robin had apprehended, and suddenly he discovers to his delight that Red Robin has repressed his memory of killing, making Red Robin Joker's son, not Batman's, and he laughs at Jason/Red Robin as he presses his forehead against Jason's gun, trying to provoke him to kill. JOKER DIES: KILL THE JOKER or SPARE THE JOKER. Choose KILL THE JOKER.KILL THE JOKER. Jason kills Joker, concealed by the smoke, and escapes to the top of the Wayne Industries Building, while commissioner Gordon and his officers discover Joker's corpse. Talia al Ghul confronts Jason there, congratulates him and urges him as an excellent assassin to join the League of Assassins. Jason refuses. She tells him he will have to persuade Batman. Ra's refused to resurrect Bruce, but Talia did, and Bruce regained his abilities as Batman under her care, except for his speech. He only says menacingly, "Zur-En-Arrh". He draws forth a dagger in challenge to Jason. The choice is FIGHT TO THE DEATH: DEATH or LIFE. Choose DEATH.DEATH. They collide in attack. Batman pierces Red Robin's left forearm with the dagger, as Jason simultaneously stabs Bruce in the heart. Batman collapses. Talia shoots Jason in his Red Hood helmet. Jason tosses the helmet aside and goes over to Batman and turns him over. Batman has an activated IED in his left hand. It explodes, demolishing the top of the Wayne Industries Building. Talia, Bruce, and Jason all are killed. Only charred corpses remain. END CREDITS follow, with "scenes" menu. MAIN TITLE: INTRODUCTION: ROBIN DIES: BATMAN SAVES ROBIN: CATCH THE JOKER: KILL THE JOKER: FIGHT TO THE DEATH: DEATH or LIFE. Choose LIFE.7. LIFE. Jason avoids stabbing Bruce. As he falls back Jason immediately tazes Batman, who falls unconscious. Talia shoots Jason in his Red Hood helmet. Jason tosses it past her, as she prepares to kill him, and Jason presses a switch in his hand that causes the Red Hood helmet to explode, knocking Talia unconscious. All three of them live. Jason becomes reconciled to the Wayne/Batman family, including Barbara and her father commissioner Gordon, and becomes reformed, coordinating his efforts with Dick and the police from the Batcave, but not going back yet to active duty, because of issues of nightmares and PTSD. Nightwing has become the new Batman. Bruce is still alive, and is dangerous, but he is restrained and under care in Arkham Asylum. As he mutters, "Zor-in-Arrh", he remembers his father's last words, that if Zorro came riding into Gotham on his horse, it would end with "Zorro in Arkham". END CREDITS follow, with "scenes" menu. MAIN TITLE: INTRODUCTION: ROBIN DIES: BATMAN SAVES ROBIN: ROBIN AT CROSSROADS: CATCH THE JOKER: KILL THE JOKER: KILL THE JOKER or SPARE THE JOKER. Choose SPARE THE JOKER.8. SPARE THE JOKER. Story is the same as above 7, except instead of killing the Joker, Jason/Red Hood knocks him unconscious, and eludes capture. The police close in on a handcuffed Joker, who is still alive. Jason, Talia, and Bruce confront each other on the top of the Wayne Industries Building, and the fight to the death ends with life. Bruce is tazed and knocked out. Talia shoots Red Hood in the helmet. Jason tosses it past her and explodes it. Jason is reconciled and accepted, and Bruce is in Arkham Asylum. END CREDITS follow, with "scenes" menu.I suggest you not try to watch the whole thing all at once. That might be a bit obsessive. I enjoyed it.

I couldn’t pass this movie up, the interactive feature.. I’ve only seen it in one other movie, one of the Final Destination films, it didn’t impact the movie much back then. So, this was cool to see again, and in my opinion, executed much better.Just as a heads up, it’s pretty violent. For those parents on the fence or I guess the squeamish.What I like about these movies is a lot of us go in thinking we know what’s going to happen, why?Cause some of us are fans of this particular story or we’ve read up on it/seen references in other media.Thankfully they throw us a creative curveball, or take some interesting creative liberties. It’s hit or miss obviously, but this time I really enjoyed it. Especially with all the options/outcomes.I’m fairly certain I did all the options, and watched whatever could unfold happen. Which I really liked it. I was surprised and found myself going back to make other choices to see any minor differences.Interesting enough, choices have a time limit and if you let the timer run out before moving the marker / making a choice it decides for you, not sure what the rhyme or reason to that is, but part of me suspects it’s the choice that -should- be made.My only gripe(s) is they re-used scenes and added to stuff from “Under the Red Hood” almost like they didn’t get permission or bother getting the former voice actors to reprise their roles (Jensen Ackles’ amazing voice work as Jason Todd, and Neil Patrick Harris as Nightwing.)It just seemed odd part of the movie was done almost recap like narrative and no disrespect towards the voices they chose this time around. I mean it makes sense at some point, but it did seem weird and opens things up for a sequel, I hope.Then it felt pretty short, which I get that’s part of the pitch, “interactive shorts” so, my first choice felt like it was just a ten minute film in it’s entirety. Not the case.I really hope the DC animated movies do this again sometime but I also get this was a nod or tribute to the original story.I wouldn’t pass this film up, it’s different and whether you’re a DC fan or love anything with Batman (or his family in it) this movie was a blast, a fun experience I can easily see myself watching again and again.