Batman: Under the Red Hood - my review
Jul. 14th, 2010 06:25 am
So I was up waaay too late last night (like most of fandom) watching Jensen's movie Under the Red Hood (thanks to three lovely ladies. You know who you are and you rock!).
Before going into this movie I was aware of the history of Jason Todd, but the filmmakers have done such a good job that you don't even need to know who Batman is to watch this film. They do an excellent job of quickly explaining who all the characters are and what happened to Jason to set all of this in motion.
This is one violent cartoon, let me tell you. People are beat to a pulp and/or shot and killed about every 10 minutes. Yikes!
Jensen, of course, does an amazing job, just like all of the reviews said. But Neil Patrick Harris, as Nightwing, is the other standout performance. Hands down, he had the best, and funniest lines. Unfortunately, he's only in the beginning part of the movie, which is a shame.
Bruce Greenwood does a good job as Batman, but the voice of the Joker and Black Mask annoyed me.
I was surprised that Jensen wasn't in this more, though. Let me clarify - Red Hood is seen quite a bit, but the majority of the time he's running or jumping or fighting and not speaking. And listening to Jensen's sexy voice is why I wanted to see this so badly.
But when Jensen does speak he NAILS it. He truly was the best voice talent and I'm honestly not just saying that because I'm a big fan of his. He had the most intensity of any of the other actors, including Bruce Greenwood. His voice went from being cocky to sarcastic to pissed off and everything in between. And when we finally get to the long-awaited Red Hood/Batman confrontation at the end, the pain and hurt and anger in Jensen's voice broke my heart.
This boy has an excellent second career ahead of him as a voice actor, that's for sure.
The ending is left...open ended. I have my theory as to what happened with Red Hood, and after all of you see it I'd be interested in your opinion as well.
I'll still be buying the DVD when it comes out on July 27th, and I encourage all of you to do so as well, even if you've already seen it like me. It's just a good way to support Jensen in his newest endeavor. :-)