Love animation and have really enjoyed to loved many superhero films, animated and live-action. Of the DC animated films, there are some good ones out there as well as some disappointments and ones that fall in between.

As was said with 'Batman: Bad Blood' recently, 'Son of Batman' is one of the bigger disappointments and towards the weaker half of the DC animated films. There are good qualities here, but agree with a lot of the criticisms made and feel it could have been much better considering the characters. There was a good idea somewhere here in 'Son of Batman', it just didn't come out.

Starting with the good things, the best thing about 'Son of Batman'' is the animation. There are some very nice detailed backgrounds, the characters are designed well and the colours are dynamic and atmospheric. The music is both haunting and rousing, a good fit for the film's mood.

Voice acting is very variable, but Jason O'Mara continues to be a credible Batman and Sean Maher and Stuart Allan also fare well. Disliked Damien here but it was all because of the writing not the voice acting.

Others do not fare well however. The worst case is Thomas Gibson's quite terrible Deathstroke. No menace or expression here, Gibson sounds like he wishes he was somewhere else and it shows in his flat line delivery and his voice doesn't fit the character, far too nice. This is a large part as to why Deathstroke fails as a villain, but there are other issues too. He is actually a very interesting character poorly characterised here, one-dimensional in an arrogant bully way, vague motivations and far too conveniently defeated. So the conflict fails to convince.

The father and son relationship is not focused on anywhere near enough and when it is focused on there is no heart or any kind of emotion felt, it's just written so indifferently. If Batman wasn't under-utilised and underwritten and Damien far easier to relate to rather than the obnoxious brat he is here, it would have resonated more. The action is never thrilling or exciting, didn't feel much urgency actually and a lot of it was ridiculous with the villains defeated too easily and by what the heck means.

Generally the script tends to be bland and childish, devoid of any kind of complexity, and the story suffers mainly from the film being far too short and having too much going on and too many characters to fit in. The film consequently feels rushed and then there is no urgency or intensity so it also feels dull.

In summary, weakly done in most areas. 3/10 Bethany Cox

Well it seems Batman got drugged one night and did the nasty with Talia al Ghul who had a son Damian. Damian is a fighter and intellect like Batman. Damian wants to avenge the death of his grandfather Ra's al Ghul who was killed by Death Stroke. Damian has un-tempered anger which Batman attempts to control. Meanwhile Death Stroke has a scientist making mutants for him.

The film utilizes the dry humor of Alfred and some dark humor. Modern automatic weapons seem to have a tough time against medieval swords. It makes me wonder how Hitler conquered Poland. Fun popcorn toon.

Initially when I sat down to watch this 2014 DC animated movie titled "Son of Batman" here in 2020, I was thinking that it was just going to be another run-of-the-mill animated "Batman" movie that come a dime a dozen. But still, I hadn't already seen it, so of course I ended up sitting down to watch it.

And color me impressed. This DC animated movie is actually among some of the best of their animated movies set in the "Batman" universe. Sure, it was a bit cliché with the son and the title and all, but believe you me, the storyline was actually rather good and entertaining.

"Son of Batman" also make use of a good art style that is very reminiscent of the 1980s cartoons, such as "G.I. Joe" for example, so that was definitely something that appealed to me, as I grew up watching the 1980s cartoons. And the animation was very smooth and natural, making the animated movie look rather good.

With this being an animated movie, having a proper voice cast is very crucial to the success of the movie. And that they did have. I was impressed to hear the voices of talents such as Morena Baccarin and Giancarlo Esposito in this animated movie.

All in all, "Son of Batman" is quite worth taking the time to sit down and watch. I am rating it a seven out of ten stars.