BATMAN: HUSH (2019)

Studio:      Warner Bros. Animation
Director:    Justin Copeland
Writer:      Ernie Altbacker
Producer:  Amy McKenna
Stars:     Jason O’Mara, Jennifer Morrison, Geoffrey Arend, James Garrett, Peyton List, Sean Maher, Jerry O’Connell, Rebecca Romijn, Jason Spisak, Maury Sterling, Tara Strong

Review Score:

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Summary:

In the midst of an unexpected new romance with Catwoman, Batman works to uncover the identity of a mystery villain who is manipulating his rogues gallery.

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Synopsis:     Show/Hide Spoilers

While Nightwing battles drug smugglers elsewhere, Bruce Wayne introduces Selina Kyle to his longtime friend, brain surgeon Thomas Elliot, at a gala reception. Through an earpiece, Alfred interrupts to inform Bruce that Bane kidnapped Edward Dupree, the eight-year-old heir to the Dupree Chemical Co. fortune.

Batman defeats Bane and rescues the boy at a chemical factory. Batman finds an ivy leaf on Bane’s body. Lady Shiva from the League of Assassins briefly appears to tell Batman that someone recently exploited a Lazarus pit.

Acting under Poison Ivy’s influence, Catwoman steals the money that Commissioner Gordon brought to the factory as ransom. Batman chases Catwoman, but mysterious new villain Hush interferes, causing Batman to be seriously injured in a fall. Catwoman and Batgirl fend off a group of street thugs to protect Batman. Batgirl calls Alfred to help retrieve Batman.

Still under Ivy’s control, Catwoman delivers the ransom money to Poison Ivy. After Catwoman leaves, Hush presents Ivy with synthetic kryptonite lipstick and gives her a new assignment.

Nightwing and Alfred have Batgirl stage a car accident so Bruce Wayne can be admitted to a hospital for his head injury. Thomas Elliot performs surgery on Bruce. Afterward, Bruce vows to be a better friend to Thomas.

After recovering, Batman goes to Blackgate Prison to question Bane about why he was working with Catwoman and Poison Ivy. Bane breaks out to confront Catwoman at Ivy’s abandoned lair. Batman rescues Catwoman and helps Amanda Waller recapture Bane.

Desiring revenge, Catwoman insists on going after Poison Ivy with Batman. Catwoman flirts with Batman, which leads to a passionate kiss.

Under the pretense of giving Lois Lane an interview at The Daily Planet, Bruce Wayne goes to Metropolis in search of Poison Ivy. Batman gets Ivy’s location when he confronts Lex Luthor about LexCorp’s involvement in manufacturing Ivy’s trance-inducing pheromone compound.

Batman and Catwoman confront Poison Ivy. Using her ‘kryptonite kiss’ to manipulate the Man of Steel, Ivy directs Superman to kill Batman and Catwoman. Batman battles Superman using kryptonite knuckles.

Catwoman distracts Superman by taking Lois Lane hostage. Catwoman pushes Lois off of the Daily Planet building, compelling Superman to rescue her and thus breaking Ivy’s spell.

Batman and Catwoman capture Poison Ivy. Ivy confesses that she was following directives from Hush.

From afar, Hush spies on Batman and Catwoman kissing again. Hush kidnaps Joker in order to blackmail Harley Quinn into helping with the next phase of his plan.

Dick Grayson and Damian Wayne separately tease Bruce about dating Selina Kyle. After drinks at Selina’s apartment, Bruce and Selina attend an opera with Thomas Elliot and his date.

Harley Quinn interrupts the performance to attempt assassinating Bruce Wayne. Bruce and Selina separately don their costumes to battle Harley. After Catwoman is injured, Batman chases Harley to an outside alley where he finds Joker standing over Thomas Elliot’s dead body. Enraged over Thomas’ murder, Batman begins brutally beating Joker until Commissioner Gordon intervenes.

After Thomas’ funeral, Batman and Nightwing put together clues that reveal Hush actually killed Thomas, not Joker. Batman further deduces that Hush knows his true identity, which is why Hush killed Thomas to get to him.

Batman and Nightwing respond to an alert about Riddler. After capturing the criminal, Batman demands that Riddler reveal what he knows about Hush. Batman sees Hush spying from a distant building, but Hush escapes.

Realizing that Hush will attack her to get to him, Batman reveals to Catwoman that he is really Bruce Wayne. Bruce and Selina have sex, begin a romantic relationship, and also start fighting crime together.

Commissioner Gordon summons Batman to investigate a break-in at Thomas Elliot’s old office. Batman takes Gordon to Arkham Asylum after discovering x-rays of a brain tumor belonging to Arthur Wynn, one of Riddler’s aliases.

Nightwing and Catwoman respond to a break-in at the cemetery. They discover Thomas Elliot’s grave disturbed and his body missing. Scarecrow attacks. When Nightwing is forced to return to the Batcave to treat the effects of Scarecrow’s gas, Hush captures Catwoman.

Batman and Gordon confront Riddler at Arkham Asylum. Riddler confesses that he was Thomas Elliot’s patient. When Thomas told him his brain tumor was terminal, Riddler sought the healing power of a Lazarus pit instead of accepting death. The pit showed him Batman’s true identity. When he emerged, Riddler assumed the persona of Hush to exact revenge on Batman by using Batman’s rogues gallery against him.

Batman discovers Riddler is actually Clayface in disguise. Batman defeats Clayface, but Hush taunts him over a microphone.

Batman tracks the real Riddler/Hush to New Thurnary Metal Works. Riddler taunts Batman using Thomas’ dead body. Batman fights his way through several traps to confront Riddler. Catwoman escapes her restraints to help Batman defeat Riddler/Hush.

Batman insists on risking his life to pull Riddler to safety. Catwoman instead cuts the rope, causing Riddler to fall into a vat of molten metal. Batman and Catwoman escape as the factory explodes.

Batman and Catwoman confront the differences in their moral codes. Recognizing that their philosophies are incompatible, Catwoman ends their relationship and leaves Batman alone.

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Review:

Aside from how exciting it was to see iconic artist Jim Lee back drawing DC heroes and villains again, something I prominently remember about the hype leading into Batman’s “Hush” storyline in 2002 was DC’s goofy “Who Is Hush?” marketing campaign. A hot hook for the 12-issue maxi-series, which ran from Batman #608 through #619, was that it boasted appearances by the Caped Crusader’s closest allies as well as numerous rogues. Standing at the center of this carnival of characters was Hush, a new villain whose true identity would supposedly shake Bruce Wayne to his core.

DC ran a contest where fans could predict who Hush would turn out to be. Might The Joker be pulling the plot’s strings using a different alter ego? Maybe Two-Face? Had Alfred at last turned evil? Or could Hush be Tommy Elliot, the brilliant brain surgeon introduced as Bruce’s longtime best friend despite never even being mentioned in a Batman comic prior to this conspicuous first appearance?

This wannabe mystery angle was ludicrous since Hush’s identity was obvious from the outset. If your money wasn’t on the critical character invented exclusively for this story, you weren’t paying attention.

SPOILER

Although it too has issues with how clunkily Tommy Elliot’s character is handled, the movie version of “Batman: Hush” doesn’t encounter quite the same situation because it changes Hush’s identity. It’s an interesting enough twist to subvert expectations for those familiar with the original story. However, one of the other core components that made the comic book intriguing has a tougher time translating to the screen.

END SPOILER

Jeph Loeb and Jim Lee’s seminal work would go on to be regarded as one of the more revered Batman tales of all time. While I enjoyed it as much as anyone, I would entertain arguments that the setup’s design was an overcomplicated incentive to cram as many Batman personalities as possible into a bloated storyline that didn’t necessarily have a need for everything included.

That goes double for the animated adaptation which, truncated to an 80-minute movie, feels even thinner as a narrative having a hard time justifying the convoluted goose chase from one MacGuffin to the next that constitutes a plot. More so than the comic, which had additional room to develop its fiction, “Batman: Hush” can come across like a casually conceived conceit to throw a lot of Batman lore around whether it adds up to a sensible storyline or not.

Bruce Wayne doesn’t even discover Hush exists until over 30 minutes have elapsed. Before that point, Batman’s current case is a connect-the-dots circuit from Catwoman to Bane to Lady Shiva to Poison Ivy to Lex Luthor and so on. Batman’s only real reason for his investigation is to discover why these villains appear to be working in concert, not necessarily what the endgame actually is.

The movie’s only real reason for this runaround is to motivate cameos from Alfred, Nightwing, Damian Wayne, Batgirl, Amanda Waller, Superman, and Lois Lane. Joker, Riddler, Clayface, and Harley Quinn also make appearances. So do Penguin, Two-Face, and Mr. Freeze although curiously, these latter three baddies appear in a still frame montage of Batman and Catwoman on a crime-fighting spree. I can’t imagine why their six seconds of screentime couldn’t be fully animated, but perhaps that speaks to the overall nature of “Batman: Hush” feeling like it’s been rushed around cut corners in scripting as well as production.

Speaking of the animation style, “Batman: Hush” weirdly fuzzes up imagery by making it look as though Vaseline smeared the lens. Other animated DC movies may have used this effect previously, but I don’t recall it being this much of a distraction. I instinctively tried rubbing blurriness from my eyes on repeated occasions before remembering someone bizarrely made this a willful creative choice.

Casting decisions come with some question marks too. Jason O’Mara has played Batman several times before, yet his timbre takes some getting used to considering how much space Kevin Conroy and Troy Baker occupy in the mind’s ear. Jennifer Morrison doesn’t slot in as smoothly as Catwoman. Morrison has only one other cartoon credit to her name, which is playing Wasp in three episodes of “The Super Hero Squad Show” in 2009. You can visualize her reading words off the page in a sound booth as opposed to truly embodying Selina Kyle. Producers probably cast Morrison for her relative name recognition when they should have gone with a seasoned voiceover artist instead.

Side actors are all really good however. Jason Spisak mostly mimics Mark Hamill as The Joker, but it’s a spot-on impression that works well as a secondary substitute. James Garrett’s Alfred sounds a little like John Hurt, which is a perfect person to picture while listening to Garrett’s take on the role.

For any kid-conscious parents keeping score, “Batman: Hush” contains plenty of violence while peppering in curse words including multiple uses of assh*le, sh*t, and a b*tch and a g*ddamn. Implied sex also plays a part in Batman and Catwoman’s romantic relationship, which is central to the storyline. I don’t think the film is particularly inappropriate for children, but cautious mothers and fathers may wish to apply some of that parental guidance that MPAA ratings are keen on.

I’d stop well short of characterizing “Batman: Hush” as sloppy, but it couldn’t be called tight either. The film takes a number of well-traveled trails to reach destinations, including a climax which must be the umpteenth time an animated Batman adventure has concluded with a factory explosion. “Batman vs. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” (review here), which immediately preceded “Hush,” ended the same way. This movie’s resolution also cuts to credits so abruptly, I was surprised there isn’t a post-credits scene to put a better cap on things.

All in all, “Batman: Hush” is a mildly disappointing adaptation that makes for a moderately entertaining animated film. While the comic book incarnation is an all-timer for its medium, this version is a middle-of-the-road movie as far as Batman’s cartoon capers go.

Review Score: 60

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