Batman: Knightfall
Part 1-Knightfall
review by Bobby Blakey
Warner and DC Entertainment continue to have a strong game with their animated feature films. They have been bringing some iconic stories to life including The Killing Joke, The Dark Knight Returns, Doom That Came To Gotham and more. Now they are taking on the Knightfall story that ran in Batman from 1993-1994, but this time as a full trilogy of animated features.
Batman: Knightfall Part 1-Knightfall follows the mysterious behemoth known only as Bane who frees Batman’s entire Rogue’s Gallery from Arkham Asylum pushing the Caped Crusader to his mental and physical breaking point.
The film features the voice talent of Anson Mount (“Star Trek: Strange New Worlds”) as Bruce Wayne/Batman, Michael Mando (“Spider-Man: Brand New Day”) as Bane, and Pablo Schreiber (“His & Hers”) as Jean-Paul Valley/Azrael with Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths trilogy and Justice Society: Warworld director Jeff Wamester at the helm.
I have loved most of the DC animated features and love that they are taking on the task of bringing some of the iconic stories to life. This one is one that is particularly complicated since it wasn’t just a one-off story and took over a year at least just to build towards the initial aspect. It was great news to hear they are doing a trilogy to bring it to life, but how much could this first movie really pack in, and could it capture the artistic vision along with the violent nature of its chaos? It is a resounding yes and it pulls no punches with the bloody violence kicking in within the first ten minutes of the film.
They have done a great job with this first chapter capturing the essence of the story, getting everything in there to set the tone and doing the artistic visuals of both Kelley Jones and Norm Breyfogle’s justice. It is dark and brooding,
complete with one of my favorite Batman looks featuring the high head points. He is menacing and broken in so many ways throughout this first chapter leading into the iconic moment that changed Batman forever. They are able to weave in the story of Azreal in as needed as well and it never bogs down the rest of the story and instead successfully helps set the stage for the future installments.
The story features a who’s who of Batman villains with a good chunk used via a montage, but effectively and not just passed over. It sets the tone of Batman’s exhausted fights leading to his interaction with Bane who gets his own time to shine as we learn his horrific life tale. The film balances both journeys well before bringing them together with vengeance. I loved that they kept the often-uneven look to the venom charged Bane to make him more menacing and crazed that is perfectly captured thanks in part also to Michael Mando’s excellent voice performance. The highly anticipated fight between he two is a great yet painful payoff to the film that will have you itching for the next chapter immediately.
Beautiful animation, great voice performances, bloody violence and respect for the source material makes for another perfect adaptation that is one of the best DC Animated has done so far. I cannot wait for the next chapters and can only hope that it keeps the momentum going.
In addition to the feature this release offers bonus content including features focusing on the various incarnations of Robin, the making of the film and more. Witness the beginning of this epic trilogy when Batman: Knightfall Part 1-Knightfall available now on digital, 4K, Blu-ray and DVD on September 8th with Parts II and III hitting later 2026 and early 2027.