BATMAN: SOUL OF THE DRAGON [2021]

 "WHERE'S WHITE RICE?"   

When I first heard about this last year, I was majorly excited.  C'mon, A DC animated movie taking place in the 70's with Batman, Bronze Tiger, Richard Dragon and Lady Shiva fighting Kobra to a funky soundtrack!!!  This is Nirvana!  Then when BATMAN: SOUL OF THE DRAGON was finally released this month, I felt some trepidation.  I had such high expectations that I was afraid to be let down.  My fears were immediately laid aside after only about 5 minutes of screen time.  Any complaints that Batman is sidelined or not the star of the show seem silly to me as he's almost always on screen (albeit not in his Batman costume).  In fact, none of our heroes wear "super-hero" costumes except for a few scenes with Bruce Wayne in his fighting togs.  Normally, in an animated movie, this would bother me but somehow it didn't and I enjoyed not only seeing our heroes fighting in civilian clothes but also loved how Batman wasn't the star of the film but instead was an equal member of our kung-fu, ass-kicking team of bad-asses!   In fact, our Bruce Wayne is shown here fairly early in his Batman career and is still fairly wet behind the pointy ears; so it makes perfect sense that he would not "take point" and instead function as an equal member of the team.  I was a little annoyed that Richard Dragon had black hair instead of his actual light-brown hair but the goal appears to be to make him appear as much like Bruce Lee as they possibly could so I get it.  

There seemed to be a lot more care taken with fight choreography and martial arts-type moves than in most other DC animated movies and I loved it.  The 70's look and vibe were also terrifically on point.  I have to make special mention of the fantastic music score by Joachim Horsley; this score needs to be issued on a soundtrack album because I want to buy it SOOOOOO BAAAAAAAD!!!  Another positive for me was the fact that this movie is not based on any pre-existing comic book storyline so there is a nice feeling of freedom to tell a new story without being handcuffed to a set plot we've read before.  The ending IS a bit abrupt, as I've seen some people complain, but I'm reeeeeeeeeeeeeeally hoping that this signals a possible sequel in the works where our kung-fu kick-assers tear up Hell!  If not, it still works as an ending and I'm pretty happy with it.  All in all, BATMAN: SOUL OF THE DRAGON was everything I was hoping for:  a hell of a fun time with groovy music and martial arts mayhem.