Batman: Mask of the Phantasm

Batman: Mask of the Phantasm is an animated movie that's spinning-off from the Batman: The Animated Series from the 90's which is a TV show that a lot of people like. I haven't watched a lot of it but I do know that it is highly acclaimed I might get into it soon. This movie is actually said to be a really underrated movie by a lot of people as well. Apparently it's something that was a critical hit when it came out but was a huge let down at the box office. But it's also something that's apparently gaining more and more popularity every year. And recently I did watch it and it was really, really good. I decided to watch it after the Nostalgia Critic posted something about it recently on his YouTube channel as well as looking at a few other people talking about it. And now here, I'm going to be reviewing it. Don't worry though. I won't spoil anything for you. What's the story? It revolves around a new villain called the Phantasm who's killing random gang members. Yeah, "killing." As in PG way back then for an animated movie. But I'll get more into that in a minute. He also has the ability to disappear and reappear in a puff of smoke. And people think it's Batman who's killing these people of because from a distance it looks like him. On top of that, a person of named Andrea comes back to Gotham and it turns out she was originally Bruce's first love after the loss of his parents. But now the two of them are both bitter at each other and know that their hiding information that the other could use. And to make things worse, a gang man brings in the Joker to try to bring Batman or whoever it is who's doing these murders down before he dies next. So it's a chase between Batman, the police, the Phantasm and the Joker all trying to see who can take out who first and see who will come out on top. Definitely the biggest change between this and the T-V show is that the budget is bigger. As really nice looking as the animation looks in the animated series, you can tell that there's more work and effort done here. Especially the fact that it looks a lot brighter and the characters look a lot more 3-dimentional and solid. There's also a great mystery in all of this. That's exactly what Batman is supposed to be a detective. That's one of his nicknames. "The World's Greatest Detective." But in the live-action movies so far, there haven't really been many mysteries for him to solve. This is an actual good mystery. I won't give away the twist ending and who the Phantasm is, but, let's just say it's very clever and it has a very clever meaning behind it. There's also a very clever physiological pull on Bruce's mind that you can actually understand. It shows his past at the time before he became Batman and we see him first meeting Andrea. It actually makes him happy but he feels that being happy is a bad thing and that he should never be happy because of his parent's death. There's even a scene where he pleas on their graves for forgiveness. Almost like being happy is a crime or even a sin especially since all he's known in his life is just loss so it's like he's being thrown off in some way. It's a pretty darn good physiological analysis. There's also some really intense violent scenes. Like I said a second ago. They earned that PG rating. There's a lot of gruesome deaths in this movie as well as a lot of bleeding. It's also suspenseful. There's a chase scene between Batman and the SWAT team that get's pretty intense. It just keeps beating him down over and over until he's totally exposed. And they are so close to seeing who he is. There's also an incredibly awesome scene where we see Batman first putting his mask on. We don't see what he looks like but the music and the small imagery ensures us that it's the coolest thing that you can possibly see. Watch.

So yeah, why this movie doesn't get more attention, I don't know. But it should get more attention because there's a lot of great things in it. It has practically anything as Batman. It has the best Batman, Joker and best kind of Batman story. While I do say Christian Bale and Ben Affleck are the best Batmen, I would say that they're the best live action Batman. But if you were to ask me who I thought the best Batman ever was, it's definitely Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill is the best Joker. The voices they have for these characters are perfect and they play them absolutely amazingly. As well as the fact that they also play off each other brilliantly. But to be fair, is this my favourite Batman movie? No, I personally like the Dark Knight trilogy and, yeah, kill me if you want when I say this, but I also enjoyed Batman V Superman more because I think that they're a tad bit more entertaining. Does Batman V Superman have a lot of problems? Yes. But I kinda stand by it because I found it to be very entertaining. And while I like those a lot, Batman: Mask of the Phantasm is clearly the Batman that has the best Batman and the best representation of him ever. And I most definitely, definitely recommend this movie if you haven't seen it. It is beyond underrated and an animated movie every comic book fan should watch just like me. And that's my review of Batman: Mask of the Phantasm. Thank you all for reading and please comment down below.