Red Hood

First of all, let me say that this weekend has mainly been about Batman.  I drove all the way to Walmart to buy Batman Silly Bands.  I have never been a fan of the craze that people give it.  But I always said that I would only wear a Batman Silly Band if they ever came out.  And of course, they come out with one.  I had to pay $4 for a pack, but hey, you can never go cheap on Batman. 

Something else to continue my Batman crave was renting the new animated movie 'Batman: Under the Red Hood.'  I will be perfectly honest.  I really was unsure about watching it.  Since the release of the japanese anime film 'Gotham Knight', I have been hesitant about watching anything that strays from the style and storyline to the Batman series back when I was a child.  But what was comforting about this movie was that I could recognize the same style that I have been searching for.  And the plot was amazing!  So I figured I would talk about it during this post.  Beware, alot of spoilers are going to be in here!

First off, a list of the characters.  If you were born in my day, you will know that there is of course Batman, and then there is Dick Grayson that is the original Robin, then grows into the title Nightwing.  And we then saw Tim Drake take over the Robin title.  But in the comics, and then in this movie, Jason Todd takes over the title way before Drake ever takes over. 

The story starts out when we find out that Raz Al Ghul has hired the Joker to distract Batman by kidnapping Robin (Jason Todd).  The Joker has taken Robin to an abandoned town in Bosnia, and has trapped in a store house of sorts.  Not approved by Ghul, the Joker beats Robin to a pulp with a crowbar to near death.  He leaves Robin for dead before Batman arrives.  When Robin comes to, he attempts to escape, but is trapped.  He then discovers that the Joker planted a bomb, set to go off in seconds.  The building explodes seconds before Batman enters.  The scene ends with Batman picking up his dead fallen comrade.

Time goes forward five years.   We see a new crime lord known as the Red Hood appear and makes his name known through the crime bosses.  He manages to get them to deal with him, except from Black Mask.  Batman and Nightwing then take down a shipment of cargo containing one android that was supposed to go to Black Mask.  When the android is destroyed, Batman finds out that the people running the shipment answer to Red Hood.  We then see Red Hood assasinate the men, and run off with Batman and Nightwing chasing him. 

The chase ends when Red Hood escapes while a train passes through, and ends his appearance by saying, "You've lost your touch."  When Batman returns to the Batcave, he starts questioning why Red Hood would say that.  After running voice recognition tests, he is shocked to find out that the voice of Red Hood and Jason Todd are a perfect match. 

Black Mask then puts a hit out on Red Hood.  After nearly being killed by Mask's thugs, Red Hood is rescued by Batman.  After a long talk, Batman cannot find any resolutions with Red Hood.  Red Hood leaves, and Batman manages to find a small peice of Red Hood's DNA to find the truth.  Alfred goes into shock when Batman confirms that Red Hood is indeed Jason. 

Batman then goes to speak to Raz Al Ghul to find out what really happen.  Ghul tells Batman that it was not his intention for Todd to be killed.  He realized that it was his fault to put the Joker in charge of the scheme.  He tells Batman that he replaces Todd's body with a fake to fool Batman and starts this process of returning Batman's "Son" to him.  The puts the body of Todd in the Lazerus Pit, known to rejuvinate an old body to new and even possibly return a person from death.  It is a success, but Todd goes crazy and flees the scene.  He tells Batman that he believed him to be dead until right then. 

Back in Gotham, Black Mask breaks into Arkham and hires the Joker to kill Red Hood.  But instead, the Joker uses Black Mask as bait to lure Red Hood himself.  But that was Red Hood's plan as well.  The two discuss, and the Joker realizes that there is something familiar with Red Hood, but is not sure who.  Batman then breaks up the scene by sending then into the waters with his Batwing.  He looses them, but Red Hood invites Batman to the crime alleys in Gotham. 

Red Hood puts the Joker in one of the abandoned apartments in the crime alleys.  He decides to help the Joker remember by beating the Joker to the pulp with a crowbar.  The scene quickly changes to the rooftops of Gotham where Batman and Red Hood meet.  Red Hood manages to take off Batman's mask, exposing him as Bruce Wayne.  Red Hood takes his mask off exposing himself as Jason Todd, still wearing the Robin mask that he always wore.  After they argue, they fight. 

Batman ends the fight by throwing Todd through a wall leading in the room where the Joker is held.  Todd confesses that he forgiven Batman for not saving him, that there was nothing that he could do, but what he could not forgive was keeping the Joker alive after what he did to Todd.  And his entire goal since his resurrection was to exact revenge on the Joker.  Batman confesses that he wanted to, but he felt that if he did kill him, he would become the very same thing that he fought to destroy.  Todd puts a gun to the Joker's head and throws another gun at Batman.  He says that if Batman won't kill the Joker, then he will, and if Batman didn't want that to happen, he would have to kill him. 

Batman throws the gun down and walks away.  Todd yells threats and instead pulls the trigger on Batman.  Batman dodges, and disarms Todd at the same time.  In a last effort to kill the Joker, Todd detonates a bomb that goes off in 20 seconds.  Batman attempts to disarm it, but the Joker prevails in stopping him.  In the last few seconds, Batman decides to leave the Joker for death, and grabs Todd to escape.  The building explodes.  Batman survives, along with the Joker.  Todd is nowhere to be found. 

Now, many people say that he survived the explosion, but there is no solid evidence to prove that he did survive.  Anyways, the Black Mask is arrested, but is released on 1 Million dollar bail, and the Joker is sent back to Arkam.  The final scenes is in the Batcave when Batman begins to head out into the city.  Alfred points to the suit once used by Todd, asking if he should remove it.  Batman says no, that nothing has changed.  This either means that he did die, which nothing has changed, or that he did survive, but he his not who Batman once knew. 

Batman gets into the Batmobile and drives off.  Alfred then has a flash back to when Todd first takes on the Robin suit.  Batman urges him to hurry to get on patrol.  Todd attempts to scare Batman by hiding behind the computer, but fails.  Then Todd rushes over to the Batmobile to start the patrol.  The movie ends as Todd says that that day is the "Best day of his life'.

Ah, how sad the end made me feel.  It was awesome and seldom at the same time.  I enjoyed how the story was written.  And the action was awesome.  But what was really sad was Todd's death, his search for revenge, and his un-desired resurrection.