Animated Movie Review: "Batman: Hush" (2019)

Director: Justin Copeland
Distributor: Warner Brothers
Runtime: 82 minutes
Released: July 19th, 2019
Availability: Available on 4K blu-ray, blu-ray , DVD, and digital, streaming on HBOMax

Batman goes to rescue a boy whose been kidnapped by Bane. After he subdues Bane, he spots Catwoman stealing, even though she hasn’t been a criminal for a year. He goes after her and someone cuts his Batline. Now he must discover who is behind it.

If you know anything about me or have read any of my reviews of Batman comics, you’d know that I love Batman: Hush by Jeph Loeb.

This film is an awful adaptation of a great graphic novel. I was initially excited for this adaptation, and then I remembered what happened to the Batman: The Killing Joke (2016) adaptation and I stopped being excited.

I decided since I didn’t want to get burned spending money to rent the movie as I did with The Killing Joke I decided to wait and see if my local library system would have the film and they did have it in the system and I decided to borrow it.

It was the best decision I made because I was very disappointed in how they decided to adapt this film, but I’ll briefly summarize it here and go into detail more in the review: It is a bad adaptation of a great graphic novel.

The writing is very lackluster and if you’ve read the original graphic novel, you’ll know that 95% of the original dialogue is not there. Only some of the iconic scenes from the comic are actually used in this film, and overall, this is the worst Batman adaptation by DC comics to date when it comes to their animated films.

The visual art style and the animation for this film are just bland and boring. Nothing stands out about the film and it doesn’t even resemble the amazing artwork that Jim Lee created for the graphic novel.

The art designs are generic and the animation doesn’t really stand out at all. It’s shame because you’d think that with an amazing graphic novel this film would have great animation to do it justice, but that didn’t happen either.

The voice acting for this movie is bland. No one stood out in giving an amazing vocal performance. It felt like everyone was phoning it in, and just being there to do a voice.

There’s no life or emotion in these voices and everything was just there. I feel like DC Comics has gotten complacent after doing a string of pretty great animated movies and they seem to think that celebrity voices = a good voice cast. Will, it’s not, this was probably the worst DC animated movie thanks to both the writing and the voice acting is bad.

The music is utterly unmemorable and didn’t add anything to this already lackluster adaptation. The fact that it’s so generic is another disappointing aspect of this film.

The original comic was an amazing story that gave us a great Batman villain. This adaptation had the chance to introduce a great villain to mainstream audiences and the writers completely squandered the opportunity to do that.

The writing is so bad that it’s basically not the Batman: Hush graphic novel, but a fanfiction version that was made in an attempt to be a cash grab on one of the recent classic Batman stories.

Sure they set in the New52 universe, but they could have made it more faithful to the book than how it turned out, and it turned out badly. It changed who Hush’s true identity was, and made it even stupider.

Also replacing Killer Croc with Bane was stupid, because it’s one of the most vivid memories I have of reading the original comic was how scary Killer Croc looked, and replacing him with Bane and making Bane dumber than a box of rocks was the domino effect in a long line of stupid decisions for this adaptation.

I know that I was very hard on the animated adaptation of Batman: The Killing Joke (2016), but it has a major advantage over this film: The part that adapted the original comic and it was a faithful adaptation in that aspect.

Sure the prologue was dumb and dragged that movie down, but the section that is based on Batman: The Killing Joke is almost word for word, a perfect recreation of the graphic novel, although they couldn’t imitate the art style because it was extremely detailed still images where animation has to move.

At least I can skip the prologue and just watch the part that follows the comic. I can’t even do that with Batman: Hush since the adaptation is the worst Batman animated film yet.

I do not recommend buying or renting this movie. It is too disappointing if you’re a fan of the original graphic novel. It’s not a movie that is worth buying for your blu-ray or DVD collection, it’s not even worth paying money to rent it.

If you feel you have to see this movie check your local library. If they buy new movies for patrons to borrow then you can see this film without paying for it.

It’s not worth your time if you’re a fan of the original graphic novel because they changed so much to shoehorn the movie into the New52 continuity and it doesn’t work because of the changes from the original story because of the poor writing and execution of the story.

If you have a subscription to HBOMax just watch it on there so you aren't paying any more money than you have to since it's up on the streaming service.

Batman: Hush (2019) is the worst Batman animated movie I have ever watched. I am extremely disappointed by this film because it’s a poor adaptation

This is my least favorite Batman animated movie. I can’t recommend this movie. It was poorly executed and even though they stuck it in the new continuity, it took out everything that made Batman: Hush a great graphic novel.

Read Jeph Loeb’s graphic novel instead. It was a better story. The animation isn’t even memorable, along with lackluster voice acting and a soundtrack that is just background noise.

It is not worth your time if you’re a fan of the comic, because the comic is better. If you’ve never read the comics don’t bother seeing the movie, just read the comic. This is the worst Batman movie I have watched to date.

I am so happy I didn’t have to pay for this because unlike Batman: The Killing Joke (2016), I did like the parts of the movie that did follow the book and at least that was half the movie. Not even half of Batman: Hush follows the original graphic novel.

It is a waste of time and money, but if you get it for free from your local library as I did, at least you don’t have to pay for it. I feel very sorry for fans of Jeph Loeb’s Batman: Hush that went in expecting a faithful adaptation because this movie wasn’t.

It is just a massive disappointment for fans like me, especially since Batman: Hush is my second favorite comic, topped only by Batman: Under the Red Hood by Judd Winick.

If you just want a time-waster, you can watch it on HBOMax, but don't pay for it if you don't have to!

If you want to go watch a faithful animated adaptation, watch Batman: The Dark Knight Returns (2012) or Batman: Under the Red Hood (2010). Those are fantastic adaptations of their source materials; this is the worst DC animated adaptation I’ve ever had the displeasure of sitting through. At least I can save you some money by telling you to get it from the library if you feel you have to see it. That way, if you’re disappointed like I am, you didn’t have to pay for it!