On Friday evening here at WonderCon, Warner Bros. and DC gave us the world premiere of Batman Vs. Robin (available digitally on Tuesday).
A continuation of the events in last year’s Son of Batman , the new movie deals with the relationship between Bruce Wayne and his son Damien, the new Robin. It also involves the Court of Owls, the Dollmaker and Alfred weilding a shotgun.
There’s a nearly unceasing amount of action in the movie, but all of it is varied and exciting enough to keep from getting dull. What’s at the heart of it, though, is Batman’s refusal to kill, which is represented in the repeated phrase “justice, not vengeance.”
Batman stories that take the character’s aversion to murder seriously are often my favorites. And the framing of it here as not a rule but a defining philosophy feeds directly into the focus on Bruce Wayne as a father trying to raise a child and impart values.
There’s a whole lot of story going on in Batman Vs. Robin , from a secret society story that could carry a movie on its own to a fantastic villain voiced by Jeremy Sisto who offers a competing father figure to Robin. All of this in a brisk and fun 90 minutes.
