Batman: The Doom That Came To Gotham (Animated Feature)

I like that this version of Penguin wasn't exactly evil, and was instead corrupted by an outside influence. The version of Oracle was pleasurably weird too. Most of all I'm glad Grimm's David Giuntoli got a second chance at playing Batman after crushing it in Batman: Soul Of The Dragon. This movie is nowhere near as good as that, but Giuntoli is still great in the role.

Speaking of casting, I don't necessarily think Tim Russ has a great voice for voice-over. But I'm glad he's getting steady work again after years of being shunned and typecast for being on Star Trek: Voyager. That was never remotely fair.

But truly the greatest casting is Jeffrey Combs as Kirk Langstrom. That is such a bit of sublime, perfect celebrity casting to make this story version's of Herbert West, Herbert West, but it's genius. Wes Gleason cast this? That is something Andrea Romano would have done. That right there is what is known as a high compliment.

I think there was too much Batman mythos stuff in the story. Poison Ivy doesn't add anything, and feels like gimmicky name-dropping instead of organically fitting the story of the Lovecraftian mythos. Eh.

I had high hopes for the first half but the movie turned out to be a total drag by the end. ***.