Ranking Every DC Original Animated Movie Worst To Best
29. Batman: Gotham Knight (2008)
An anime anthology tie-in for a Warner Bros franchise sequel? No this isn't The Animatrix- for a start, it's nowhere near as good.
Gotham Knight is instead six short vignettes directed by varying Japanese animators that focus on the earlier days of Batman, with its timeline supposedly set between Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins and The Dark Knight.
Anthologies are a tricky bag but sadly it feels like they weren't even trying here, besides the annoying (Have I Got a Story for You) and painfully boring (In Darkness Dwell), The rest of the vignettes are so brief and light they finish before any hint of potential can be built upon.
Comparisons to The Animatrix can't be avoided, but whereas that films segments were intriguing expansions of the film franchise, here the shorts are superfluous, basically feeling like an experimental promotional item for The Dark Knight that never clicks together. Also, more awkward is how the heavily stylized eastern influence of the art is meant to gel with the grounded Michael Mann-inspired style of the Nolan-verse? Short answer, it doesn't.
If you absolutely had to watch one short, check out Deadshot, a fine but all too brief showdown between Batman and the titular assassin, with a nice look and some fun moments.