First review of mine. I’ve tried to stay away from other’s thoughts so I’m confident that my opinion is mine. Spoilers ahead.
I’ve never been the biggest fan of the Hush storyline in the comics. I don’t think it’s bad, but I do think it suffers from many problems that people rarely bring up. The odd pacing, the flimsy reasons for the involvement of many of Batman’s rogues (a Jeph Loeb stable found even in stories of his I love), the super obvious reveal that Thomas Elliot is Hush, and the cheapness of Riddler’s discovery of Batman’s identity (although that would later be retconned)… the list goes on and on. Still, I was expecting Batman: Hush to be an adaptation of Hush. And I think that’s why I was so disappointed.
Batman: Hush changes so much from the source material. Sure, some changes are necessary to make it work as movie and fit into the DCAMU, but they changed SO MUCH. It barely resembles the original. I can say for certain that Batman: Hush is a horrible adaptation of Hush.
But then I rewatched it.
This time I wasn’t expecting it to be like the comic. I was expecting a radically different story. And now that my preconceived notions of what the movie should be were out of the way, I started to enjoy it. Really enjoy it. I can say for certain that Batman: Hush is a horrible adaptation of Hush, but it’s a good Batman movie. The changes they made don’t enhance an existing story, like Batman: Under the Red Hood does. They make an entirely new story. But that new story, when judged on its own, is (in my opinion) very good.
That being said, it’s not perfect. While I really enjoyed the interactions between Batman and Catwoman, that final scene between the two wasn’t good. Batman’s desire to save as many lives as possible isn’t a compulsion equivalent to that of an insane person’s. I that’s a really bad interpretation of his no kill rule. My other problem is the art style. It’s the same as every other DCUAOM in the DCAMU, but that doesn’t mean it gets a pass. It just looks bad, especially peoples necks. I have no idea how this art style got approved for what they knew would be multiple movies.
Despite these problems I enjoyed the movie.I wouldn’t say it’s better than the comic, but I don’t think it’s worse either. The two are so different they’re hard to compare. They both get some things wrong, but they’re both enjoyable.
Overall, I’d rate this movie 7/10. It’s not visually pleasing to look at, but the movie is written well enough to be really enjoyable, so long as you’re not expecting it to be a faithful adaptation of Hush. The ending scene may leave a bad taste in your mouth, but the movie is definitely worth it in spite of it.