A short and probably poorly written review of Batman: Hush

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.

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TLDR: it sucks. Read the comics.

Squid, you and I are very much in the same boat. I wasn’t a fan of the Hush story line went it came out. I feel like it gets a pass from fans. Maybe because it was a story that got them into comics, maybe because it was Jim Lee doing the art, or maybe people genuinely liked the story. I respect them for that. It just wasn’t for me. I was disappointed Hush ended up being Tommy aka the red herring and that Riddler denouement never sat well with me. I’d heard they made changes for the movie and I was honestly intrigued what those changes were gonna be.

Overall I’m gonna have to agree with your 7/10. I enjoyed it way more than I thought I would, but there were some issues. Funny enough it boils down to the costumes more than anything. The weird Harley sleeveless arms past the shoulders, Nightwing’s costume and Bane’s face mask. While Jim Lee’s art isn’t my favorite, I’ve gotta say the blue suit with the short ears looked amazing in animation!

As for the reveal of who Hush is in this movie…I didn’t mind it. It streamlines two problems I had with the comic into one more plausible solution. Much like with Gotham by Gaslight, they changed the ending but I feel like it fit for the context of the film.

I went in as someone who wasn’t a fan of the comic and knew they were adapting the story for their continuity of animated films. I wasn’t expecting a direct adaptation. I feel like a lot of people who go into this thinking that are going to be disappointed. That being said, If I think about it with the overall animated continuity they are setting up, this puts Batman in an interesting place going forward.

Plus, come on, that Damien scene was hilarious!

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I agree with most of your points, except maybe a 7.5 to 8 for me and the ending was not quite bad to me. The family interactions were done pretty nicely here, especially the Damian scene

I dug it. As for the plot change, hey, I was also never the biggest fan of the comic, so had moderate expectations, and was expecting a very similar thing. The subversion of expectation there worked for me. It gave ne a more engaging experience than I was expecting.

I also watched it with a friend who has little to no familiarity with DC and he had deduced Hush’s identity15 minutes into the movie. I just had to laugh and kind of give it up. But then the movie totally played us both. So just another perspective to consider.

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I am (as people might know; I tend to rant my opinions) not a fan of Hush the comic. Around seven issues of it are basically filler, it ruined the ongoing Catwoman book at the time, and the “mystery” was obvious from the beginning. The art was good (even if I’m not really a fan of Jim Lee, I can appreciate his talent), but that was about it. I watched the Hush movie largely because people told me it changed a lot from the comics. I figured that could go one way or the other, for the better one or for the much, much worse. And, overall, I think it worked out for the better. Most of the fat has been trimmed; the filler mostly removed and, of course, no more narration caption boxes. The writing really isn’t any better than the comic when it comes to dialogue, but it’s certainly serviceable. The acting is fine overall, with a high point in the voice of Catwoman (Jennifer Morrison). Of course, the animation is the same bland art style that’s in every DCA movie, which isn’t bad or anything, but Hush is most certainly a story defined by its visuals. The Hush comic also (as mentioned above) gets another demerit in that it completely derailed the then-current (and very, very good) Catwoman book by having it focus almost solely on the Bat/Cat romance (a relationship that gets an insanely uninspired and dissatisfactory ending in Hush). The movie, however, doesn’t have to worry about this problem, and the end point of the relationship is much more satisfying and well done. Finally, the villain identity. This is the thing that I’ve heard the most people complain about, and my only response is: why? The story as it’s told in the movie makes far more sense and actually works as a mystery, unlike in the comics where Tommy is clearly moonlighting as a mummy in a trenchcoat from page one. Overall, a definite improvement on the source material, but not enough that I’d ever re-watch it.

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