Before I begin, I would like to warn that I am a fan - and I supposed a little prejudiced against this new batman series. However as a fan, I felt as though I had to watch it before casting a summary judgment.<br /><br />First the good points: In terms of action and animation - top notch. I was impressed with the fight choreography and landscaping. Top marks for scenery and lighting - the use of shadows when dealing with Batman is nearly an art form and they did well here. An interesting side note: When dealing with two characters which use shadows as a motif, it can be challenging - almost like dealing with two sides of the same coin, but it was very well done here. The bat-gadgets: 6/10. They seemed pretty generic - however they did fit with the entire "stream lined bat-stuff" theme - they seemed a little too "a la Blade" - all that was missing was a sword.<br /><br />Now here's where it gets ugly: The story. It seems almost impossible not compare it with the animations of the past. (Return of the joker (ROTJ), Mask of the Phantasm (MOTP)) It seems the animated movies are taking the same decline as the movie franchise did. As I warned, I am a batman fan and I cringe when there are blaring inaccuracies - as I did all throughout Batman begins - but when you have horrible errors like there are here... *shudder*.<br /><br />It seemed like there was little to no research done on the Batman stories to produce something which at least tries to fit the original story. Accuracy aside, there has to be points lost for originality. Most other movies, take an existing villain, add a new element which causes the Bat-Family (in this case Batman and Alfred) an enormous amount of grief, pain and suffering and then get rid of him. MFTP didn't follow this, but the seams were nearly invisible and very well done. Here they could have easily used The Monster of Dr Frankenstein or the Mummy and it wouldn't lose integrity. Character development is nil. They threw in some native characters to remind you that this is still a Batman story  just on the off chance you may have seen Blade 1 and 3 and thought  "Hmm, this sounds familiar!" <br /><br />In summation, this movie screams for the return of the old writers  Paul Dini and Frank Miller, and with the animation today, come with something which really gets your head twisted  like Return of the joker did. As much as I hate to say it  that movie set the bar for animated Bat-movies<br /><br />*Steps down from soapbox*