Movie: 
Disc: 
No doubt trying to cash in on the popularity of
Smallville, this short-lived
2002 Batman spin-off television series however never really, er, took off.
An unmotivated Batman has quit the superhero business
and left Gotham City for good after a homicidal Joker has killed off his
lover, Catwoman. Now it is up to Batman and Catwoman's very hot young
daughter (called Huntress) to pick up his crime-fighting mantle. In this
she is helped by a wheelchair-bound Barbara Gordon, a.k.a. Batgirl,
paralyzed after an assassination attempt by the Joker. In this they are
helped by a teenaged Dinah who is . . . well, according to the story she
is clairvoyant, but her real superpower seems to be a moody teenager who
usually lands into trouble and helps pad the running time of each
hour-long episode. Together they are the so-called birds of prey.
Things are pretty dire right from the start.
The pilot
episode illustrates how sensible Smallville's no capes rule
turned out to be: it is ruined by Batman and Batgirl costumes that are so
cheesy that they will make you groan aloud. (No wonder the pilot was never
aired.) You're likely to see better superhero costumes at your local comic
con this year - and one wonders why the film-makers simply couldn't have
done better. The costumes improve from thereon as
Matrix-style leather coats replace superhero codpieces, but the series
itself doesn't get any better. It all feels like sub-Smallville
plotting (which is saying a lot) and the characters are good-looking but
dull and shallow, making for an uninteresting show.
THE DISC: All thirteen episodes are contained on
four discs. The unaired pilot episode is also included along with all 30
episodes of the animated Web-based Gotham Girls series. Not much else in
the line of extras except for English subtitles.
WORTH IT? The show only ran one season and it is
easy to see why. As far as I know there weren't any letter writing
campaigns by fans to bring back the show either, which makes sense
watching these episodes.
RECOMMENDATION: Skip it.
