Review: Batman Unlimited: Monster Mayhem

The latest attempt to sell toys to youngsters, Batman Unlimited: Monster Mayhem is out on Blu-Ray and DVD. In it, Batman and his allies must stop the Joker and his monster-themed cronies from ruling not only Gotham, but the world through a cyber virus. The entire Batman Unlimited engine is strictly to sell toys to kids, but can Batman Unlimited: Monster Mayhem rise above that to be something actually entertaining?

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So honestly the weirdest thing for me about Batman Unlimited: Monsters Mayhem is that clearly it’s supposed to be something kids watch on Halloween, and yet it was a mid-August release. Not docking it any points for that really it’s just weird. Also not bad, but kind of off-setting is a couple of the villain designs. Scarecrow looks more muscular than I’ve ever seen him (he’s almost always a tall, wiry dude) and Clayface is possibly the least-threatening I’ve ever seen him. Understandable given the age-set this is aimed at but still weird.

So the plan to take over Gotham then the world with a computer virus admittedly seems a tad too well-planned out and ambitious for the Joker, but that’s part of the fun of the Joker. He literally can change his goals and ambitions from week to week. If something amuses him, that’s his ultimate end goal. And he certainly has tried to rule Gotham at least before. So unlike say Penguin in Animal Instincts, his motivations and overall scheme make sense (even if a virus that can just control everything doesn’t, but that’s not uncommon for a plot device anyways).

Batman Unlimited: Monster Mayhem does suffer from a couple of the problems movies like this tend to suffer from such as things briefly introduced purely to sell toys to kids that are there for a minute or two and then never mentioned again. But one of those is literally Batman riding a robotic dinosaur and shooting from a turret, so I’m more ok with that than say an extra suit of armor used for five seconds and then never seen again.

Batman Unlimited: Monster Mayhem is not a fantastic film, but ultimately manages to be a fun and entertaining film with some genuinely funny moments. So unlike Animal Instincts, Batman Unlimited: Monster Mayhem actually does manage to rise at least a little bit above it’s goals as merely a vehicle to sell toys. Hopefully if there are more Batman: Unlimited films, this trend will continue.

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