Review: Batman Unlimited: Mechs vs. Mutants

Our review of Batman Unlimited: Mechs vs. Mutants!

The Batman Unlimited series of movies is admittedly not one I’m particularly fond of. Most cartoon shows are meant to sell toys to kids, we all know this. But Batman Unlimited might be the most blunt of the bunch, as it’s literally based around a line of action figures and each time a new set is due out, hey it’s time for a new movie! So here we are with Batman Unlimited: Mechs vs. Mutants, the latest in the line out today on DVD.

And hey, if you can be clever with blatant attempts to sell toys to kids, I can totally go along with that, I really enjoy most of the Lego DC movies, and those are definitely trying to get your kids to want to buy more Legos. With the Batman Unlimited series so far, they haven’t been nearly that clever though. Each has a theme, like animal-based or ones that would fit in a Halloween movie. That’s about as clever as they get.

You’d think with this pattern, Batman Unlimited: Mechs vs. Mutants would be maybe Batman and some of his machine friends like Red Tornado vs. his mutated enemies like Clayface or something. but Batman Unlimited: Mechs vs. Mutants seems to be the one most loosely associated with it’s title.

Instead you get a weird mix up of Penguin, Mr. Freeze, Bane, Killer Croc & Chemo. Chemo? They must have thought kids will want to buy a Chemo figure for some reason I guess. He’s a D-list villain who fights forgotten superheroes like The Metal Men. In fact, why aren’t the Metal Men in this? You could get kids on board with those guys and sell tons of figures. See, Warner Bros. is just getting lazy now.

So where does a mutant theme pop up? Nowhere really. I mean, Freeze makes them all giant in an attempt to destroy/rule Gotham. That’s not really mutants. And how does Batman combat these giant monsters? With a giant mech of his own of course (at least that fits with the “mechs”, but again, you could’ve had The Metal Men and make them giant). One he had built just in case this happened. Because of course he does. And Green Arrow has one too. Because he’s also a billionaire. This is like shark repellant levels of ridiculously prepared here.

It actually shows a bit of restraint that there weren’t any giant mech suits for Red Robin, Nightwing or Flash, who are also in this movie, But then that also seems mean on Batman’s part. You don’t necessarily count on having Flash show up and a mech suit might even slow him down. But I would think your two young proteges who don’t have superpowers might need their own giant battle mechs to be of significant use in a battle like this.

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Ultimately, Batman: Unlimited Mechs vs. Mutants isn’t really any worse than previous entries. But at least those had a theme and stuck with it. I really think this movie failed to deliver on the “mutants” part of the title. I get you can’t call them “Kaiju”, but come up with another title or do a different theme.

Hell if you are using Mr. Freeze and turning Gotham into an icy wasteland, go with an ice theme. DC has at least a dozen ice-based villains. Not hard. I’m sure this will appeal to little boys who like Batman and giant robots, but it’s hard to recommend when there are better options out there that seem less blatant about selling you a Batman mech suit figure.

Final Rating: 4/10

DISCLAIMER: Caped Crusades was provided with a copy of this movie for review purposes by Warner Bros. Home Entertainment