Peter Stromwell performs Dracula as calculating, piercing, and outright creepy. Voice work is impressive, many stand out and there are no sub-par performances. One scene in a blood bank involves vials raining down on the combatants, it is in almost black and white to lessen the image but there is no mistaking what is happening. You feel the impacts of some hits and see the characters painful reaction. This movie has scenes and violence even more intense then the original, uncut version of that movie.
Years ago, censors were hesitant to allow a violent Batman Beyond movie go through without changes. Make no mistake, this is not a kids movie. Batman shows great humility in that luck was the only thing to prevent Dracula's victory in their first encounter. This means he has to rely on intelligence and improvisation, in addition to plain martial arts skill to defeat him. Probably the best part of this movie is that Batman has trouble with Dracula's vampire minions, and is completely outmatched by Dracula himself. Yeah, I was a little hesitant when I first heard of this story, and the first few minutes didn't do much to dispel those feelings, but it quickly changed into something more entertaining and complex then the series ever achieved, not Bruce Timm, but perfect within its own universe. Accidentally reviving him, Dracula proceeds to build an army of the undead, targeting Batman partially for using his image to scare criminals, partially because Batman rules the night of Gotham, and that's his territory. Having a lead on a hidden treasure, Penguin goes to a very Gothic cemetery and finds more then gold, but Dracula's remains. Anyway, this movie started out somewhat similar to a series episode, the Joker escapes from Arkham Asylum and the Penguin uses the distraction and some deft martial arts to make his own escape.
I guess I was hoping for something closer to the Paul Dini, Bruce Timm style complex Batman.
Every villain was an evil mustache twirling master martial artist, yet Batman was always able to overpower them. The Batman series was straight forward action with too little character depth. When I first heard about this movie, I had reservations.
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