Batman vs. Robin (PG-13)
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Caution: spoilers.

This came out in 2015, but I didn't see it until 2024. It's a sequel to Son of Batman, and Bruce and Damian's relationship is still pretty strained. Damian (as Robin) often sneaks out to fight crime on his own. At the start of the film, he is searching for missing children who had been kidnapped by the Dollmaker (voiced by Al Yankovic). Batman soon arrives to help, but while he's dealing with the Dollmaker's minions, Robin chases the Dollmaker himself. He wants to kill the Dollmaker, but out of respect for Batman, he refrains. However, a mysterious figure named Talon (Jeremy Sisto) shows up and kills the Dollmaker, then disappears. Batman finds a feather by the Dollmaker's body, and later goes out to investigate its origins. We see a flashback to when Bruce was a young boy, and his father, Thomas (Kevin Conroy), tells him a story about a secret society called the Court of Owls. Bruce is scared, but his father assures him the Court isn't real. But of course in the present, it turns out the Court is real. Aside from ruling Gotham from the shadows, they want to recruit Bruce and kill Batman. Meanwhile, Talon appears to Damian and tries to recruit him to the Court, as an assassin. Given the constant tensions between him and his father, he eventually agrees, leading to a fight between Batman and Robin.

I guess I should also mention that Bruce is currently dating a woman named Samantha Vanaver (Grey Griffin), who eventually becomes more important to the plot than one might expect, in a way I'm not going to spoil. And... eventually there's a big fight in at Wayne Manor/the Batcave, between Batman and Nightwing vs. a bunch of ghoulish creatures that work for the Court of Owls. In the end, Robin sides with Batman against Talon, and after the battle he leaves Gotham.

Well, I've left out a ton of details, but that's basically the plot. It's a very dark movie, though not the darkest in the DC Animated Movie Universe. I thought it was a pretty decent story. And as badass as Batman is, he gets beaten up rather a lot in this movie, which is an interesting change from his normally being almost unbeatable. Honestly, after some of the injuries he sustained in earlier battles, I'm kind of surprised he was able to fight at all in later battles. Anyway, it's nice that Bruce and Damian's bond seems to have strengthened by the end of the movie. And the Court of Owls has always seemed like an interesting concept to me, though I'm not sure how well it was executed here. It's not bad... but considering a bunch of them end up being killed, I'd expect some serious fallout in Gotham's high society. They are meant to be rich and powerful people out of the shadows, not just as members of the Court, so there should be some deaths (or at least disappearances) that can't be explained. I dunno, I guess the GCPD was called in after everything went down, so maybe the Court's existence becomes public knowledge after this. Either way, if it remains a secret or not, there's bound to be some major shakeups in the business world, but I tend to doubt that will ever be addressed in any DCAMU movies. And I guess I don't know what else to say.

Oh, and I mentioned Council of Geeks' review in my review of "Son of Batman", so maybe I should mention it here, too. And this time, I disagreed with almost everything they said. Not that I blame them for holding the opinion they do, but... it's just not my opinion.