![]() ![]() Freeze, there’s really no comparison.West portrayed the first live-action version of the character, appearing in a television series and three television films. Still, if you have to see one movie featuring Mr. Kirkland’s direction is great, but the plotting and scripting feel a little too simplistic to really measure up to the best of the show. Freeze: SubZero is an entertaining enough action yarn, even if it lacks a lot of the depth or complexity one might expect from Batman: The Animated Series. And there are reasons that I think it shouldn’t be considered to be set in stone.īatman/Mr. While I adore this version of the character, I don’t think it should be the only version. I can understand why Scott Snyder’s Batman run made a point to re-write Freeze’s background. I think it illustrates quite well that the Nora story places very clear limits on the stories that you can and can’t tell using the villain. While his role in Meltdown in Batman Beyond works well enough, I can’t help but wonder if the character should really have been retired after this point. That said, the film does finally resolve the dangling Nora plot thread, which really should be the conclusion to Victor Fries’ character arc as set up in his debut appearance. The whole film is very well put together, and Boyd Kirkland does an excellent job as director. There’s even a nice reprise of Danny Elfman’s iconic Batman score, although Michael McCuistion cleverly gives it a bit of a colder edge, mixing in sounds that call to mind Christmas or snow. The introduction is styled to resemble Tim Burton’s two films, with a bat symbol from Batman and a flowing body of water with bats flying over it like Batman Returns. Freeze: SubZero give that a fond send-off. Freeze’s stylishly retro design here fit the character perfectly. The villains would generally look a lot worse, and Mr. This is what an animated Batman should really look like, with lots of nice detail and a bit of colour to lighten things up. I honestly miss those, and I never warmed to the updated sleeker designs that were introduced for The New Batman Adventures and Justice League. ![]() That said, the movie was the last time we’d see the “classic” Batman: The Animated Series designs for characters and their world. (It goes without saying that it’s better than Batman & Robin.) It’s not the strongest portrayal of this take on the character, but it is better than his appearance in Cold Comfort, the story that would directly follow. He seems suitably conflicted by what he has to do, if dedicated to doing whatever it takes to keep his Nora alive. The character has never been better than he was while being animated as part of the shared DC universe, with Heart of Ice offering the best take on the character ever. To be fair, the film’s character work with Victor is pretty solid. “This is gonna cost you more than a gold nugget.” I said I’d help you… but… this…” And then his true colours show. When he discovers that Freeze plays to murder Barbara and steal her organs, he seems to be disgusted. Gregory, on the other hand, is a truly awful piece of work. Freeze is undoubtedly an anti-villain, a character with pure motivations who will do terrible things to protect the people he loves. The movie also provides a suitably vile character in the form of Gregory, an old acquaintance of Victor Fries who is desperately trying to clear some gambling debts. That would rely on considerable suspension of disbelief on its own. It would be a contrived coincidence if he picked her, and she turned out to randomly be Batgirl. However, when he brings back the list of names, he happens to draw Barbara Gordon. ![]() He knows the city well, and he has contacts there. To be fair, it makes sense he’d return to Gotham. Desperately needing an organ donor for his dying wife, Freeze finds a list of eighteen possible candidates in Gotham City. In fact, Victor’s whole evil plan seems rather unfortunately constructed. I mean, Freeze seems to have developed the ability to command two polar bears to do his bidding, to the point where he’s so confident in his control of them that he’d just put a girl he needs alive in the back of a truck with them. For example, the plotting runs on a lot more contrived coincidences, the emotional depth of the movie is quite shallow, and the villain even recruits a pair of adorable polar bears to do his bidding in what must be a sly dig at Tim Burton and Kevin Smith’s failed Superman Lives! script. Freeze: SubZero seems consciously aimed at a younger audience than either Mask of the Phantasm or Return of the Joker. ![]()
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