Batman: Mask of the Phantasm – summary
After one of the most simple, yet utterly beautiful intros to a movie I’ve ever seen, the movie begins.
The caped crusader jumps in on a gang setting up some money laundering plans. As he dispatches
the thugs, the ring leader, Chucky Sol, makes a run for it with the counterfeit money. Before he can
escape, he’s confronted by a figure not too dissimilar in appearance to Death itself. The assailant
dupes him into driving to his death. Witnesses on the ground see Batman on the scene and draw a
connection. Bats finds some broken glass with a strange residue on it. A city council-man wastes no
time starting a smear campaign on the Bat. The following night, a party is held at Wayne manor.
After being dumped on by another woman, Bruce is reminded of his first true love, Andrea Beaumont.
After walking into an empty room he has a flashback.
He first met her at the cemetery while visiting his parents. Later that night, Bruce goes out to keep his
vow. It isn’t long before he finds a crime to thwart. It’s a little messy, but he gets the job done without
killing anyone. There was only one problem. They weren’t afraid of them. Three days after, Andrea stops
by and they finally start to connect. Back to real time, Buzz Bronsky pays his respects to his fallen former
comrade, Chucky Sol. The same assailant appears and literally takes him to meet his angel of death.
His two goons arrive too little too late, and see just enough to assume that it was Batman again.
Councilman Reeves uses this to warrant a hunt for the Bat. Meanwhile, he’s over at the cemetery,
where he finds more of the same residue from before. He stops to visit his parents, and runs into Andrea.
In surprise, he turns and runs and it doesn’t take her much to draw the connection. She joins Reeves for
dinner later that night.
As Batman watches them together, he has another flash back. Her father was a businessman, who
employed Reeves. The meeting between them is cut short when Salvatore Valestra shows up. Afterwards,
Bruce runs into a crime in progress and attempts to foil it. He almost succeeds but is distracted by Andrea’s
presence. He’s now determined that he simply wasn’t ready for this. He can’t fulfill his vow when there’s
someone waiting for him to come home. He heads back to the cemetery to try to convince himself that
it’s okay if he doesn’t try to do it anymore. Andrea gives him the answer he needs. Back in real time,
Valestra confronts Reeves to confirm the Batman stories. Back at the Batcave, Batman finds a connection
between the three. After investigating his home, he finds a relation between them and Andrea’s father.
Another flashback ensues. Before she goes off to Europe with her father on business, Bruce proposes to her.
As they return to her home, they see her father with Sal & co., a crew that includes one Jack Napier.
The day after, Bruce gets his ring back in the mail with a BS excuse for why she can’t marry him. This was
the straw that broke the camel’s back. After this heart break, he takes the final steps, and becomes
Batman. Back in real time, Valestra travels to a now-abandoned amusement park to find the Joker. He
can’t think of any better way to stop Batman. He manages to set the Joker off, and get himself killed.
Meanwhile, Batman waits at Andrea’s hotel room for her. He wants to know where her father is, but she
refuses to tell him. The assailant arrives later that night at Valestra’s home. It was a trap set by the Joker,
and before the assailant can run, Batman arrives. The police arrive and give the assailant the time needed
to escape. Batman is finally pinned down by the cops at a construction site. A huge explosion ensues, and
he’s badly wounded. Using a decoy, Bruce manages to get some distance between him and the cops.
Andrea arrives on the scene and gives him a ride. After getting back to the mansion, Andrea tells her truth
about her father.
The gang needed some of their money, but it was tied up. Her father managed to buy them one more day
which he used to run all the way to Europe. Apparently, her father is the masked man, as eliminating them
is the only way to end the hunt for them. She spends the night, and leaves the next day. As Bruce studies a
picture he found, he realizes one of the gang members is a young Jack Napier a.k.a the Joker. Meanwhile,
the Joker arrives at Reeves office. The Joker thinks Reeves is the killer. So the Joker injects him with his laughing
toxin. He eventually ends up at the hospital, where Batman hits him up for info. He explains that he helped the
Beaumonts get out of town, but when he approached them for campaign financing, was turned down. He
led the mob to them. Batman returns to Andrea’s to find the missing link, but finds it inadvertently through the
Joker. Andrea is the killer, turned so after Napier killed her father. Now all that’s left is for her to kill the Joker.
After she finds him, the fight begins, but it doesn’t take him long to get the upper hand.
Batman arrives just in time to save her and get a confession from Andrea about what all has really happened.
After giving her explanation, he leaves to find the Joker while she wallows in her own self pity. After the Joker
activates the explosives he’s placed, it’d seem there’s no escape for either of them. Andrea returns and takes
the Joker with her. Batman manages to find a body of water to dive into, and makes it out. It would seem
Andrea died with the Joker in her hands, but Bruce finds her locket embedded in the wall of the Batcave. We
see Andrea somewhere out on a cruise ship. But back in Gotham City, it’s business as usual for Batman going
out for his nightly patrol.
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Batman: Mask of the Phantasm – Review
I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone who didn’t like Batman. Maybe some people who find him inferior to
Superman, but that’s as far as it goes. He’s easily one of my three favorite super heroes, right up there with
Iron Man & Spider-Man. Bruce Wayne went on to become something I think everyone really wants to be
some day: the very best at what they do. Bruce suffered the worst of atrocities when he was still young.
Most would simply let such ruin them or make them the better person. But Bruce took it all the way in both
directions, and has made the paid the fullest price so no one will have to endure his loss, his pain. So that
no one will have to live his life. It’s a little hard for me to explain, but I understand where he’s coming from
and truly respct him for all he’s ever done. It’s a thankless job, but he wanted to do it before anyone else
could.
The money, the skills, the intelligence, the strength, the gadgets, the heroics…there are just so many things
to love about Batman. I don’t think anyone short of Bob Kane himself could tell you where to begin. And
even then, I doubt he ever expected Batman to become what he is today. Of course, at it’s heart, Batman
is a comic book. But in my honest opiniton, any good comic book can make a great anime, and Batman
is no exception. At least not since the early 1990’s when the Batman animated series debuted. And this
movie stems from that same franchise. The plot is great because it’s all the Batman goodness you could
expect within a movie, and it gives you a lot of glimpses into Batman’s past. More to the point, his beginnings
and the events that preceded his donning of the cape & cowl. As far as animation goes, it’s solid. It’s not the
most detailed I’ve ever seen from a Korean studio, not even within this franchise. Even now, the best Batman
animation ever was the pilot episode with the original Man-Bat.
Still, this looser style works very well. You really get that noir-esque, 1950’s, Dick Tracy sort of feel from it. And
that’s a good thing. You always need something like that around. And on par with the series that spawned
it, the soundtrack is exquisite and exceptionally excellent. It’s just the right mix of jazz & classical. The intro to
the film is just utterly magnificent. It’s pretty short, but so sweet. If I didn’t already, it’d make me want to learn
Latin just so I could I understand the lyrics. Another masterpiece no fan of cinema, anime, cartoons, or
animation in general should go without, especially at the cheap DVD price of only $15.
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