I’ll admit, the first time I watched this one, I had mixed feelings about it. But after looking at it again, it’s actually pretty good; undeniably flawed but still good.

The story centers around Bruce Wayne discovering that he has a son, Damien, he never knew about with Talia Al Ghul and doing his best to try and undo all the murderous lessons he’s been taught by the League of Assassins his entire life.

I think that’s what really makes this movie work. The relationship between the two’s development is interesting and you see that Bruce is actually somewhat desperate to train his son to be a hero rather than a killer, but also try to give him some sense of a normal childhood.

The film also has some a few pretty funny moments, a few of which involving Nightwing’s interaction with Damien. That leads into the next positive which is the cast. I had mixed feelings about Jason O’Mara as Batman in Justice League: War, but he really comes into his own in this film. Sean Maher is probably the best voice for Nightwing next to Jesse McCartney from Young Justice, David McCallum was perfect as Alfred, Morena Boccerin was great as Talia even if she isn’t in the film for very long, and while Damien could get a little annoying at times, Stuart Allen still gives a good performance.

My only real issue is Deathstroke. Now I need to make it clear that I love this character. Not only is he my favorite super villain, but he’s also my favorite comic book character in general. And I’m sorry, but this just didn’t feel like Deathstroke. In this film, he’s going after the heroes because Ra’s Al Ghul at one point wanted him to be his successor until he discovered Bruce. Again, it just doesn’t seem like something he’d do. It’s not as bad as the version from the Teen Titans cartoon, but it still felt off. This past weekend at San Diego Comic Con, Warner Bros. announced that one of their upcoming DC animated films will be based on The Judas Contract, a famous Deathstroke storyline from the Teen Titans comics. Hopefully that film will correct the mistake made with him in this film.

My only other issue, which unfortunately isn’t fixed in the sequel, is that the animation does look that great at times in terms of lip syncing. But other than that, this was thoroughly enjoyable. Son of Batman gets 3.75 out of 5 Batarangs.