Deathstroke: Knights & Dragons (The Movie) - Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

Deathstroke: Knights & Dragons (The Movie)



Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:


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Movie
Deathstroke has long been one of the DC universe’s best anti-heroes/villains with a code, and been portrayed heavily as villain of the Titans/Teen Titas, as well as Batman himself many times. The man was originally created as a villain in 1980, he sort of morphed into an anti-hero over the years as fan popularity took root. He was a monster, a mercenary who killed, but he was also a man with a code. He only killed those he felt deserved it, and even though he was a powerful enemy of the Titans, he became something of an underdog who fans wished would escape at the end of the encounter. He made Arrow: The Complete 2nd Season into the best of the entire Arroverse (Manu Bennett ruled as Slade Wilson/Deathstroke), and he’s now got his own movie.

The film sort of encapsulates most of Deathstroke’s life in this 87 minute film. We find out at the beginning that he’s been a mercenary for years, and been keeping it from his wife Ady (Sasha Alexander), who thinks that Slade (Michael Chiklis) is a legit businessman. When an assassin from HIVE named the Jackal comes to use Slade’s son Joseph (Griffin Puatu) as leverage to get the infamous merc to join HIVE, things far apart. His marriage dissolves when his wife finds out that he’s a mercenary for hire, and his son is rendered mute in the ensuing confrontation with the Jackal. Forced to stay away to keep peace, Slade continues his work as Deathstroke and refuses contact with his family in order to keep them safe.

10 years later he finds out that their son has not only been kidnapped, but was being groomed by HIVE (who is now run by the Jackal) and the HIVE Queen (Faye Mata) to become a psychic weapon after it’s found out that Joseph has inherited powers from his father. Now it’s up to the estranged mother and father to track down their son and pull him from the clutches of HIVE before its too late.

Fans of Deathstroke over the last 40 years will be glad that this movie really keeps the hard edge to Slade Wilson’s infamous personality. He’s not against using a few F-bombs and cheerfully will gut an enemy who gets in his way. The “hero” portion of this tale is his vicious love for his family and what he will do to protect them. He’s still the cold, merciless super soldier that made him so chilling as a Titans villain, but also gives enough sympathy to the role to make him likable for the role as protagonist. This is most DEFINITELY not a film for the kids, as it takes the R-rating rather seriously, dropping body parts, nudity and swearing into the mix with gusto, and acts as a solid “adults oriented” side story to the rest of the DCAU film world.

The story sometimes falters a bit, and has some kiddy dialog (strange for a film that was definitely designed towards the adult market), but overall this is a very VERY solid side story away from The Justice League stories that Warner Brothers and DC have put out over the years, fitting in more with the town of Mortal Kombat: Scorpions Revenge rather than the more family friendly nature of the Superman/Batman/Justice League films that we normally get.




Rating:

Rated R by the MPAA




Video:

Despite not getting the 4K UHD treatment like many of the newer DCAU films, Deathstroke: Knights & Dragons looks great on Blu-ray. The simple animation style keeps it from being super DUPER detailed, but the angular black shadows and splashes of deeply saturated oranges and yellows makes the film very stylish. There’s OF COURSE some source based color banding (it wouldn’t be a Warner DCAU film if there wasn’t banding), but overall this is a very crisp and well detailed image. Lines are nice with no signs of delineation, and details are excellent. Outside of the before mentioned banding, the disc is exceptional looking.









Audio:

The basic 5.1 DTS-HD MA track on the disc is also quite impressive, with solid bass presentation and good surround usage. It’s not one of the truly stunning audio mixes, but it fits the basic action oriented film genre and checks off all the proper tick marks. Dialog is razor sharp and located up front of the room, while the sounds of planes roaring buy, or the flutter of bullets whizzing overhead comes from several angles. Bass is deep and powerful when needed, and the basic 5.1 track does everything well enough to put a smile on my face without truly shocking and awing the listener.







Extras:

• Deathstroke: One-Man Death Machine (New Featurette)– Some think he's a villain. To others, he's an unsung hero of secret wars fought all over the world. One thing's for certain: When you see the orange-and-black mask, Deathstroke is coming!

Final Score: ​

Deathstroke: Knights & Dragons – The Movie is a fun little side venture for DCAU fans, and especially for those craving a bit more R-rated super hero movies. It’s less kiddy than it’s counterparts and had a good handle on Slade Wilson’s personality and what makes him tick. His hard edge is still there in spades and the begrudging likability of the character is on full display. The Blu-ray is a very solid effort from Warner Brothers, with great video, good audio but a fairly meager array of extras. Well worth checking out.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Chris Jai Alex, Sasha Alexander, Michael Chiklis, Noshir Dalal, Castulo Guerra, Faye Mata, Panto Mosleh
Directed by: Sung Jin Ahn
Written by: J.M DeMatteis
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 AVC
Audio: English: DTS-HD MA 5.1, French, Spanish DD 5.1
Subtitles: English SDH, French, Spanish
Studio: Warner Brothers
Rated: R
Runtime: 87 Minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: August 18th, 2020

Recommendation: Solid Watch

 

[tripplej]

Thanks for the review. I haven't heard of this one but after reading the review, will check it out.