In an alternative Victorian Age Gotham City, Batman begins his war on crime while he investigates a new series of murders by Jack the Ripper.

Story Movie
In an age of mystery and superstition, how would the people of Gotham react to a weird creature of the night, a bat-garbed vigilante feared by the guilty and the innocent alike? The very first Elseworlds tale re-imagines the Dark Knight detective in Victorian times and pits him against the infamous murderer Jack the Ripper.

Batman Gotham by Gaslight 4K Review
Just watched this movie and as someone in their 50s who grew up and accepted the new incarnations and evolution of the Batman I was very disappointed. Yes I know this is set in the past but a regression in technology doesn’t mean the character has to regress also.

I felt that the Batman in this movie was just a pale reflection of Sherlock Holmes and a powered down version at that. He even had his own version of Baker Street Irregulars which was just a bit derivative. While providing recognition of one of Batmans most central archetypes is appreciated it progressed past the point being of a homage but instead made the principal character of the Batman feel like just a cheap copy of the original..

To be fair the film is competently done and is watchable. The voices were well done and filled out the characters to a degree. I even enjoyed the song by Selina Kyle in the theatre as well as using the voice and character of Harley Quinn in a cameo role as an old drunk woman. I did not however appreciate the dead fish eyes of Bruce Wayne that again made him seem more 2 dimensional and detracted from my enjoyment.

One of the biggest failure in this movie was the misuse and under use of characters like Poison Ivy and Dr Hugo Strange who were just passing through this movie. Don’t blink or you’ll miss them.

Coming from the UK I’ve seen every permutation of the Sherlock Holmes legend in the media and this was a mediocre offering at best. I shouldn’t have had to keep reminding myself that this was a Batman movie and not a Sherlock Holmes movie.

Info Blu-ray