Deathstroke: Knights & Dragons ★★★
Deathstroke returns to the DC Animated Universe in ‘Knights & Dragons’, an all new film, originally intended to be the first episode of a twelve part series.
The film begins ten years ago, with Slade Wilson – aka the super assassin named Deathstroke – making a tragic mistake and his wife and son paying the price. Now, a decade later, Wilson’s family is threatened once again by the murderous villain Jackal and the terrorists of H.I.V.E. It’s up to Slade to take down Jackal and bring his family back together for the first time in a decade.
The voice cast for the story is great overall with Michael Chiklis (Fantastic 4) taking on the titular role of Slade Wilson/Deathstroke, Sasha Alexander (NCIS) as Slade’s estranged wife Adeline, Griffin Puatu (Beastars) as their son Joesph/ Jericho, Faye Mata (Love Live!) as H.I.V.E. Queen/ Jade and Chris Jai Alex as Jackal. Chiklis is particularly well cast in the role of Deathstroke, his voice is the perfect fit for the character. We’ve had a few different actors providing the voice of Slade in the past but this seems like finally the ideal fit. It’s a perfect mix of “tough guy” married with sincere and caring.
Overall the film is a decent watch but is pretty low tier for the DC Animated Universe. The animation is poor in comparison to some of DC’s latest animated films (probably due to it being intended as an episode originally) and the story, well, still makes it feel like a TV episode. The pacing suffers a little due to this, but it’s nothing too bad. While the way the film ends does work, it still leaves the viewer hanging with some uncertainty about if there will be more to come. If there is more to come as planned, will it be another couple of films or episodes as planned? It’s unclear and judging by some of the things the creators have said online, they know as much as us.
I feel that personally the storyline would be more suited to a TV series than more films, but I look forward to seeing what direction that takes. I’m a fan of Deathstroke so naturally I want to see more of the character on screen, especially with Chiklis voicing,
If you’re a fan of the character this will be worth the watch for the delightfully violent content, in true Deathstroke fashion. However for the casual viewer, I can’t recommend this title. It feels certainly more geared towards people already familiar with the character and overall doesn’t have too much to offer.
There’s not a whole lot of additional content included with the film which was to be expected really. There is a feature the called ‘Death Machine’ and ‘Deathstroke: One Man’, which features some cast interviews.
Deathstroke: Knights & Dragons is available on Digital NOW and on DVD & Bly-Ray from August 17th.
