Batman: Death in the Family (2020)

[Phenom]

Anchoring the compilation of shorts is Batman: Death in the Family, WBHE's first-ever venture into interactive storytelling that allows fans to choose where the story goes through an innovative navigation guided by the viewer's remote control. Central to the extended-length short is an adaptation of "Batman: A Death in the Family," the 1988 landmark DC event where fans voted by telephone to determine the story's ending. The interactive Blu-ray presentation offers many different ways for viewers to tell the Batman: Death in the Family story, with numerous twists and turns in the middle, and several possible endings. The choices along the way put greater weight on the viewers' decisions and result in even stronger stories.

 

[MrDawn]

I never did get into interactive movies where you pick a path in the story. It's weird for me. I grew up with the old fashioned movies where you watch them from beginning to end.

 

[Phenom]

I rented it because the DC animated flicks are usually pretty decent in comparison to their live action versions. I think I rented the non-interactive version though; but, I won't know till I watch it later.

Did you ever see or hear about the Last Call? It was an experiment they did where they would have everyone submit their cellphone numbers before the film, a computer algorithm would pick one at random from each audience and during various segments of the movie, they would be called and asked to tell the cast whether to go up or down, left or right, etc.

The action: Last Call is the first interactive horror movie in the world where the audience is able to communicate with the protagonist. A film controlled by a member of the audience, thus blurring the boundaries between game and film. Language recognition software transforms the participant's answers via mobile phone into specific instructions. A specially developed software then processes these commands and launches an appropriate follow-up scene. The dialogue between the movie's main actress and an audience member leads to a different film - and outcome - every time: sometimes with a happy end, sometimes with a more gruesome one. To participate in the adventure, audience members submit their mobile phone numbers to a speed dial code when they buy their ticket. The moment the female protagonist takes out her phone to call someone who might be able to help her, the film's controlling software contacts one of the submitted mobile phone numbers. Once the viewer picks up, he hears the actress's voice - who tells him she would be lost without him. He has to help her escape by choosing a path through the old, rundown sanatorium. Furthermore, he also decides whether she should help other victims to flee the scene -and every single choice shapes her fate: it's a matter of life and death.

 

[Empire]

KGF aside, this is actually very faithful to how it was when the comic came out where fans had to dial a number to choose either Robin lives or dies. Ultimately, everyone wanted him to die. That's very clever how you can make that choice in movie form.

 

[Phenom]

I guess it would depend on which version of Robin it is. I know a lot of people were unhappy with certain versions of Robin. I know that the Tim Drake and Damian Wayne versions were more popular than others.