A Review of the Short Movie Grayson

In the past few years, comic book movies have been popping out of the woodwork left and right. With so many heroes and villains being remade and reborn, it's almost old hat to hear hype about an upcoming comic book to movie adaptation. In fact, sometimes it's actually nauseating, especially when these adaptations are overdone, over hyped, and overly out of synch with the original source material, whether in terms of plotline, atmosphere, or both (cough, cough, "Catwoman"). But once in a while, there are a few comic book movies that get it right, with "Batman Begins" being a fine example.

And now another one comes along that should definitely be put up there with the rest of the giants. The only problem is, it's not really movie at all. In fact, it's a trailer of a movie that was never made.

"Grayson", which is a fan-based short movie originally made for a comic book convention, is a mock-trailer to a film revolving around Batman's original sidekick, Robin (or Dick Grayson). In this trailer, Batman has been murdered and after so many years away from crime-fighting since the event, Dick Grayson dawns his Robin outfit once again to carry on where his mentor left off and to ultimately find his killer. But in his quest for justice, he encounters enemies at every corner, both old and new, including the Man of Steel, himself, who seemingly harbors his own secrets regarding Batman's death. Ultimately, there is a conspiracy going on that involves the police and even some of Batman's closest friends. How far will Grayson go to uncover the truth?

As both a comic book fan and a movie fan, reviewing this movie was quite a dilemma given that the short movie itself is a trailer to a movie that was never made. But the beauty of it is, so much of the movie (or trailer to the "would be" movie) is masterfully and artistically edited to the point where one could easily draw a picture of what's going on, while at the same time, be left short of a full one to leave room for speculation and suspense. Despite being a fan-based movie, the quality of the filming and editing is mind-blowing, almost rising to the level of sheer professionalism. Though the costumes for the superheroes seem a little cheap, their simplicity functions perfectly to provide a classic feel to them, which works well in this movie.

When watching this movie, some comic fans might find some of the film's elements reminiscent to "The Dark Knight Returns", where an older, more cynical superhero comes out of "retirement" to rediscover his purpose in a world turned upside down. For those who are not familiar with comic books and who still hold the view of Robin being a "pantyhosed" adolescent who makes a living out of spouting cheesy one-liners, this short movie will definitely come as a wonderful surprise for you as it re-imagines his character from top to bottom.

Whatever the case, "Grayson" is a definite must see in my book-so much so that it infuriates me that it was never made into a full-length feature film, most likely due to copyright/legal issues between the movie producer (John Fiorella) and DC Comics. For being what it is, which is a mock-trailer of a fictional movie, this short film scores an easy four and a half out of five stars.

"Grayson", which has a run time of about 6 minutes, is available for download on both ifilm.com and theforce.net.