'Deathstroke: Knights & Dragons: The Movie' Puts Deathstroke Into the Middle of a Dark but Cheesy Superhero Family Drama

Deathstroke: Knights & Dragons: The Movie is the very first DC animated movie headlined by Deathstroke.  However, it isn’t a production of DC Universe Animated Original Movies (DCUAOM).  Rather, it was originally meant to be a 12-episode web TV series over at CW Seed.  But like CW Seed’s previous DC animated project Constantine: City of Demons, it didn’t finish its run (in the case of Deathstroke: Knights & Dragons, it didn’t go further than the pilot; Constantine: City of Demons at least had a couple of episodes), but was instead turned into a direct-to-video animated movie.

Slade Wilson a.k.a. Deathstroke is typically depicted as a supervillain.  Knights & Dragons, however, interprets him as more of an anti-hero.  This version of a character is still a deadly, ruthless mercenary, but what’s significantly different from other incarnations is that he apparently only takes jobs that would require him to kill bad guys.  The plot pits him against the supervillain terrorist organization H.I.V.E. in a conflict that causes his double life and past mistakes to stir turmoil in his family.

I’m not really sure what I feel overall about this movie.  There are things I like.  It has decent action.  The characterizations are mostly compelling enough.  The narrative is adequately competent and engaging.  And there are twists and turns that are kind of clever and impressive.  One that blew my mind away a bit is a kill that seems unimportant, but is actually revealed to be relevant.

At the movie’s core is a family drama, which I find to be partly okay, partly meh.  I think that it was cool to bring in Deathstroke’s relations into the storyline.  Comic book fans will derive mild pleasure from recognizing them.  Plus, the family drama does generate some dark, solid aspects for the narrative.  On the other hand, the soap opera vibes it gives off is pretty cheesy.  And this kind of story seems uncharacteristic for a character like Deathstroke.

Thus, in the end, I couldn’t shake off the feeling that there’s something off about Deathstroke: Knights & Dragons.  While entertaining in parts, its whole comes off as lacking and inconsistent with a legit Deathstroke adventure.

For his very first animated movie, Deathstroke deserves better.