Warner Bros., out now

After playing a supporting role to the menfolk in a host of previous DC Animated features, Rosario Dawson finally steps out into the limelight to offer us her Wonder Woman on a voyage of discovery, sisterhood and betrayal.

With each new DC Animated release, one thing becomes apparent – the quality of animation moves on in leaps and bounds and Bloodlines is utterly beautiful to look at (huge tip of the hat to the backgrounds artists, who had their work cut out here – how many different angles of Themyscira did they have to paint for that climactic battle?

Where Bloodlines maybe doesn’t quite hold a candle to some of the other movies is the story. Bloodlines isn’t directly based on one story per se, but a series of vignettes from Wonder Woman’s past, with little nods to characters getting their moment in the limelight – hooray here for the current version of Etta Candy flirting outrageously with Hippolyta’s fast and furious, whilst Ferdinand joins the team, one minute angry Minotaur of legend, the next Wonder Woman’s version of Alfred Pennyworth.

This then is the main problem at the heart of Bloodlines. What is it about? In an attempt to cram as many threads in as possible, it quickly becomes a bit of a jumble. Drs Cyber and Poison are the enemies here… oh wait, no they’re not, it’s the Cheetah… oh no hang on, it’s Silver Swan… oh wait I see it’s really Medusa – who is only introduced at the moment she makes her important appearance and despatches the others from the plot and any relevance.

The other “trick” is that there’s a villain amongst Wonder Woman’s team. Well quelle surprise who that is – and this one can’t be entirely placed at the door of the story, it’s down to the decision to play the character as a villain from their very first scene. How Wonder Woman doesn’t go “why are you talking to me like you’re planning to tie me to a railway line” from the off is beyond me.

The actual script on the other hand is mostly fine – a couple of moments of heavy exposition (Diana telling Steve Trevor the history of Themyscira for no reason, and Cheetah revealing Dr Cyber’s plan are clumsy and would have been easily avoided). But for the most part Mairghread Scott’s dialogue sparkles along (Etta gets the best lines, obviously, like Nicole Byer on speed) but it can’t really support the pace and structure of the story. It’s almost as if halfway through plotting someone came in and said “Oh we’re doing an extra on the Blu-ray about The Cheetah, and we’re going to say she’s the true villain of this story” and the writer just stared and said “But she’s not in it”. And the execs said “Put her in for five minutes, have a big fight, and that’ll justify the BD extra”. It doesn’t of course, that extra just underlines what a poor decision it is. Now if Barbara Minerva had then been transformed into Medusa, there’d be some credibility to the claim of her being the story’s main villain… but now, Medusa is just, well Medusa. And very good she is too. Scary, dark and utterly malevolent – with some snappy dialogue. Then again, quite why injecting her with the same toxin that made Giganta grow, or Cheetah turn into an actual cheetah doesn’t then turn Medusa into a massive bunch of snakes is odd – instead she just mimics Giganta’s powers and gets a bit bigger. Bizarre and a great opportunity missed.

Like many of the DC Animated movies, this one doesn’t hold back with profanity, violence and blood – but the story doesn’t justify it until that final battle with Medusa (and its high body count – what is Dr Poison going to look like when she returns to flesh and blood?). Everything beforehand is very tame and no more deserving of PG treatment than either of the rather dull Brave and the Bold cartoons added to the package of extras.

I say package of extras, but apart from the aforementioned pointless look at the Cheetah, this is simply the two eps of the Batman show and a load of trailers.

Except for one very important other thing: the arrival of Neil Gaiman’s Sandman spin-off, Death, in her first animated 20 minute episode. This, it has to be said, is worth the price of admission alone. Beautiful to look at, given a slight manga feel, and crisply written, Death is extraordinary – an amazing story, beautifully crafted and makes you realise that the team behind this (same producer/director team as Wonder Woman but written by Jean-Marc DeMatteis) should be given the keys to the whole of Gaiman’s Vertigo work par excellence and allowed to let rip.

Verdict: Bottom line is though, when it comes down to the fact that the best thing on this release is a 20-minute “extra”, you have to ask whether it’s been worth it. Bloodlines could have been so much better if Mairghead Scott hadn’t been asked to shove so many disparate elements into her story – but frankly buying this for Death is a good enough reason to pick it up anyway.

6/10 for Wonder Woman

10/10 for Death

Gary Russell

Click here to order from Amazon.co.uk