And that was without David E. Kelley…
I just saw “Batman: The Dark Knight Returns Part 1”.
Warning! Spoilers ahead!
It was really good. I haven’t read the graphic novel, just seen bits and pieces of it before so I can’t compare how faithful it is to the original. The story features Bruce Wayne, now ten years retired as the Batman, watching Gotham city decay. Commissioner Gordon is on the cusp of retirement, and is seemingly helpless against the city wide onslaught of the mutant gang. With most Batman’s rogues gallery locked up in Arkham Asylum, the mutant gang has free reign to terrorize the citizenry.
Of course Batman comes back out of retirement, and struggles with not being faster and stronger as his younger self. Harvey Dent is released from Arkham, both halves of his face restored via plastic surgery. As soon as Dent is released he goes back to his old ways. There is a theme throughout the movie that the criminals are a reaction to Batman and would not even exist if not for him.
Batman gears up for war against the mutant gang and is nearly killed until a girl dressed up as Robin saves his life. There is a final epic battle between the mutant leader and Batman. Batman bests the leader in single unarmed combat and many of the former mutants now refer to themselves as the sons of Batman. Television Interviews with Dent’s old psychologist warns that Batman’s twisted psyche has infested Gotham’s youth and have made things worse.
I actually liked this animated movie better than the new Christopher Nolan film. Comparing one of the classic Batman stories to the Dark Knight Rises is an unfair comparison. The animation was well done and somewhat captured the character designs of the graphic novel. They couldn’t animate all the cross hatching so it seems to be a 50/50 compromise to the animation run smoothly versus the rough sketching style of the original source. The voice acting was mediocre but serviceable, unfortunately Kevin Conroy wasn’t cast as Batman’s voice. Also the mutant leader’s nipples were really spiky, but that was probably a hold over from the graphic novel.
As I stated earlier I haven’t read the original graphic novel, but for a direct to video animation it was quite well done. I don’t know what they left out of the original source material, so I can’t comment there. DC seems to be on a roll with its direct to video animated movies and look forward to watching part 2. Now if only they had the same luck with the live action movies. The Green Lantern movie was really cringe inducing and I even think the 3 Nolan Batman movies were so-so, (although I think the 2cnd movie was excellent).
