Review of Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Part 1 (2012) by Heath W — 24 Sep 2012

Batman: The Dark Knight Returns Part 1 is by all means, the most essential Batman film I have seen now, shattering most everything that has come before it ( Yes, without discrediting it, I enjoyed this even more then Nolan's masterpiece conclusion to his Dark Knight Trilogy). Like the groundbreaking graphic novel, Frank Miller's work here isn't really tampered with at all, but instead translated perfectly on screen with some of this year's best animation work, it is a shame that we didn't get this film in the theaters, but I hope and urge anyone that is a Batman fan, you owe yourself to watch this. Seeing one of the greatest Batman stories of all time come to life, even in animated form, it is unnerving.

How many times have we heard over the years that a director or writer wanted to take Frank Miller's work and turn it into a live action film? I mean, hell, "The Dark Knight Rises" is probably as close as we will ever get to a live action adaptation of this work, at least one that will come close. Now I've been a major fan of the Warner Brothers Premier animation studio work from the last few years, from "Batman: Under the Red hood", to "Batman: Year One", each one of these films has had a pretty decent outcome. Sure, they all have their quirks and problems (David Selby isn't the most convincing voice for James Gordon), but when it comes down to it, I can't think of a more perfect voice for 70 year old Batman then Peter Weller. The former Robocop has the perfect amount of emotional and gravel weight to it that really clicked with me. For someone who still reads every Batman comic with the voice of Kevin Conroy in mind, Peter Weller's turn here is nothing short of phenomenal. With some great performances by Wade Williams (as Two Face/Harvey Dent), Michael McKean, and I have to even say, the brief moments we hear Michael Emmerson's Joker, I was impressed. No, Mark Hamil will always be the perfect voice to the joker, but here it seems only fitting for an older joker to have the voice that he has here.

In fact my only two gripes about this first installment are that the new's casts from the original graphic novel are shortened up here, and don't hold quite the impact that they did on page, and obviously David Selby's voice as Gordon. Gordon is a tough as nails cop, he's seen it all, and he's a seasoned veteran. Here he comes off with what I would describe as a wimpy voice. I think Bryan Cranston's turn as Gordon in last year's "Year One" would have suited this much better.

But putting those aside, there hasn't been this perfect of a Batman adaptation before. Sure, it's animated, but in the post TDK trilogy work, this is as good as we are going to get.