Review of Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Part 1 (2012) by Rangi P — 13 Sep 2012
The best animated Batman to date (imo) because of the source material. Retains the realistic tone from the influential 1986 Frank Miller graphic novels but loses much of the stylistic power of the printed version by being versioned over by the standard animation look people are used to seeing on US made TV animation.
Thankfully the zeitgeist laid out by Miller is still there, even the pacing of the sequences closely match Miller's original frames. Unfortunately many recent 'dark knight' converts may find this animated film derivative since most of the Miller's worldly dark knight brilliance has been stolen by Nolan and writ large into first world consciousness.
Old school fans will know the difference, and will hopefully be able to look past the 'nice try' effort of rendering Miller's art in motion and enjoy the story, which is just as thrilling as it was back in the day.
Bring on part 2!
This review of Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Part 1 (2012) was written by Rangi P on 13 Sep 2012.
Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Part 1 has generally received very positive reviews.
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