My Review of The Dark Knight Returns Part 2 (2013)

Written by Bob Goodman
Directed by Jay Oliva

Bruce: "I spent ten years looking for a good death. This will be a good life."

The second part of a film that also feels like a film of two parts. The first part of course involved the Joker (MIchael Emerson) awaking from his catatonic and fooling his gullible doctor into making a live appearance on television, resulting in a lot of death and a rather easy escape for the older Clown Prince of Crime.

Once the Joker is on the loose, it's up to Batman (Peter Weller) and Robin (Ariel Winter) to locate him and soon enough, they get a clue when an older Selina Kyle (Tress MacNeille), now an escort madam finds herself at the mercy of the Joker as one of her girls also gets a Senator to make a rather public announcement.

Now, I'm a big fan of Catwoman and Selina in general and this without a doubt is one of the worst depictions of the character I've seen of her. In fact it almost borders on character assassination and absolutely wastes her altogether. I almost would've rather Selina had sat this particular story out that the crap material she's given here.

That frustration to one side, at least the final battle scene with Batman and Joker is decent enough. Given the general mindset that Batman seems to be in here in his post retirement, it's not too shocking that he actually followed through and killed the Joker, even if that made him a criminal for an overzealous Yindel (Maria Canals-Barrera ) to put behind bars.

Then there was the second half of the movie where Batman and Superman (Mark Valley) came face to face and yeah, while it was better done in Batman V. Superman three years after this movie's release, again it led to some decent action sequences and the fake out for one of the heroes to continue their work under the guise of them being dead.

The end sequence with Bruce, Carrie, the Sons of Batman and an older Oliver Queen (Robin Atkin Downes) all working together was a nice way to end a two part movie that overall had a nihilistic feel to it. I also liked that Superman seemed to be aware of what was going on at the very end along with his confession to Gordon about not knowing what his relationship with Batman truly was.

- There's a DVD that combines both films together if you fancy watching this whole thing in one go. I was tempted to do that, review wise before deciding to split it.
- The President in this movie is clearly based on Ronald Reagan.
- I noticed The Killing Joke allusion there, during Batman and the Joker's final confrontation.
- Chronology: From where the first part of this movie left off. Definitely seems to be set in the 1980's though.

The Dark Knight Returns Part 2 is a solid enough conclusion to this whole saga, despite my hatred of the way Selina was treated in the movie. I did like the Joker and Superman bits and the ending saved it for me as well. The animated could've been a bit better but other than that, it's a decent adaptation of a much loved comic book.

Rating: 7 out of 10

My Review of The Dark Knight Returns Part 1 (2012)

Written by Bob Goodman
Directed by Jay Oliva

Batman ( to Mutant Leader): "You don't get it, son. This isn't a mud hole. It's an operating table. And I'm the surgeon."

Split into two movies, this is another one of those animated adaptations of one of the more vital Batman comics out there as we move into a world where Batman (Peter Weller) and Commissioner Gordon (David Selby) find themselves not being able to embrace the idea of retirement while Gotham finds itself at the mercy of the Mutants and their not so bright Leader (Gary Anthony Williams) as the latter plans to destroy the city.

To be honest, I don't greatly care for the Mutants stuff, having watched it on Gotham's fifth season and that one episode of The New Batman Adventures (which lifted a particular scene as well) but it's diverting enough stuff as an not so retired Batman battles with them, initially loses but at the same gains a new Robin (Ariel Winter) in Carrie Kelley and also his own group of vigilantes not so imaginatively named Sons of Batman for good measure.

The Mutant Leader does make some kind of a threat by killing off the Mayor as well as causing some initial injury to Batman before their muddy final battle but even in this one, the Mutants are characters that somewhat play a smaller fiddle to the other baddies we're more familiar with.

First of all, there's Harvey Dent (Wade Williams) - he's seemingly free of his Two Face persona with a surgery that has him fixed cosmetically but mentally he spirals in a big way, unable to rehabilitate himself and it's pretty tragic to watch play out as Batman realises that his former friend is too far gone for redemption.

Then there's the Joker (Michael Emerson). He's not in many scenes in the movie, but he's locked away at Arkham in a catatonic state before the resurgence of Batman in the public eye managed to trigger him back to life. Keeping him in a smaller role was probably a good thing, considering how big his part in the second movie will be.

As for the main focuses - both Batman and Jim have some interesting moments as they talked about retirement but neither able to commit. Alfred (Michael Jackson) mostly kept in a role of trying to get Bruce to be sensible while Carrie made a decent impression as the new Robin, earning her stripes throughout the movie.

- Not surprisingly, Bruce is estranged from Dick and he was rather clinical about Jason's death as well in this movie.
- Gordon's replacement was Ellen Yindel, who seemed to be more critical of vigilantes. Lana Lang popped up as a support for Batman's actions while Dr Wolper was the opposite.
- Some nice visual nods to the likes of Watchmen, V For Vendetta and Swamp Thing.
- This movie came out around the same time as The Dark Knight Rises while the second part of this movie was released a year later.

The Dark Knight Returns Part 1 is a decent set up for what should be a better second half, even if the Mutants weren't that interesting as baddies. In another universe we would've gotten a live action version of this comics, despite many elements that would pop up in Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy.

Rating: 7 out of 10