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
No comments:
Post a Comment