BATMAN: THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS part I

[longbowhunter]

Yeah...as a huge Green Arrow fan,I am...tentatively looking forward to it. I'm a sucker for super-hero shows,and I suffered through SMALLVILLE so I'll definitely be tuning in for Arrow. I've heard good things so far....

[Tony H]

Yeah...as a huge Green Arrow fan,I am...tentatively looking forward to it. I'm a sucker for super-hero shows,and I suffered through SMALLVILLE so I'll definitely be tuning in for Arrow. I've heard good things so far....

LOL I suffered through Smallville too, all ten damn seasons of it. Though, I did love the finale, it felt like they somewhat rewarded the viewers for their loyalty. I wasn't too fond of how they handled Oliver Queen, but it was still neat to see a lot of other heroes show up toward the final season.

[PicardRex]

Finally watched this and while overall I was left with a good impression, some scenes and lines were spot on, there were glaring flaws to me.

First off was Gordon's voice casting, I don't know who that was, but it sounded nothing like I ever imagined Gordon would sound like. Then there's Weller, while not as bad as I had read, he was very flat, no nuance to it. Perhaps he just isn't used to voice acting? Maybe part 2 will be better? Lastly, the lack of the internal dialogue was sorely missed. Though the art and dialogue with others can reveal Bruce's state of mind, its mainly through that internal dialogue that we see Bruce's true state of mind. That whole race sequence at the start, is revealed as basically a suicide run in the comics because he's talking about how it would be a "good death". So we get that this is a Bruce at the end of his rope, bored and purposeless. The movie doesn't portray that enough, instead it kinda makes it seem as if he's just a thrill seeker.

Also, it would have been nice if this had been Conroy and Daly and the rest of TAS cast, especially Conroy, as this is essentially the last Batman story.

[johntfs]

So I read that Kevin Smith has wept every time he's seen the film and I can see why. The Dark Knight Returns is a religious experience. Not a spiritual experience, really, but a religious experience in that it allows you to experience a religion, in this case the religion of Millerite Batmanism.

I don't really know the tenets of Millerite Batmanism, though I assume that they're sort of cryptofascist libertarian, much like Miller himself seems to be, but that's a little irrelevant. The movie isn't so much adapted from the books as translated from it. There is no attempt to update, clarify or alter anything from the graphic novel. Moreover, there is no attempt to make the movie at all newbie-friendly. You either know who Selina, Dick, Jason, Oliver, etc., are or you just don't. This is not a film for new believers. This is a film for those already well initiated into the Batmanism doctrines. It is indifferent if not hostile to those less initiated.

Make no mistake, this is a faithfully rendered, brilliantly executed film version of Frank Miller's masterpiece. And it was a masterpiece, a work that reinvented the Batman - along with much of comics as it was known and spoke about and to the hopes, dreams and fears of that generation.

However, this is no longer that generation. The Soviet Union no longer exists. Our foreign challenges consist of nasty places where nasty people to nasty things to themselves and us because we happen to be there, no Superman required. We don't fear nihilist punk gangs as criminals. We fear white collar businesspeople tapping keys that bankrupt us and madpeople coming into our schools and businesses with guns to kill us. Our president is not a amiable, addled old white guy risking nuclear war, but a ruthlessly cool-headed black guy waging war by remote control because we want him to do so.

Still, as far as Batman goes for the 80s, this one was awesome.