Today I would like to take the time to discuss the brilliance of one of DC's recent animated movies(based on a classic graphic novel) known as Batman: The Dark Knight Returns Part One. This story has been getting a lot of headlines due to the fact that the upcoming and highly anticipated film "Batman V. Superman: Dawn Of Justice" is using the original graphic novel as a springboard of sorts for the film. Hearing so much about the story has gotten me to finally check out the material of the graphic novel, for now at least by taking a look at DC's faithful adaption of the novel. Enjoy the review.
So most likely if you are reading this review, you know the story and are just hearing my thoughts on it. What I'd like to go through in this review are my thoughts and views on the characters and plots that occur in this film. Again, this is my first time ever seeing this material before so I don't particularly know how some of the scenes in this film differ from how they were in the comic besides famous panel sequences and pages that I have encountered online before, so I am coming into this with fresh eyes.
The film begins with Bruce Wayne pushing himself to the limits in a race track where he even ignores what his driver assistant suggests him to do and continues pushing himself further. Immediately we realize, this is the result of a man who has spent his life fighting crime and he has reached the point his life where past events are taking a toll on him. We can only imagine how things go next.
As the film continues, we realize Bruce Wayne has retired from a life of crime fighting and has given up the mantle....which he quickly picks back up as a new crime gang known as "The Mutants" begin to terrorize Gotham and with Jim Gordon's coming retirement, the city needs a hero. I really enjoyed seeing how fast it took the film to bring Bruce to put on the costume again and I loved the direction they took to show why he would bother continuing to fight crime in a city where new villain arise each day.
The key scene I keep thinking of in this film that motivates Bruce to start fighting again is when he flips through television channels and goes from the news and to the mask of Zorro film, where he continues to realize that violence has never stopped in the city and that he has essentially given up on fighting the war. This scene is powerful by showing us just how haunting that night was for Bruce, especially when we saw just before, that one of the motivating factors he had for giving up the mantle was Jason Todd, a former Robin who died under the guise of Batman.
Now let me speak on the immediate scenes after Bruce first puts back on the costume and begins fighting again. with one simple word...WOW! I love the idea that Bruce is still fighting almost as good as he did in his prime and that he can still be a scary presence to the bad guys of the city. Anyways, one person in particular is really motivated by being saved by the Dark Knight on his first night out again, Carrie Kelly, who takes it upon herself to become a self proclaimed robin and help Batman against his war on crime.
I have to admit, I didn't know what to expect of this robin coming into the film, but was pleasantly surprised at how much I ended up liking the character. At first, I thought she was just being extremely reckless by jumping buildings and running to wherever Batman would be, but then I realized, she was a lot more smarter than I realized and that she could take care of herself and that eventually, Batman noticed that. I liked the fact that Batman didn't struggle to accept her as a sidekick or that he wasn't even mad when he saw her wearing the robin costume.
He simply let her be a "soldier" in his army against crime and when Alfred tried to remind Bruce about the last soldier he had, Bruce just said that Jason was a fine soldier and moved on. I loved how by this point of time, Bruce had already accepted Jason's death and was no longer holding it against himself and that he was able to take in a new robin. I think the idea that it was a girl robin helped matters as well because it was a testament that anyone could challenge violence and that no one in Gotham should be scared of the villainy there, which is something that I feel was emphasized in the second half of the film.
The first villain of this story was a redefined Two Face, who at the beginning of the story, was believed to be healed and done with his life of crime. But of course, he wasn't done. He made a plan to blow up two buildings in 22 minutes if he didn't get a huge sum of money. What we didn't know until Batman got to him was that Two Face was planning on suicide as soon he got the money.
What's interesting to me is after this discovery of his planned suicide and when Batman uncovers Two Face's mask, which many news reporters and Batman himself suggested he may have done something to his face again. It turns out Two Faace did nothing to his face. All he says is that people were just laughing at him when they saw his face and that it wasn't healed. That he truly thought the world hated him. It was the ultimate irony that a healed and older Two Face saw the entire world as a two faced coin with everyone meaning the opposite of what they say. I really loved this as a end to the character.
The major villains of part one is the Mutant gang and it's leader. At first, I thought the idea of this Mutant gang was very absurd and weird, but the more I watched, I realized I liked them for what they stood for. Random hate and crime. The type of crime that people do for no reason except to just do it. To me, these were the perfect type of villains to get Batman fighting for the city again, especially since part of the reasons Batman started fighting crime was due to all of the gang violence in Gotham city. So it was a nice full circle that this is what lead him back to fighting crime.
The leader of the mutant's was very...how do I say it, ruthless in this story and striked me as disturbing and unwelcoming. I can only imagine how Batman felt when he saw his city was being threatened by him. To me, the first fight Bruce had on the mutants was nothing compared to the final beat down between Bruce and the leader(and lets be honest, the first fights bite the Mutants leader did? Been there,seen that with the Walking Dead. ;)) was nothing compared to the second fight between them. During that match, I truly had no clue which way the match could turn and the sudden change of Mutants gang turning a new leaf to fight on Batman's side was very inspiring and nice to watch. I will talk more about how Batman impacted them in my part 2 review.
Overall, that sums up my thoughts on the first part of the film. In my second part of my review/discussion of The Dark Knight Returns, I will discuss my thoughts on The Joker,Superman and the new commissioner in the film. Be sure to tell me what you think of this review on Twitter @DragonPiece.
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