Batman: El Regreso del Caballero Oscuro. Primera Parte

It's definitely one of the best Batman features I've watched in a while (not a big fan of Christopher Nolan's "Gotham's Jesus"). It's a different Batman, faithful to the character tailored by Frank Miller. This Batman is old, angry and not a bit soft. He knows what he needs to do and he does it.

The animation is dynamic and nicely drawn (not in the anime- influenced style of Flashpoint: Paradox). This is exactly how comic book adaptations should be made.

Sad thing is, best DC adaptations come in direct-to-video format. Recently I tried watching Flash and Arrow, huge letdowns, if you ask me. But "The Dark Knigh Returns" is the real deal. It isn't fake, it has the spirit and the atmosphere.

Now I'm off to my Batcave to watch the second part.

The Dark Knight Returns, is for me, the best Batman film of the year. The animation is superb, especially when the action kicks off. It sees Bruce Wayne return to crime fighting after a 10 year absence. Unlike his Nolan counterpart however, he was Batman for a damn sight longer than just a year. His return is depicted as an obsession that finally grabs control and pulls him in. He barely even notices it when he shaves off his mustache as it just becomes a natural part of the process. A new threat, called The Mutants, rises in Gotham, and Batman has to sort them out. His age becomes his weakness as he must go up against the leader of The Mutants. he film is littered with cuts to TV shows and newscasts discussing whether or not Batman is a help or a hindrance. Peter Weller does a great job as the voice of Batman, and it's nice to see a Batman with a dark and dangerous sense of humour. As an adaptation it remains fairly close to the source material, but manages to capture the ferocity of the violence without being too graphic. Gotham looked and felt exactly how I remember it when I was growing up. This is great stuff, and is a huge tease for Part 2, where we will see The Joker once again.

I'll be short. I'm an 90-ties kid (now 21) and I watched a lot of batman cartoons and movies, and even read the comic on which this movie is based on. The movie shocked me how good it was made, the animation, the acting (even though batman isn't voiced by Kevin Conroy), even the sound is simply great.

If you are a batman fan, and watched the cartoon series, and movies, and even better if you read the comics you are absolutely going to LOVE this movie.

It's definitely worth watching it in theaters / or blue ray.

A+

After seeing Batman Year One, I was nervous about this one, but I was pleasantly surprised! The story is faithfully recreated here, with very little censorship of the violence, and most of the (included) dialogue straight from the pages of the comic, albeit with some forgivable changes. The pacing is excellent, and really captures that sense of "awesome" that the graphic novel had. The visual style is "close enough" to Millar's work to give you flashbacks, but of course it lacks the detailed nuances of the comic. And lastly, the music fits everything perfectly.

Some complaints, though. First and foremost, the acting lacks passion. Virtually all the main characters play "middle of the road" emotions well, but any extreme was unconvincing to me. It's almost like there was a "no shouting!" rule for the actors. Nobody gets really angry, or forceful, or upset. Even so, it's nowhere near as disappointing as the acting in Batman Year One.

Also missing is Batman's inner monologue- which I guess can be forgiven since movies are a visual medium, but ultimately we lose some of the comic's best lines because of it. Though they do try to force some of batman's narration into the movie as dialogue, it doesn't work that well at all.

One change I'm not sure about is the PG-13 censorship to the script. They maintain the political dichotomy that existed in the comics, but it's way toned down. They seem to want to avoid alienating people on either side of the political spectrum (perhaps wisely). Some of the humor is still there, but again, it's got kid gloves on.

In the end, though, this is a wonderful execution of a great story. I eagerly look forward to Part 2!!

The first part to The Dark Knight returns feels a lot more complete than the second half. It thrusts Frank Miller's adaptation of the Caped Crusader in both a loyal and fresh way, displaying a lot more of a flawed character who turns back to the cowl through compulsion more than why he started it.

What massively works in this productions favour is the bold and varied art direction the story is presented in, displaying a grittier and bloodier batman we are used to, and parallels the mood and tone of the character. This may seem obvious considering the post-modernist violent setting, however the violence did go further than I thought they were going to take it (BUT THIS IS NOT A BAD THING)!

Dynamics between characters are also very well written for animation and you can appreciate the subtle nuances between relationships as well as hear dialogue that reflects a character arch throughout the story.

The voice acting may feel just a little bit stiff here and there, and some of the features in the comics appear to be somewhat left out or brushed over quickly, however this is a different format to a comic so the artist should be allowed to trim some of the fat off in order to make the film feel like a cohesive narrative.

Overall, this piece feels like a lot of effort from DC has been put in to both reward the fans and pay homage to Frank Millers contribution to their wonderful icon. For animation work and superhero stories, this is one of if not the best piece of art made and is on par with the very well made Nolan films as well.