SongOfFall

Everything about the animation screams "low budget", from the shading, the atmosphere, stock-looking models, the unimpressive, stiff animations.

While the story itself does ape the formula of Tom and Jerry cartoons, Tom and Jerry had its charisma, movement, creative depictions of pain and suffering characters inflicted upon each other, its visual storytelling. You wanted to watch what they would come up with next.

Here it's just frustrating and tedious.

Watch something else instead.

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.

OK, it gets worse. Now I know exactly what it looks like - silver- age obsession with science by people who don't understand it (let's throw in some badly understood terminology and they'll thing this is complex scientific stuff). Let's give attempted scientific explanations to the villain's powers, even though the result will defy the law of conservation of mass. Add bronze-age pursuit of cultural relevance - particle accelerators, internet, cellphones and twerking. And let's make Iris "Miss Unnecessary Backstory in Dialogue".

Worst of all, the character has absolutely no backbone, no integrity. Then we have all this American clichéd pep-talk by authority figures. And why do they make his hood drop as soon as he runs fast? Why the hell does he need a mask that opens his face every now and then? Imagine Batman's mask falling off every time he jumps off a roof.

The series is decidedly weak.