Batman: The Dark Knight Returns (2012)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2012
	Director: Jay Oliva
	Actors (voices): Petter Weller (Robocop, Star Trek Into Darkness), Ariel Winter (Kiss Kiss Bang Bang), David Selby
	Country: USA
	Genre: Action, Animation
	Conditions of visioning: 04.09.2014, Blu-ray, Home cinema
Synopsis: Batman (Weller) retired 10 years ago. Now the Chief of Police Gordon is also about to retire, while a new gang called the Mutants is the worst menace Gotham has faced in the last 10 years.
Review: I acquired this Blu-ray because Kevin Smith included the movie in his 'Carte Blanche' at the NIFFF2014. Disappointment, it is only the video adaptation to the cult 1986 comic book series written and illustrated by Frank Miller. It felt like I had already seen the movie when I started watching it, of course it is because I own the comic books (see cover below). It is very adult, dark, violent, borderline... everything a good Batman story should be. And the drawings and their sequence is wonderful (like the inserts of TV-news). I loved reading it, just after another cult Batman: Year One by the same author (illustrated by David Mazzucchelli), but I didn't like so much the following one The Dark Knight Strikes Again. The movie faithfully carbon-copies the 2-part story (which makes it interesting to watch at least) into two times 1h15, and copies also the key frames, linked by a fluid and fast animation, although the adaptation from the comics book is done with a too linear pace (the second part is better than the first in that respect). The fighting sequences are well done, the music OK and they tried to give an atmosphere close to the Nolan movies but because of the limited budget, the drawings are far from being as beautiful as the Miller ones. The added value of the movie is thus limited to the energetic animation and the nice voice Peter Weller lent to Batman. The extras on the Blu-ray confirm that the movie was only done to reach a larger audience than the one of comic books: the featurettes are mostly dealing with the Batman history, Bob Kane its creator, and the reverence of the movie crew to the original material. Fortunately during the adaptation they didn't tune down the violence to reach an even younger audience, that would have been a pity. I would rather recommend people to read the comics book than watch the movie, it provides much more pleasure... well if you are not allergic to comic books.
Rating: 4 /10