Batman: Year One Reviews

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

Like with most of these DC animated movies, the main focus of my attention was the story. It's a fascinating look at Batman and Jim Gordon's early days: Gordon's efforts to rid the Gotham police force of corruption, and Bruce Wayne beginning his life of crime-fighting as the Batman. I especially like how they didn't make Batman perfect from day one: he's still an amateur who has to hone his skills. I also loved Catwoman's story arc and her frustration at always being second to Batman. The Harvey Dent cameo was welcome, too. :) The only thing I didn't like was Gordon's affair with Detective Essen: not only is it completely unfounded – Gordon never implies that he's in any way unhappy with Barbara – but it ultimately proves pointless. Overall, this is a well-written and insightful look at the back-stories of your favourite characters that makes you wonder what happened to all that talent Frank Miller clearly used to have.

My rating: 75%

"Ladies, gentlemen, you've eaten well. You've eaten Gotham's wealth. Its spirit. But your feast is nearly over. From this moment on, none of you are safe."

In 1986, iconic graphic novel author Frank Miller shook up the comic book industry with his four-part miniseries The Dark Knight Returns, which reimagined Batman as an aged vigilante coming out of retirement to fight crime in a gritty, noir-ish vision of Gotham City. Hot on the heels of the immense acclaim, Miller teamed up with artist David Mazzucchelli for Batman: Year One and retained the intelligence and grit that defined The Dark Knight Returns to explore Batman's origins. Although Christopher Nolan used very little of Miller's ideas for Batman Begins, the source material was ideal fodder for Warner Premiere's series of DC Universe Animated Original Movies. Fortunately, Batman: Year One for the most part translates well to the format. It's not perfect, and a higher-budgeted production could've yielded a smoother adaptation, but there's a lot to enjoy here.

After spending a number of years travelling the world, millionaire Bruce Wayne (Ben McKenzie) returns to Gotham, taking up residence in his family's long-time mansion overseen by loyal butler Alfred Pennyworth (Jeff Bennett). Meanwhile, Jim Gordon (Bryan Cranston) transfers to Gotham City Police Department, only to find the city plagued with corruption and crime. Fearing for the safety of both himself and his pregnant wife, Gordon is compelled to just do his job, turning a blind eye to the corrupt activity within the force. But a glimmer of hope soon emerges for Gordon, as Wayne begins to hit the streets as Batman, cleaning up crime vigilante-style. While Gordon is ordered to investigate Batman and arrest him, the lives of both men eventually converge, leading to a mutual respect for one another and a partnership that could bring order to a city lost in chaos.

Tab Murphy's screenplay is apparently very faithful to the source, resulting in a fairly short movie that only clocks in at a bit over an hour. Unfortunately, Batman: Year One feels too short, briskly skimming over weeks and months while only spotlighting a handful of key events. Such a structure works on the pages of Miller's graphic novel since a reader can move at their own pace, but as a fast-paced screen adventure, it feels underdone and slight. A longer, more complete movie would've been superior. With that said, however, the movie in its current form is still satisfying. One of the strongest aspects of Batman: Year One is the way that it balances the stories of Bruce Wayne and Jim Gordon, observing the beginnings of both characters and allowing us to hear both of their inner monologues. Indeed, Year One carries frequent voiceovers in keeping with Miller's graphic novel, but they never grow too heavy-handed or bothersome; they enhance the experience.

As with Miller's book, Batman: Year One is a film noir interpretation of the Batman mythos, humanising the characters of Bruce Wayne and Jim Gordon. The animators do a superlative job of retaining the grit and gloom of Mazzucchelli's original artwork while giving the movie a magnificent sense of fluidity. Visually, Year One evokes noir-ish anime like Ghost in the Shell and Cowboy Bebop, and there's a thick sense of atmosphere pervading every frame. The flick especially shines during the action sequences, with hand-to-hand combat that frankly looks like motion capture work. The fights are rough and brutal, and you feel every punch and kick. Especially great are the scenes involving Catwoman; she moves in a fast, catlike fashion, and the battles are very exciting. Equally great is the music by Christopher Drake, which belies the low-budget origins of the production. Drake's score is exciting and majestic, giving the picture a genuine theatrical feel.

Batman: Year One is also bolstered by a mostly solid voice cast. Unfortunately, the weak link is McKenzie as Bruce Wayne/Batman. He's especially ineffective during the voiceover narration, coming across as bored and stiff, and he's not much better when it comes to regular dialogue. It's a completely unremarkable performance, and one must wonder why the filmmakers didn't recruit fan favourite Kevin Conroy or even Bruce Greenwood. Thankfully, Breaking Bad's Bryan Cranston picks up a lot of the slack as Jim Gordon. Cranston actually turned down the role initially but changed his mind after being exposed to Miller's layered storytelling. He's easily the star of the show, and it doesn't sound like he's just reading lines for the sake of a paycheque. Year One features a pretty impressive roster of supporting players, including character actor Alex Rocco as mob boss Carmine Falcone, Katee Sackhoff who's downright lovely as Detective Sarah Essen, and a very bubbly Eliza Dushku as Selina Kyle, better known as Catwoman. Batman purists might be shocked to find that Kyle is, in fact, a prostitute in this story...

Despite its shortcomings, Batman: Year One is a smart, faithful animated action-adventure that gets more right than wrong. It's a must for die-hard Batman fans or for anyone who just enjoys watching comic book movies. Year One was actually planned to be a live-action movie helmed by Darren Aronofsky back before Batman Begins was made. While that prospect sounds very enticing indeed, and would have probably been a downright masterpiece, this animated production is good enough for now.

7.2/10

I don’t mean this as a criticism, but barring a few minor tweaks and adjustments, Batman: Year One is the most slavishly faithful adaptation of any of the DC direct-to-video films. It faithfully, in a sleeker and cleaner style, recreates the moody noirish look of the comic, complete with the muted colors and expressionist lighting. It also follows the novel’s penchant for character voiceover instead of length dialog passages and has a predominant amount of time devoted to Jim Gordon with Batman as a more ancillary character.

With numerous shots being practically a faithful recreation of panel by panel, if not pages by pages from the source material. Much of the ground will be immediately familiar to fans of Christopher Nolan’s astounding The Dark Knight Trilogy, but that should come as no surprise since Begins was based very heavily on Year One. And while this is an animated film, it doesn’t flinch away from the more adult aspects of the story. Scenes and sub-plots involve prostitution, drug trafficking, infidelity, child endangerment, police and government corruption and the fact that our hero bleeds so profusely remind us that comic books are often thought of in children’s entertainment terms but they are a valid art-form that frequently aim at a more adult audience.

The only real downslide is the voice acting, which is a mixed bag at best. Bryan Cranston is a gruff, tough Gordon and nails the character’s transition from more hopeful rookie to hardened beat-cop. The main female roles – Eliza Dushku as Catwoman, Katee Sackhoff as Sarah Essen and Grey Delisle as Sarah Gordon – perform their roles with grit and believability. Which leaves us with Ben McKenzie as Batman, and he doesn’t sell us on the part. I get that he was going for a younger, naïve and green Batman, but his boyish voice can’t convey the darkness and authority. McKenzie all too frequently sounds like a young kid play-acting as a grown-up.

The DVD includes a short film based upon Catwoman in which she breaks up a group of sex traffickers. It includes a scene in which she goes into a strip club to learn more about the location of the girls, which screams out as a future article for the Women in Refrigerators group. Not that they would have a hard time making the case that Catwoman performing a striptease was anything other than straight male service, but the short in general is strong with girl power. Catwoman takes down the gangster responsible in the name of friendship – her dear friend and cohort Holly is one of the girls who was kidnapped.

I’m not sure what it is about Batman that always allows for these creators to bring their A-Game to these films, but I appreciate it. Batman: Year One ranks pretty high in the list of these films. Now, if they could just turn this level of craft, care and attention to characters like Green Lantern, Aquaman, Flash, Wonder Woman, Green Arrow, hell, even a full-length solo Catwoman movie would be aces.

I was always interested in reading Mark Miller's defining Batman: Year One but couldn't find the comic anywhere, real-life or online. When I read that there's a movie based on it, I had to see it, nomadder what and boy, was it impressive. It's realistic, gritty, violent and top of all, it captures Jim Gordon and Bruce Wayne perfectly, although I do wish Bruce Greenwood or Kevin Conroy had voiced the latter but Benjamin McKenzie wasn't bad at all, providing a-lot of character in his voice.

Basically, I liked the story and the human, likable portrayal of the two lead protagonists and a further insight to the corrupt streets and people of Gotham. Despite the increase in technology, I still think no other direct-to-video Batman feature, including this one, can beat Batman & Mr. Freeze: SubZero released back in 1998. That looked and felt amazing but Year One was great nonetheless!

From the V.O's, I enjoyed everyone especially Eliza Dushku as Selina Kyle. Her warm and rich voice really was one of the strong points even though she only appears sporadically. She should appear in a full animation of her own and in that character because it really suits her. Maybe a live-action film?

In conclusion, this is great, has a wide variety of characters and the animation is fluid.... and, oh yes! I finally found a PDF copy on the internet! WOOHOO!

7.9/10