Batman: Year One review

Batman: Year One - To spare confusion, this is a review of the recently released animated DVD. Yes, after being an inspiration (of varying degrees) to both Tim Burton and Christopher Nolan's first films involving the Dark Knight, someone finally got around to doing a rendition, albeit animated, of this classic graphic novel. Does it hold up? Let's find out.

Batman: Year One begins with Bruce Wayne/Batman (Ben McKenzie) returning to Gotham. Jim Gordon (the wonderful Bryan Cranston) is also arriving in Gotham after a transfer from Chicago. The two men face adversary from Gotham's corrupt police force, Mafiosos and rotten political underbelly.

The animated style of the film is, for the most part, not bad. The violence is well animated, and the whole thing essentially reads as a blow by blow reaccount of the original comic book. Which is not bad, depending on your taste. I would've liked some small deviation from the original, in that novelty is sometimes it's own reward. Most of the voice actors were well chosen and perform adequately to excellently, with one glaring omission. Bryan Cranston is excellent as Jim Gordon. Bret McKenzie is terrible as Batman, with the exception of a couple of excerpts that were so well written any one could have knocked out of the park. He reminds me of Altair from Assassin's Creed, saying everything in some horrible haunted monotone that evokes Hayden Christiansen's Anakin Skywalker. Okay, it's not that bad. Nothing is that bad. But Bret comes close. He's no Kevin Conroy (Batman: TAS), that's for damn sure. I think they wanted to evoke this scary serial killer thing with him, and that's all wrong for Batman.

Another problem that magnifies Bret's awful voice-acting is that the filmmakers have eliminated most of Batman's narration. As a result, he seems like almost a supporting character in his own film, which is odd considering the name of the film is Batman: Year One, not Jim Gordon: Year One. It's funny because Tim Burton practically made the Joker the protagonist in his Batman and Christopher Nolan pretty much made Harvey Dent the protagonist of The Dark Knight. Guys, if you don't find Batman interesting, don't make a Batman movie (Chris I'm kidding, continue to do what you do).

What it adds up to is an okay rendition of a classic graphic novel. Was it possible to live up to the original, given the amount of influence it had? Not really, but they could have done better had they offered a better Batman and not given essentially a retread. Good for some thrills but strangely forgettable, Batman: Year One gets a
C+