Batman The Dark Knight Returns Part 1 and Part 2 Ever since watching the
Batman V. Superman 2015 Comic Con Trailer, I have been itching to re-read
Batman The Dark Knight Returns by
Frank Miller, which so happens to be one of my all-time favorite graphic novels and the one I have read more than any other book. But I remembered hearing that they did this as an Animation Film a few years back and sure enough, my
Library had them. Beyond this, I didn't know who did the animation or who the voice actors were going to be. I actually thought this adaptation was going to be more
Bruce Timm than anything else, which clearly is not. It's more Anime than the
Timm-era stuff.
As for the interpretation here, they did a fantastic job and more importantly, they kept it geared toward adults. I just assumed that they were going to water down the violence to grab that kiddie market. To my surprise, they didn't. I actually wouldn't even let little kids watch this because at times, even in cartoon form, it gets bloody. Also, the fight scenes between
Batman and
Joker would probably scare little kids with
Joker repeatedly plunging a knife into
Batman's stomach. The kicker of course is when
Batman snaps
Jokers neck. Taking it one step further, Joker finishes the job by snapping his own neck.
Watching both parts, you just see how much influence
TDKR has had on pop culture, from the
Arkham video games by
Rocksteady to the forthcoming
BVS movie. I see a lot of familar scenes from the book popping up in the Trailer, some altered and some literal. I'm really curious as to just how much the movie will be pulling from the graphic novel and where they will cheat their way out of it and go their own way. Overall, I can recommend
Part 1 and
2 as a
Rent for sure. I also got a kick out of seeing some of the classic, iconic imagery in the book popping up in the movie. Old
"Wonder Woman" was a hoot, and
Carrie as
Robin was just as cool as I thought it would be.
Ronald Reagan is still very much a part of the story-line and lets not forget about Superman either.