Batman: The Dark Knight Returns Deluxe Edition Review

This weekend after a long over due RAD game night and being a guest on the Midnight Spookhouse Radio paranormal podcast, I found myself in a Batman mood of all things. I turned to Amazon Prime Instant Video to satisfy my craving for caped crusader action. I almost settled on a marathon of Batman the Animated Series (which would have been awesome on its own mind you) but then I stumbled on the grand daddy of all Batman tales: the animated film adaptation of Frank Miller's masterpiece, Batman: The Dark knight Returns Deluxe edition.

This Deluxe edition contains both animated features The Dark Knight Returns Part 1 and 2, slightly edited to run together as one feature length film, along with oodles of other Blu-ray extra documentaries. It is of course based on The Dark Knight Returns miniseries released in 1986, written by Frank Miller and illustrated by Miller and Klaus Janson.

Before I continue, let it be known that I haven't read the Dark Knight Returns comics since I was in high school, so if I get anything wrong on the original story please feel free to correct me.

I'll avoid any spoilers, but the plot is based around a retired Bruce Wayne in his 50's who hasn't donned the mantle of Batman in over 10 years and has instead succumbed to a life of near complete solitude and alcoholism.

The urge to come out of retirement grows stronger as he watches Gotham City continue to decay around him with violent crime grows increasingly more commonplace than ever before, exacerbated further by the senselessly violent activities of the new Mutant gang. When he sees a news broadcast that one of the more dangerous villians from his rogues gallery, Harvey Dent, has supposedly been "healed" physically and mentally and released from the Arkham Home, the urge to don the cape and cowl again becomes too strong to resist.

Batman isn't the only character to rise from the ashes though as we watch Carrie Kelly's evolution into the first female Robin. It's a dark (to say the least), gritty, and violent tale that explores the psyches of not only Bruce himself but his life long nemesis as well as an unexpected once celebrated hero now manipulated to serve on the wrong side of the tracks.

The film is beautifully animated and the art style is a well done amalgamation of Miller's original character designs and anime. It sticks close to the source material, with a lot of iconic scenes from the book completely recreated. They even include the news broadcasts which give us an outside eye on Batman's activities while controlling the pacing of the story.

The score is dark, suspenseful, and always fits the mood of each scene perfectly though it never really establishes a "theme" like Batman titles usually do. The voice work is top notch and I love Peter Weller's portrayal of the Dark Knight. Ariel Winter as Robin/Carrie and David Selby as Commisioner Gorden both sounded exactly the way I imagined in my head. Michael Emerson gives us a terrifyingly calm Joker, a polar opposite from Mark Hamill's usual portrayal, but the effect is haunting.

The bottom line is that if you're a fan of Batman I can almost guarantee you'll enjoy this film. It is a worthy tribute to Miller's work, which was not only one of the greatest Batman stories of all time, but arguably changed the landscape of comics in general and lifted the general public's misconception of them as "children's literature."

Even if you've never read the comics you owe it to yourself to check out this film, but please by all means check out the amazing graphic novel. You can thank me for the suggestion later.

Pros:

-Nearly page by page accurate retelling of Miller's original story. Almost all of your favorite lines are in there.
-Beautiful art style and animation.
-Top notch score and voice acting.
-Hours of additional documentary and commentary content after the film.

Cons:

-While a lot of the dialogue is intact, the film loses Bruce's internal dialogue from the book.