Gotham city is drowning in the murky depths of its own
corruption. Organized criminals operate
with impunity. Petty crooks prey on
helpless civilians. The police act more
like hired thugs than civil servants. Into
this cesspool steps Lieutenant James Gordon (Bryan Cranston), an honest cop
with a pregnant wife. Meanwhile,
billionaire playboy Bruce Wayne (Benjamin McKenzie) has just returned from a twelve
year sabbatical abroad. The reasons for
his self-imposed exile are unknown to the general public, but Wayne has
secretly been preparing himself to wage a very large scale yet private war. He has the means, but not the method. He finds a kindred spirit in the likes of Lieutenant
Gordon, whose honesty and steadfastness have made him a pariah in his own
department. As both Gordon and Wayne
embark on their own personal crusade to purge the city of corruption, they
inevitably cross paths and become the unlikeliest of allies.
Batman: Year One
is an adaptation of Frank Millers now famous story arc, which originally
appeared in the pages of Batman issues
#404-407. It has since become accepted
as cannon, especially among those who consider Miller’s take on the character
to be definitive. It has been reprinted
numerous times in trade paperback form. It
was also a primary source of inspiration for both Batman: Mask of the Phantasm and Batman Begins. It now receives
its most complete and faithful adaptation to date courtesy of The DC Animated universe.
While the animated version is neither as
cohesive nor as resonant as its source material, it manages to be an aesthetically accurate representation of the comic.
One of the most memorable elements of the comic, aside from its
groundbreaking story, was the artwork. David Mazzucchelli and Richmond Lewis
envisioned Gotham as a city in the throes of an extended Dark Age. Gotham’s very spirit was being drained by
parasites of all kinds. The animated
version remains true to that aesthetic, offering perhaps the most subdued character
designs yet to emerge from the DCAU. Batman: Year One successfully creates a
world that seems to exist in some sort of mythic time warp. Gotham City is an animated stand in for old
New York or old Chicago.
The action consists mostly of small scale fight scenes and
car chases (Though a confrontation with Cat Women lasts a bit longer than is necessary). The fight choreography is neither as
intricate as that of Justice League:
Crisis on Two Earths or as exceedingly brutal as that of Batman: Under The Red Hood. It’s actually
fairly consistent with the brand of violence found in the classic black and
white Warner Brothers gangster films, if a tad more bloody. The viewer is constantly reminded of Batman’s
mortality, as he sustains multiple gun-shot wounds and other injuries. The
Gotham PD’s siege on a dilapidated building provides the film’s major action
set piece. The caped crusader does not
have the luxury of his trademark high tech gadgets, giving the sequence a
primal feel.
If there is one element that didn’t survive the transition,
it’s the cohesiveness of Frank Millers storytelling. On the comic page, Batman: Year One played out fluently. In its
animated form, it feels just a tad disjointed.
It plays like a series of vignettes tied together by a common theme,
mood, and setting. The passage of time
is marked by calendar dates that appear on the top left corner of the screen at
appropriate intervals. It feels
episodic, like detailed log entries. In major
deviation from the source material, the voice over narration is used sparingly. That seemingly minor change robs the proceedings
of a certain intimacy. In the comic, Frank
Miller’s liberal use of captions and narration served a dual purpose: it conveyed
vital information to readers while allowing them to get inside the characters thoughts
and feelings.
In perfect keeping with its source material, Batman: Year One owes a considerable
debt to classic Hollywood film genres such as film noir, westerns, and police
procedurals. It pays ample tribute to those
time honored forms, while showing proper respect to the material. It offers a stripped down, no frills take on an
iconic character that radiates with authenticity. Though it's not exactly perfect, the positives far out weigh the negatives, making Batman: Year One a
worthy addition to the DCAU catalog.
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