Thursday, March 01, 2012

Review: Batman Year One

Batman Year One

Directed by
Sam Liu
Lauren Montgomery

Starring the voices of
Benjamin McKenzie as Bruce Wayne / Batman
Eliza Dushku as Selina Kyle / Catwoman
Bryan Cranston as Lieutenant James Gordon
Katee Sackhoff as Detective Sarah Essen
Alex Rocco as Carmine "The Roman" Falcone
Jon Polito as Gillian B. Loeb

based on Batman: Year One by Frank Miller. Batman Year One is an origin movie much like the tale Batman Begins. There are significant differences between the animated and live action films. Batman Begins is much more in line with the comic book history of Batman.

The main bullet points are the same. Bruce’s parents are killed while he witnessed it. He spends a protracted time away from home and returns with a conviction to end crime in Gotham City. A few of supporting characters we have come to expect, Gordon, Dent and Catwoman is onscreen for a couple of scenes.

The bulk of the movie is watching Wayne/Batman and Gordon flesh out into the characters we have come to expect. I really enjoyed the inside look at Gordon’s early days on the Gotham police force, dealing with a police force rife with corruption. Bruce also finds himself deeply involved.

The animation is good, but like the dark storyline, many of the scenes are dark as the plot line.

No expense was spared on the extra either. There is a Catwoman short, a couple of Batman the Series episodes and a commentary track which has the director and voice coordinator plus a couple others from the staff talking about the movie of course but their parts as well an in depth history of the franchise.

Overall I found the movie and extras well worth the wait. I would give the movie an 8 and the extras a 9 for an 8.5 which may be a bit conservatives.

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