Batman: The Dark Knight Returns (2013)

(On Cable TV, January 2022) In order to make my life easier, I’m going to ignore how Batman: The Dark Knight Returns is presented as two separate films, and consider them as one. Released four months apart, both are halves of the same Frank Miller graphic novel, and I’m not even sure there would be a situation in which you’d get one but not the other. The story more or less seamlessly flows from one to the other, and the cast and crew are nearly identical from one to the other. The only reason to split them apart is that, as a remarkably faithful adaptation of a thick graphic novel, it clocks in at a total of 152 minutes—too long for its kind of direct-to-video animated film. Now, if there’s such a thing as a “lukewarm fan,” that would describe my reaction to the original graphic novel: while I rather like its then-groundbreaking take on the Batman and Superman characters, Miller does remain a problematic writer and the art style of the book is nothing short of atrocious from my aesthetic perspective. I was very, very surprised at the faithfulness of this animated adaptation, which barely softens some of the fascistic edges of the original (even calling them out by name, as if to ask what we’re going to do about it) and even keeps the Reageanesque Cold War elements. I suppose that the jaundiced take on the DC universe plays more widely in 2012 than in 1987: thanks to the expansion and self-awareness of the modern comics universe, we’re now far more used to alternate takes on superheroes, especially rough and violent ones. As a result, there’s a feeling that this animated film doesn’t have to do as much heavy lifting as the graphic novel, nor pull its punches. (I also suppose that a large portion of its viewing public will be familiar with the original and would not have forgiven wide deviations.)  Batman: The Dark Knight Returns makes for a rather good elseworld Batman film, though: often forgotten due to its direct-to-video pedigree, it’s nonetheless a film that pokes at the core of the character, retains the high-tension fight with Superman, examines the burden of loneliness that comes with the character (all the way to awkwardly resolving it at the climax) and keeps much of the warts-and-all nature of the original. I quite liked it, to the point of wondering why it’s taken me ten years to finally get to it. Recommended to DC graphic novel fans—it’s surprisingly committed to a faithful adaptation.