WesternAnimation Holy Bat crap, the best superhero animated movie bar none
Batman The Dark Knight Returns is a seminal, highly valued work considered instrumental to not only the Batman mythos but The Dark Age Of Comic Books as well. In 2012 the story was animated, and what a ride it is. For several years Warner Brothers have been producing high quality superhero animated movies, and the two part adaptation of the comic is by far the best yet.
The story by Frank Miller is Bruce Wayne had long since retired after The Joker killed Jason. However a new gang becomes so vicious he is forced to once again become Batman, followed by a new Robin. However since he retired superheros have been seen as a nuisance, and Superman being the elite soldier to enforce the American way is set on a collision course with Batman, who is seen as an embarrassment to those in power.
As far as the storywriting goes the films do an excellent job of copying Miller's works and cleaning up not only the art from the printed format but slight editing and tweaks to the written word make for a tighter, more watchable movie. Certain plot elements and scenes are restructured and edited to flow better, and to the film's credit none of the confronting scenes the comic is renowned for have been lost: we still get Bruno the Nazi transvestite and Joker snapping his own neck before bursting in flames, in fact the massacre is made even worse. The Take That against America and the evil zombie Ronald Reagan angle had been toned down in favor of Oliver Queen wanting revenge for Superman crippling him, and the myth of Batman and the hope he inspires in Gotham.
The stylized art is nice, they weren't going for a hyper realistic appearance, it looks like a comic. The animation is beautiful, and the pacing and cuts are just right. And with the cleaned up art some of the more surreal elements (Joker's henchmen and the dolls, an old Selina and what Joker does to her) works.
The music is suitably epic and draws on creating something original rather than taking it's cues from other works ala the Arkham series that draw inspiration from other Batman scores. Likewise no problems with the vocal talent, Frank Welker is believable as Batman and Gordon is the right mix of soft and hard.
These films are an excellent 'what if' story that fit brilliantly with the current view of Batman, right up there with The Dark Knight and Arkham City and fans would be well served to check them out.
WesternAnimation Why Doesn't Gotham City Kill The Joker?
Batman is the One Man who can see the truth. He's the One Man who is willing to take action in a corrupt city. When people try to put him down and hide him away, he will not let himself be stopped and he will go to the ends of the earth to know what needs to be done. All the people around him are hypocrites and pawns. Wishy-washy psychologists who absolve people of their own actions. Self-serving politicians who say what they need to say to look good. Police commissioners who don't understand that their streets are overrun with crime. And all those people throwing around that word, "facist", that's been used against Frank Miller himself so many times.
So what if he's using military-grade explosives against police officers? So what if the only people who will follow him are sadists and gang members and murdering brain-washed mutants? So what if he's electrocuting superman, forcing him to do something that's against all he believes in. So what if he needs to beat the chief military defender of the United States into a pulp on the brink of a nuclear war with Russia? He needed to prove he was better, that he was stronger, that he had the might and will to do what was necessary no matter who crossed his path. It wasn't his fault, the circumstances were against him.
It was the world that was wrong. Not Batman.
Nobody makes a better argument against Frank Miller's philosophies than Frank Miller himself. This isn't Batman in the The Dark Knight Returns, this one doesn't use guns because they're not a mans weapon. But it's not quite Crazy Steve either, there is a lot of good in him and what he does. If the Strawman Has a Point then so does the man calling himself Batman. And in the end it's hard not to read the ending as him realising Batman wasn't quite who he needed to be or what he needed to do. Maybe there is a middle way between facist heroics and sitting by whilst terrible things happen.
The Cold War stuff is interesting to. Because who makes a better Joker than the Soviet Union? And you might say that peace talks with dictatorships is no different then a psychologist believing they can fix a patient with words. But the film doesn't side with the aggressive force here.
Why doesn't Gotham City kill the Joker? They know they can't imprison him and he'll kill until the day he dies.