Review of Batman: Year One

I just finished watching the straight-to-DVD animated adaptation of Frank Miller's Batman: Year One. It was pretty good. Granted, was certainly not the kind of film that could get a theatrical release. The pacing wasn't fantastic and the animation wasn't exactly studio quality. Additionally, at 64 minutes long, it isn't even as long as a Pokemon movie. But as a home release animated film, it worked quite well. It was certainly more interesting than some other comic book home releases like The Invincible Iron Man, which was surprisingly boring. And as far as Batman films go, it also was more coherent and engaging than Batman: Gotham Knight, the DVD release interquel between Batman Begins and The Dark Knight.

The film, for the uninitiated, follows both Bruce Wayne and Jim Gordon as they come to Gotham City in order to fight crime: Gordon as an honest lieutenant in a precinct full of dirty cops, and Wayne as a vigilante who soon becomes the legendary Batman. Interestingly, the film spends a great deal of time more on Lt. Gordon, as he deals with corrupt cops, his superiors, troubles with his marriage, and a so-called giant bat that seems to be attacking people.

Honestly, I suspect that the film would have been done itself a favor if it had stuck with this idea and run with it. It told a very interesting story about Jim Gordon, and a Batman story completely from his view would be fantastic. Additionally, by dropping the few, unsatisfactory parts based around Wayne – as well as the late-coming and quickly forgotten arc about Catwoman – the film could have had more time to develop a few of its plot threads that seemed rushed.

That was one of the biggest problems with the film: the pacing. While the first half had a great deal of nicely done buildup, by the end it seemed like plot threads were rushed to completion – like the aftermath of Gordon's infidelity – or dropped altogether – like the origin of Catwoman. I understand that this is a direct adaptation of an existing story, but many of these parts feel awkwardly forced in.  Other problems revolved around the voice acting  In many cases, it was fine, but some acting, notably Bruce Wayne himself, fell rather flat.

The animation itself was a bit of a mixed bag, though perhaps not quite as literally mixed as Gotham Knight, which was a series of shorts produces by different directors and studios, creating the effect of switching halfway through an episode of Samurai Champloo to watch a little Death Note. Year One seems to take some of its cues from the current trend of Motion Comics, adapting a comic book or graphic novel by putting limited animation into the existing panels. However, it becomes clear that this is mostly to save money for the fight scenes. The fight scenes are stunningly animated, which can provide a bit of a jarring contrast to much of the rest of the film, which thankfully found a bit of a middle ground between the limited style of some scenes and the glossy production of others.

But all things considered, this was a fairly enjoyable film. The story was mostly solid, the animation had some great scenes, and the voice acting was fantastic with only a few exceptions. Fans of Batman Begins or Batman: The Animated Series would probably enjoy this – it certainly has a similar ring to it – and it could even change the minds of those who have found previous DVD releases to be somewhat lacking. It definitely wouldn't win over anyone who doesn't like Batman, of course. But let's be real here: those people are quite beyond help already.