Review - Batman: Year One

BATMAN: YEAR ONE

The latest of the DC Animated features is based upon the classic Frank Miller arc from Batman 404-407. The original tale is held in such reverence that much of the dialogue, storyboarding and story structure have been lifted verbatim. This has both pros and cons.

Pro:
- We get the noir-style inner monologues.
- Gordon remains the focus.
- It remains sutably adult.
- The action is great.

Con:
- many scenes from that comic that take place over a couple of panels seem far too short
- some exchanges work well in print, but are out-of-place in film
- Atmospheric moments seem silly (Batman crashing the dinner party)

Whilst many of the DC features feel too short, this one comes in at the right length, even though it is shorter than most (this comes in at just over an hour, whilst most others are 75min). The action sequences were beefed up just enough that they flowed well without feeling tacked on. Gordon's one-man war on crime seeps deseration, but his affair with Essen is over in a flash. I couldn't help but feel that more of the plot needed developing, especially when one considers the short run-time (it only barely qualifys as a feature). We needed to see more insight into Gordon's relationships with his wife, Essen, Dent and even Flass and Loeb.

The biggest downfall comes from the sound design and voice acting. I wouldn't mind so much if this wasn't a problem with all the DC Animated features. It is more noticable in Batman: Year One however as some of the voice actors actually step up and, well, act. Eliza Dushku's Selina Kyle and Alex Rocco's Carmine Falcone are the stand out performances. The rest of the performances, whilst acceptable, come off as the rest of the sound design - a bit flat. The number of sound effects are kept to a minimum, rather than thinking about how to make the characters seem like they're in a living environment. The first day of the Sound Design module when I did my Film Production degree we learned about atmos tracks. The recording of a location's ambient sounds to lay down as a background track so that all of your scenes have an extra depth. FIRST DAY. Why don't these animated features have atmos tracks? They take three minutes to record and can be looped. It might seem like a minor quibble from someone who knows too much about it, but it's a simple thing that would really help to suck you into the movie.

My rating:

Batman: Year One suffers from the same problems as the rest of the DC Animated Features. So whilst it is entertaining, I'm afraid that I can't give more than 6/10 because it has done nothing to set itself apart from the pack.