Vadersville
Posts: 2898
Joined: 30/9/2005
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I've watched it two more times now and I've warmed to it more but still a bit let down. Interestingly, the second time I watched it, I put on the audio commentary and realised exactly what the films shortcomings were:
(WARNING! SPOLIERS FOLLOW FOR THOSE WHO HAVEN'T READ THE COMIC OR SEEN THE FILM)
In the audio commentary they talk about how all the comics they ususally adapt into this stand alone animated features are around 6 issues long. Anymore and it gets too messy and things have to be cut. Any less than 6 issues and they say they have to add scenes in to make them to the full 75 mins. Batman Year One was only four issues and even with the few scenes they have added / lengthened (e.g. Bruce running over rooftops to catch up with Gordon and his baby - which I liked now after hating the first time), this film is still so short, just barely an hour including the credits. I can't help but wish they had given scenes more room to breathe and had more of the quiet moments that the comic did so well.
They also talk about how they used to prefer having all the voice actors in one room recording the dialogue together (Anyone who's a big enough fan of Batman: TAS will know the show was praised for this!), but they then say it wasn't possible here but go on about how you can't tell the difference anyway. The problem is you can! With the exception of the background voices of Loeb, Flash, Falcone, etc, the voice acting is mundane at best, sometimes just horrendous. Ben McKenzie makes Bruce Wayne's monologues sound like the monotone ramblings of my high school Maths teacher. That said, in a few scenes as Batman (i.e. When crashing the leaders of Gotham's party and sharing his pain with the drug dealer) he actually seems to be enjoying himself and shows that he can do a young, menacing Bats actually really well. Perhaps he was just bored with Bruce's lines... I've read a lot of praise for the voice of Gordon but to me that was also below par...again it just feels like a bored actor reading lines off the script without any context or emotion. I know we all liked the idea of him for Batman in The Dark Knight Returns but I can't help but think Michael Ironside would have been great as Gordon in this....
Finally, the last point that the audio commentary brought to mind is when they reveal how much debate went into whether they should actually make Batman Year One into a film since it has been such an obvious influence on Tim Burton's Batman, Mask of the Phantasm and Batman Begins, with several elements being directly lifted already, did the material warrant it's own adaptation. They obviously decided yes it did but I can't help but feel that might be perhaps the film's biggest downfall. We've already seen several "adapations" of the comic, that I'm sorry to say make a better job of it than this. As cool as the idea seemed to have a direct adapation of the comic it does suffer becauseof this. I said before, Batman versus the SWAT team is epic in this film, but nowhere near as good as the Batman versues the SWAT team in mask of the Phantasm which was so obviously inspired by the same comic.
The animation however is superb and visually the film is cinematically stunning, without flaw. For that reason alone , I'm going back on what I said before and am glad I forked out extra for the Blu-Ray version. Plus now, I have two episodes of Batman: TAS on Blu-Ray. Ooooooooo... 
So, overall, a more enjoyable flick than I first thought. My expectations were through the roof and couldn't possibly be met. That said, the film still falls short against the other DC Animated Movies like Under The Red Hood, Public Enemies / Apoclaypse, Wonder Woman, etc.
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