Batman: Year One (2011)

Unfortunately. Faithful adaptation of the original comic but the animation and voice acting were not always something to write home about. Cool to see the origin of Batman like this but I expected much more. The atmosphere was also not nearly grim enough.

Translated from Dutch · View original

Reasonable.

It must be said that it is nice to get to know James Gordon better. Unfortunately, he turns out not to be that interesting. Soon he is a sympathetic cop in a corrupt police force.
That's why the Batman storyline should have been more extensive. There's barely any attention paid to his development into Batman ("I'm missing something" - oh look, bats, how nice..).
The ending isn't anything special, but it's a nice touch to show Gordon "seeing" Bruce Wayne as Batman.

The voice cast is entertaining. Bryan Cranston is pretty good, but the rest fail to stand out.

In terms of atmosphere, it's all right. Gotham is once again constructed grimly and darkly, and that's how it should be.
Furthermore, the animation is also good. Only Selina Kyle looks bad.

3

Translated from Dutch · View original

As with many other Batman animations, the story and style are better than in the films, but the decoration is a lot less. I am not a comic fan (the comics themselves I mean, not the world of DC or Marvel per se) but I know Batman from many film adaptations, animations and the series Gotham. The most striking thing is that the storyline differs from story to story. Always found it strange that it can differ so much with a well-known fictional character. Certainly the main characters. In Batman: Year One we see for the umpteenth time a flashback to the murder of Bruce Wayne's parents.

The film focuses mainly on Gordon, so that Batman becomes a marginal figure. Which unfortunately happens more often in Batman films. Catwoman is also not the most successful version here. A plus point is that by sticking close to the original, the story is good. Also not too many enemies, no overload of characters. Especially Batman, Catwoman and Gordon in their early years.

Nicely done for the rest and better than what we usually get from assembly line work, but it could have had more punch. A bit more creativity.

Translated from Dutch · View original