Batman: The Dark Knight Returns

    Blaine: Bruce Wayne is in his mid 50s and he's been forced to retire as Batman. He has a drink with his good friend Commissioner James Gordon who is getting ready to retire at the age of 70. Crime is going up in Gotham City and as it keeps growing, it gets to Bruce. Harvey Dent, better known as Two-Face, has just been declared sane and has had plastic surgery on his face to make him look normal again. One night Bruce is watching news reports on more crimes and then an old memory of his parents deaths builds up on him and he realizes he can't escape who he really is. After ten years the time has come for the Batman to return. He combats serious crimes.

    Two high school girls take a shortcut through an arcade and then three mutants attack them. But then Batman sneaks up and takes the mutants down one by one. One of the girls' name is Carrie Kelly and when she sees Batman's face, she sees a hero. Batman then takes care of a few bank robbers and finds out they're working for Harvey Dent. There are mixed reactions to Batman's return all over the news. Batman continues to investigate what Harvey Dent has planned. Dent has raped his face in bandages and is threatening to blow up buildings unless he is paid $22 million. Batman defeats Harvey's henchman and learns that even if Dent gets the money, the bomb will go off because he wants to die and take thousands with him. Batman disables one bomb by freezing it with one of the gadgets on his belt. Then he goes after the other copter with the second bomb and Harvey Dent in it. Batman takes Harvey down and the bomb goes off in the sky. He then removes Harvey's bandages, so he can see what he has done to himself, but then he discovers Harvey's face remains the same. Harvey admits nothing can change him from being who he is and Batman can relate to that, but in a different way. Now that Batman has stopped Harvey Dent, he goes after the mutants.

    Carrie Kelly has bought a Robin costume and dresses herself up in it. She sneaks out of her parents' apartment to look for Batman. Batman saves a little boy from Mutants and after that gets answers of where they gather. The Mutants are all gathered at a dump and The Mutant Leader gives a speech saying that the Mutants will rule Gotham. Then a tank-like Batmobile shows up and starts shooting missiles and rubber bullets at the Mutants. The Mutant Leader challenges Batman to a duel and Batman accepts. Batman and the Mutant Leader are almost evenly matched, but the Mutant Leader takes down Batman and nearly kills him. Carrie Kelly saves Batman's life by sneaking up and tackling the Mutant Leader. Then Batman throws something sticky onto the Mutant Leader's face to blind him. Batman then looks to his left and feels like he's seeing a ghost of Robin. Batman is injured, but Carrie is there to help him get back into the Battank. Carrie has won Batman over with her spirit. He tells her his real name and brings her to the Batcave. Bruce takes off his suit and walks to the other side of the cave so he can find his strength.

    The Mutants have been arrested including their leader, but there's still others out there who plan to free them. Batman must face the Mutant Leader again and lure him and the gang to a sewer outlet at the West River. He figures the only way to defeat them is to humiliate them by winning the fight against the Mutant leader. Carrie spreads the rumors around disguised as a Mutant and Gordon releases the leader. The leader escapes through a sewer which leads to a mud pit where the other Mutants are waiting. Once he gets to the end, Batman sneaks up and pushes The Mutant Leader in the mud and the fight between Batman and The Mutant Leader continues. Batman takes down the Mutant Leader and has defeated him in front of all the Mutants surrounding them and after that the Mutants divide and look up to Batman now. They now call themselves the Sons of Batman. James Gordon retires.

    Batman is bringing justice back to Gotham, but not everyone agrees. Hearing Batman's name on the television several times brings The Joker out of his catatonic state. Three months have passed and Batman continues to get the criminals off the streets with Carrie Kelly on his side. A lot of people are sick and tired of Batman and think he should leave the criminals to the police. Others support, look up to and think of him as a leader. President Ronald Reagan wants Superman who is now working for the Government to end Batman's activities. The new Commissioner Ellen Yindel thinks Batman is an outlaw and gets a warrant for his arrest.

    Joker plans to make a TV appearance as a guest on the David Endochrine Show with the help of his psychologist Dr. Bartholemew Wolper. Batman is after a criminal named Bruno to get some answers about what she knows about Joker's TV appearance and what he plans to do. Then Superman intrudes and takes Bruno out. The next day Clark Kent meets up with Bruce at his place to warn him that the government will not be tolerant with him much longer and then takes off. Joker finally makes his talk show appearance while Batman shows up in a helicopter and fights the Gotham City Police on top of the building. Joker slits Dr. Wolper's throat and gasses everyone in the studio to death with these two mechanical kids. Carrie gets Batman out with the helicopter and tells him Joker has escaped.

    Meanwhile in Corto Maltese, Superman is taking down the Soviet ships and fighter planes. Joker pays Selena Kyle a visit and uses a lipstick on her that can cause mind control. He uses one of her escorts and his lipstick to take control of the congressman to command a nuclear strike against Corto Maltese on top of a 40th-story ledge and then he falls to his death. Batman figures that Joker's behind it, so he investigates the congressman's death by disguising himself as a Lieutenant and getting some answers from Commissioner Yindel. What he learns leads him to Kyle Escorts, where he finds Selena bound and dressed as Wonder Woman. She is relieved that Bruce came to her rescue.

    Kelly notices there's cotton candy on the floor and Batman deduces that Joker is at the fairgrounds. The police arrive and Batman and Kelly escape using the Bat Wing. They arrive at the fairgrounds. Joker is expecting them. Batman destroys one of the mechanical children, then pursues the Joker while Kelly takes care of the other robot child. Batman injures Joker by throwing a blade in his eye. Joker shoots or injures anyone who gets in the way. Kelly destroys the other robot on a roller coaster ride with her sling shot. Joker's henchman attacks her from behind and she kicks him away from her. He gets caught on the chain and the gears crush his head. Carrie has accidentally killed Joker's henchman. Batman chases Joker into the Tunnel of Love. Batman is furious with the number of dead bodies he sees in the water. He has had it with the Joker. He attacks him and admits he feels responsible for the people Joker has murdered over the past several years.

    Joker stabs Batman which causes him to loose control and break Joker's neck in front of two witnesses. Batman is panting and passes out. The Gotham police arrive and Batman awakens. He spits on Joker's face and burns the body. He then fights his way out by blowing shit up. Carrie then lassos Batman and flies them both out of there with the helicopter. Back at Wayne Manor, Alfred operates on Bruce. The American troops that are in Corto Maltese are victorious and the Soviets have withdrawn, but the Russians fire a nuke towards the U.S.A. Superman redirects it to the sky and then it detonates.

    The blast causes an electromagnetic pulse over the U.S. It also damages Superman and gives him radiation. Gotham City is in chaos. Citizens are looting and the Mutants have broken out of prison. Batman and Carrie rally the Sons of Batman and leads them to restore order in Gotham. Gordon tries to calm down the citizens on the other side of Gotham and tells them they have to work together in order to put out a fire. Batman and Gordon are bringing peace to Gotham while the rest of the country is overrun with crime. One week later it's snowing in Gotham and the electricity is coming back.

    The President thinks Batman is an embarrassment because he does what the President can't do. Now that Superman's job is done and he's healing up, the President asks him to take care of Batman. Bruce meets up with a former Justice League member, Oliver Queen, who was once known as "Green Arrow". Oliver lost his left arm after acting against the Government and he blames Superman for that. That is why he wants to help Bruce take down Superman. The fight takes place in Crime Alley. The Government sends army troops to evacuate the alley. Batman has an exoframe suit and some gadgets that can make his fight with Superman even. Kelly takes care of the soldiers with the Battank while Batman fights Superman. As Superman is about to defeat Batman, Oliver shoots an arrow with kryptonite at Superman making him weak. Then Batman smacks Superman in the face and reminds him that he wants Superman to stay out of his way and lets him know who has beaten him. Then Batman has a heart attack and drops dead. Wayne Manor self-destructs and as he watches it go up in flames, Alfred then dies from a stroke. Bruce Wayne's secrets have been destroyed when Wayne Manor burned to the ground. And all of his money, accounts and financial holdings have disappeared. Lana Lang, Selena Kyle, Ellen Yindel, James Gordon and his wife and Clark Kent attend Bruce's funeral.

    As Clark leaves the funeral, he starts hearing a heartbeat coming from Bruce's grave. Then he turns around and sees a mysterious girl covered in black standing next to his grave. He has a suspicious look on his face at first, then he gives a wink to the girl and then leaves. Meanwhile Oliver Queen leads the Sons of Batman to an underground cave and Bruce and Carrie show up, revealing that Bruce faked his death. The Sons of Batman set up the supplies for the new Batcave while Bruce and Carrie watch the start of a new beginning.



Blaine: There’s a lot I love about “Batman: The Dark Knight Returns”, but what I love the most is the different situations Batman is going through in the entire movie. In the beginning Bruce is trying to leave Batman behind him, but he is also feeling there is nothing to live for if he is no longer Batman. With crime getting worse and images from his past of his parents' deaths haunting him, he can’t take it anymore and he has no choice but to release the monster within him on criminals. Batman has a new Robin and her name is Carrie Kelly. I like Carrie Kelly a lot, I think she's a cool character. She's this teenage girl who idolizes Batman for what he does and because of that she wants to be a crime fighter like him and she also has spirit.

There's a twelve minute featurette I watched on the bonus disc called "Her Name is Carrie...Her Role is Robin" and it talks about the idea of Robin being female in the graphic novel. I had no idea that Jason Todd the second Robin died until I watched it. In the movie Alfred is reminding Bruce about what happened to Jason. It’s because of what happened to him that forced Bruce to retire.....from what I heard. I like to believe Carrie thinks of Bruce as a father figure even though she already has a father, but still she spends more time with him than her own family.

They wanted the look of “Batman: The Dark Knight Returns” to look like the graphic novel as much as possible, but with more color compared to the graphic novel. Joker has killed tons of people for years, he slit his doctor’s throat and killed others on live television, he shot and killed people in plain site at the carnival and made a blood bath in the Tunnel of Love. In the Tunnel of Love Joker was stabbing Batman in the chest so him breaking Joker’s neck could have been an act of self defense. Why are the cops calling Batman a murderer, it’s Joker who has killed hundreds? I’ve seen Batman leave people to die, but he has never killed.

Batman is a great leader and has inspired many to take the law into their own hands and join his team. Dick Grayson was the first and then after him there was Barbara Gordon, Jason Todd, Tim Drake and now Carrie Kelly. The Sons of Batman are his soldiers and brings the people of Gotham to work together along with James Gordon. I feel Batman is a very powerful person who you can count on to do the right thing. Batman has the best gadgets and vehicles. There’s the Batmobile, The Batwing and in “The Dark Knight Returns” he has a tank, a helicopter and this robotic suit he uses to fight Superman. Author Frank Miller said ever since he was a little kid, he wanted to see Batman kick the shit out of Superman. Superman has all these powers of flight, super strength, a body of steel and heat vision and Batman is only human and can be crushed like an ant by Superman so Frank Miller created the exoframe suit while he was writing the graphic novel. Batman has known Superman for years and was a colleague of his when they were in the Justice League. Bruce knows Superman’s weakness in kryptonite, but he has also discovered other ways of taking Superman down. Even though Batman doesn’t have any powers, he has gadgets and he always makes sure he’s prepared.

Batman's exoframe suit has super strength like Superman, a gun that shoots sound waves, rocket boots and can take electricity from the city so it can be used against the opponent. And the armor is able to take a punch from Superman, but not forever. Ronald Reagan was the President through out the '80s and the graphic novel was published in 1986, so that's why Ronald Reagan is the President in "Dark Knight Returns” even though they only call him the President in the movie, but he looks like Reagan and talks like Reagan. I didn’t like the look of the The Joker in “Batman: The Dark Knight Returns” and I didn’t like The Joker's look in “Batman: The Animated Series” until he goes insane at the carnival and has that insane look he shows on his face. I realize now that it’s not about the way he looks, but the way he acts that matters more and that’s being more of an insane mass murderer.

My rating on “Batman: The Dark Knight Returns” is five out of five stars.

Batman in his exoframe suit



Voices

   

Blaine: Casting Director, Andrea Romano, who has worked with the DC animated company for years had a list of actors she would like to work with and people she thought would be perfect to voice some of the characters.

Batman/Bruce Wayne is voiced by Peter Weller a.k.a. RoboCop. Playing a superhero has never sounded interesting for Peter, but the reason he took the job of voicing Batman is because Bruce starts off by drinking a lot and feels he has nothing else to live for sounded very interesting to him. My favorite line that comes out of Peter’s mouth as Batman is "He's young, he'll walk again”. It just sounds really good in my ear.

Because Commissioner Gordon is getting ready to retire and is older than the other ways he has been portrayed in the other animated features, Andrea Romano thought that David Selby was the right choice.

Having a female Robin was an interesting twist for the voice director and for Carie Kelly they had to find kid who has that kind of tough and street-smart and yet some kind of vulnerability that the audience cares about her well-being. Carrie Kelly is voiced by Ariel Winter, best known for being on the hit comedy series, “Modern Family”.

Being able to play a character that is twisted and dangerous like The Joker was not hard for actor, Michael Emerson because he has played characters like in the past and he said in an interview it would harder for him to play untwisted.

There’s also Mark Valley as Clark Kent/Superman, Paget Brewster as Lana Lang, Tress MacNeille as Selena Kyle, Wade Williams as Harvey Dent, Conan O'Brien as David Endocrine, Maria Canals Barrera as Ellen Yindel, Gary Anthony Williams as Mutant Leader and Robin Atkin Downes as Oliver Queen/Green Arrow.

Carrie Kelly the female Robin





Music

The composer is Christopher Drake who has done the music for "Batman: Arkham Origins" the video game and "Justice League: Doom", but the music he did for "Batman: The Dark Knight Returns" is my favorite out of him.