Batman: Year One

I am surprised at the user reviews here and they basically compelled me to write my own. Year one is one of the greatest batman story ever and the movie sticks closely to the source material. If you are unfamiliar with the comic, Year one basically details Bruce Wayne's first year after his return to Gotham City, twelve years after his parent's death. Running parallel to this is the story line of James Gordon, a lieutenant transferred from Chicago to Gotham City. The challenges faced by these characters as they embark on their respective paths and how those paths cross is where Year One shines. The animation perfectly brings David Mazzucchelli's muddy comic panels to life. The inclusion and portrayal of Catwoman might some but it is a very brief part of the story. Year One is an excellent movie and I would recommend this to any Batman fan.

This movie is great, brilliant, realistic, dark, gritty and very-very emotional Batman adaptation. Forget Mask of the Phantasm, Return of the Joker or Under the Red Hood. They are great of course but Year one is in a completely different league than those. This is not something what you can see on Cartoon Network. It is clearly not for kids, not at all. It is a serious story with real people with real and logical choices (Finally Batman is realistic as a person and as a hero, he is not over the top, he uses his batarang the way he should. He is not god like...this was a big problem many times in the comics and also in the animated features too at many areas. He can be shot, beaten and also he can't beat the crap out from 3-4 people easily just because he is Batman. He is a believable person here who can really exist out there in the real world.). If you know the original comics than you won't be disappointed with this. This is how Batman should be. Also Year one is more of Jim Gordon's story and it also works great. Brilliant, just brilliant.

10/10

Bruce Wayne returns to Gotham after 12 years abroad. Lieutenant James Gordon transfers to Gotham where he finds corruption in the police department. Both decide to clean up the problems in their own way.

It's a fine adult animation of Batman. Gordon has the more interesting story. It's good animation. If anything, it needs to be longer than one hour. There are scenes that needs more fleshing out. Catwoman is fun. With more time, some of this could be even better. Overall, there is nothing big to complain about.

This is a dark, realistic and fantastic installment from DC. I was really immersed into the whole visual and direction of this movie. Sure, the plot maybe a bit slow but the story is really good. The movie focuses in on two primary characters, which is Bruce Wayne and Jim Gordon. Although the movie seems to focus more on Jim Gordon and his subconscious more than Bruce Wayne. It doesn't take away anything from this movie. Because I thought it was cool to delve more into the persona of Jim Gordon and where he comes from. Some people maybe against him being portrayed as this masculine though guy. But I thought it was refreshing to see him as this badass lieutenant. The animation for the most part is fluid and I just really liked the more dark and gritty atmosphere in this, which has more of an adult theme going for it. Although the action sequences are well done, that isn't the driving force of this movie. What drives this movie is the intricate and the direction of the two main characters and how it develops. Even the music score fit right into the environment and it actually does stand out.

8.2/10

The Batman franchise is currently dominating every single form of media there is. From the incredible Arkham Asylum videogames, the Christopher Nolan revamped films, to the recently developed animated sagas, Batman is performing beyond all other comic-book heroes.

Ironically, he is one of the only graphic novel characters I appreciate more in my maturity, due to the story's vast amount of themes and ideas.

Batman: Under the Red Hood 2010 was perhaps the most enthralling animated film since the famous Batman: The Mask of the Phantasm 1993, so I greatly anticipated Batman Year One.

This film retells the story of one of the most famous fictional crime- fighting partnerships ever created. Batman and police official Lieutenant James 'Jim' Gordon.

When I heard Jim Gordon was going to be one of the protagonists, I had my reservations. I should have known better. This movie did not disappoint. In fact, it was far the opposite.

The plot follows both characters with their respective stories: Bruce Wayne, boy billionaire returns to Gotham City after being absent for many years following his parent's murder. He is lost and seeking a path to cope with vengeance. His transformation into the dark avenging angel Batman is the crux of the plot.

Running parallel, Jim Gordon is a honourable police officer joining a corrupt authority in Gotham City's Police Department. His durability in pursuing his career, regardless of the crooked cops he is surrounded by form his intriguing story.

There were specific points that illustrated the relentless will-power of each character. The first sighting of Batman revealed his character defining raison d'etre – his upkeep of justice as opposed to vengeance, and his preservation of human life over killing: He knocks a man off a balcony, but holds onto his leg. The expression of this point emerged from the beating he receives from two other thugs as he maintains his grip of the criminal who could die if he lets go.

Jim Gordon's most challenging moment was his perseverance in the police force, following a remorseless physical attack from his work colleagues.

The professionalism of the directors and producers was shown through their selection in voice actor Ben McKenzie for Batman. The dialogue, inner monologues and delivery portrayed a young Batman just commencing his crusade on crime and it worked.

The film is definitely worth watching if you are a Batman fan, but I would never recommend this as a general crowd pleaser. Animations are often seen as childish cartoons and understandably, they are shunned by adult audiences. If Batman is perceived as a kid's passion, then consider me a big child, because I cannot ever imagine disliking this character nor ignoring any of the films, be it live action or animation.

Nevertheless, if you do like 'the dark knight', then add this to the hit-list.