In a Nutshell. Mini reviews of movies old and new. No fuss. No spoilers. And often no sleep.

Saturday, 20 July 2013

Batman: The Dark Knight Returns - Part 1 (2012)

TDKR is adapted from the book of the same name by Frank Miller. I'm a fan of Miller's comics work but I think his dialogue is unsuitable for film. That meant I wasn't overly concerned that Batman's inner monologue was removed. I thought it would be compensated for, but it wasn't.
What remained was Miller's slow pacing and his deconstruction of the typical superhero genre through news broadcasts that offer up conflicting views of the action and motivations of the very different kinds of sociopaths.
Peter Weller was piss-poor as Bruce/Batman. His delivery was lifeless and flat. It sounded like he'd just wakened and was reading his lines from the back of a cereal packet. Andrea Romano wasn't on casting duties for this one and it shows. Everyone was ill-suited to their character.

2½ heat waves out of 5

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