My Review of Batman: Year One · 10:05pm Mar 29th, 2022

Rating Scale:

12/10—a complete masterpiece; flawless and outstanding
11/10—Excellent, near-perfect film
10/10—the standard rating; awesome film with a couple of flaws
9/10—a wonderful film with several flaws
8/10–a great film with numerous flaws but not enough to ruin it
7/10—a fun and entertaining movie; not great but still enjoyable
6/10—a slightly above average film; it is something I might watch again
5/10—mediocre movie; not awful but not great either
4/10—a below average film; it could have been much better
3/10—a bad film; poorly written and poorly executed
2/10—a very bad movie; the few good things in the movie overshadowed by the bad things
1/10—a terrible movie; a total waste of time
0/10—a worthless piece of abomination; should have never been made

Greetings, everyone! This is Mr. J back with another movie review for today! This afternoon, I will be reviewing Batman: Year One, an animated film adaptation of the 1987 four-issue comic of the same name written by Frank Miller. I remember watching this a few months ago since I’ve never seen this back in 2011. Ever since then, I felt a bit underwhelmed by it and was rather disappointed it didn’t meet my expectations. Even as I was looking back at the film recently, I still find the film to be underwhelming and shallowly unfulfilling.

This movie—based on the comic—is about two men who try to adapt to the cruel environment they are members of: Gotham City. Bruce Wayne is trying to find ways he could carry out his sense of justice and vengeance on the criminal underworld while James Gordon does his best to be the only good cop in the midst of corrupt police officers who abuse their authority and do nothing to slow the crime rate in the city. Once things escalate, Batman and Gordon cross paths in a way they wouldn’t expect.

The main issue with this movie is the pacing. I absolutely despise the way they were adapting the story because it felt so rushed and poorly-paced from start to finish. Considering the fact this is only an hour and 4 minutes long, it is no wonder why it feels so badly paced it took me out of the experience.

Additionally, there was a little too much dialogue between characters that it felt a little tedious and boring to sit through. Not to mention the voice acting could have been better. There were some who did a decent vocal performance such as Ben McKenzie as Batman and Bryan Cranston as Jim Gordon, but the others felt like they weren’t putting enough passion into voicing their lines.

Nonetheless, I did enjoy what the story was about. I liked how it delved into Bruce Wayne’s origin story and shows us step by step how he became Batman during his first year. If only there weren’t unnecessary time jumps, it should have expanded further into his story and make the movie at least an hour and a half. I also enjoyed the character development of Gordon and seeing him experience how hard and dangerous it was for him and for his family while living in Gotham.

The animation looks really good as well. While it may not be the best-looking animation style, it still looks very decent.

Overall, this wasn’t a bad Batman movie per say but it’s not that great either. I don’t really see or understand why a lot of people love it so much and claim it as one of the best Batman movies ever made. In my opinion, it’s above average at best but underwhelmingly dull at worst. I will rate this a 6/10.

Peace.