Kevin Smith and The Dark Knight Returns

Kevin Smith and The Dark Knight Returns - Opinion

Kevin Smith often points to the plot holes in Nolan's The Dark Knight Rises and repeatedly states that Warner Animation's The Dark Knight Returns is the best Batman film you'll ever see.

Whilst I don't disagree that Rises has plot holes (though the ones Kevin often highlights aren't really plot holes), it could be argued that Nolan is simply continuing a tradition of plot holes that starts in the film's source material.

Nolan's films are heavily inspired and informed by a number of comic series including Frank Miller's comic book series, The Dark Knight Returns. Rises in particular shares many of the same themes.

Warning: This blog post is not a review. It's an opinion piece so I can write my thoughts about specific scenes in the film. If you haven't seen The Dark Knight Returns or haven't read the comic book series then stop now as from here on in there will be spoilers.

Kevin says of the comic book series that it opened his eyes to what Batman was really about after having only really known the Adam West version of character. I haven't read the comic version of Returns but Kevin talks about it like it's the bible of Batman stories.

In watching the animated version I'll agree with Kevin, it is a great story. It's filled with plenty of great ideas and, without this story, Nolan's Batman may well not have been as good as it is.

But, if you want to point out plot holes as a reason for Nolan's Rises to be 'just okay' here's my problems with Miller's story...

If you're a retired Batman heading back into the field and you have a suit that gives you the strength to take on Superman, why wouldn't you wear it to hand the Mutant leader his ass the first time you go up against him? Both times Batman goes up against the Mutant leader he sustains some pretty serious injuries. Even when he does defeat the leader he's pretty beat up.

Why not wear the suit when going up against your arch nemesis, The Joker. In this movie Joker's no slouch when it comes to hand to hand combat. Wear the suit. If it's good enough to go up against Superman then Joker would be little more than a rag doll.

If you have developed your own kryptonite to combat Superman, why not lead with that instead of wasting your time trying to defeat him in hand to hand combat in a super suit (that Superman could probably punch holes through or melt with that heat vision).

Wouldn't it have made more sense for Batman to construct kryptonite knuckle dusters rather than a kryptonite arrow that someone else had to shoot? At the very least, the kryptonite should have been part of the suit - in case the kryptonite didn't work he'd still have the suit as back up.

Robin? I have no issues with a female Robin however, in this movie, Robin goes from a cos-play school girl to fantastic gymnast, Batman tech hacker and all round bad ass in record time. She's barely even affected by the carnage she sees around her as Robin. (Kevin bitches about how Bruce got back to Gotham so fast after escaping the prison in Rises? More easily explained than this girl's amazing transformation into Robin).

In this movie Batman's an old man and he's still grappling with the death of his parents. Every time this movie brought up his parents I was thinking 'Fuck, he's still not over that yet?' Real people experience similar tragic deaths and, whilst it'll always be part of their psyche, many find a certain level of peace that allows them to move on and be functional again. Someone with Bruce Wayne's intelligence would not take a life time to come to terms with what happened to his parents.

The Bat suit in Returns is clearly not body armor yet we're led to believe that Batman is fast enough to dodge bullets from multiple automatic weapons in several different stand offs against the police. Either that or the police have all the accuracy of Storm Troopers in every single Star Wars film.

In what world does the Mayor of a city get let into a room by himself with murderous mutant leader completely unsupervised? I hope there was an internal investigation into that stupidity.

The local Police are sufficiently useless and equally as incompetent in Returns as any you saw in all of Nolan's films. Just once can we have a police department in a Superhero film that wasn't trained by the Keystone Cops Academy.

Anyone who complains about Christian Bales Batman using a leg brace to fix his knee problem... it didn't go unnoticed by me that Miller's Batman constructs a similar arm brace so he can continue to be Batman. Neither is really a plot hole - I'm just saying, Bale's brace is probably a nod to Miller who used the idea first.

Whilst we're on the subject of cheesy plot devices used in The Dark Knight Rises... Nuclear bomb? Used in The Dark Knight Returns by Harvey Dent to hold the city to ransom.

Okay so not all that list is plot holes either but to say Dark Knight Returns is the best Batman movie you'll ever see is a little over the top when compared to Nolan's Trilogy. Both are great stories with plenty of interesting ideas and, I'll say again, Nolan's Trilogy probably would be very different without Miller's story to inform it.

Returns. Not the best Batman story ever though. I still like Nolan's take better and his Batman isn't really quite there as the Batman I'd like to see on screen.

Comments

Checking in on Tesla's Optimus Robot - Managing Expectations

Last year Elon Musk announced at the first Tesla AI day the Tesla Bot, which has since been renamed the Tesla Optimus, that is basically a general purpose humanoid robot assistant with human like appearance and proportions. Elon expected they would have a working prototype by the end of 2022. While very little has been released about the project since, in June Elon took to Twitter to announce that they would delay this year's Tesla AI day until September 30 in anticipation of having a working prototype of the robot by that time. Elon Musk announces the Tesla Bot at the 2021 Tesla AI day. When I initially wrote about the Tesla Bot I noted that both Boston Dynamics and Disney Imagineering are developing robot technologies that demonstrate a streamlined, humanoid robot like Optimus is certainly possible. However with precious few details, and the occasional appearance of static, concept manikins of Tesla Optimus bots at places like the Cyber Rodeo Gigafactory Austin, Texas (see vi...

Bruce, South Australia - A Forgotten Aussie Town with Spectacular Landscape Views and Potential

The Bruce Railway Station. Now a private residence. V isiting the almost forgotten town of Bruce reminds me of visiting Silverton back in 2007, except Silverton has been revived into a kind of arts town with a very famous pub. Bruce, on the other hand seems a little too spread out, and a bit too out of the way to make a similar 'arts' kind of revival. Bruce's Pub appears to be an art studio with signs of restoration work in progress. The main part of town appears to be the Bruce railway station (now a private residence) and a pub, also privately owned and possibly was, or still is, and artist studio. Other buildings and homesteads are set fairly wide apart, and are mostly privately owned homes. You don't get much sense of being in a town as such. I'm told there are approximately 14 local residents/families? Once earmarked to be a commercial centre, Bruce fell by the wayside after successive floods and drought in its early years. Obviously the railway line is no lo...

Is AI Art 'Art'? The Say NO to AI Art Movement, and Why Human Artists Will Adapt

AI Art No T-Shirt by TET Also available on other items . Right now there is a big debate over not just whether AI art is 'art' but whether AI's are actually ripping off the work of actual human artists, without their consent, to create their images - particularly images 'in the style of' specific artists. From my own observations this debate started to get more traction when artist's signatures began appearing in the output of AI Art image generators. Is It Art? Cool Froyd the Cat Sketch by TET. My style is very much influenced by classic Disney and WB character styles. To get some clarity on how real human artists work (of which I am one)... we, that is all of us... take influences from the art that has come before. i.e. whatever artists we like, have studied, seen etc. we are influenced by. It shows up in our work, intentionally or not. If you really study my own cartoony art style you'll see I'm heavily influenced by early Disney and Warner Bros cart...

Boom Crash Opera Born Classic But Not Again

Boom Crash Opera are an Australian Band that reached the peak of their popularity in the mid to late nineteen eighties. They are a band that I knew about at that time but was never really excited by until they released their ill fated double album Born and Born Again in 1995 (Album cover pictured). At the time of its release I was very much into emerging Australian musical acts and was also looking out for new sounds that were different and had kind of a futuristic/electronic sound. Artists that I was buying at the time included; Swoop , Nine Inch Nails and Pop Will Eat Its Self . As well as a really interesting release by David Bowie, the concept album, Outside . Born was a fairly radical departure for Boom Crash Opera (BCO). The first single, Gimme , was often compared to the sounds of Gary Glitter, particularly his single, Rock n Roll part 2 , because of the pounding drum loops. Watch the video below. My favorite single from the album is dissemble which probably went now...

Kids today are smarter than their parents?

Mother's Bed Art Board Print by TET. Available from RedBubble . How often have you heard it said that kids today are smarter than their parents? I’ve heard it quite frequently in the media – even Dr Phil has said it. I say speak for yourself. It’s not true and don’t let the media fool you. Today’s kids may have access to more information that may give them more choices but in my experience, they only take in what they want to hear and still make stupid, uninformed decisions. Just like we used to at their age. Like any cross section of people there will be exceptions. There are kids that are genuinely smarter, more mature and responsible for their age. However the vast majority know everything they need to know by the time they turn fourteen. They’re ‘adult’ enough to be responsible for all their own decision making so parents should just let them do what they please…right? Just like we thought at fourteen. Don’t be fooled. Just because your son knows how to download MP3’s onto an i...

James Gunn's Social Media Monkeys Joke Was a Highlight of His Superman Movie For Me

B efore James Gunn's Superman Movie was released there was a whole rumor going around that the movie would feature monkeys on computers trolling Superman's social media, sparking much outrage. #supersh*t. I didn't know this was even a thing until just prior to writing this article. I did a search to see if anyone had posted a clip of the monkeys scene from the movie and got pages of discourse featuring videos and articles prior to the film. Most of it from Gunn detractors (let's say) seeing it as some kind of childish swipe at them... well not them specifically but, you know, those other people who have every right to hate on anything sight unseen. Anyway, I'm not going to give even one such example a link or air because it's kind of sad watching someone devote so much commentary to a throw away gag that is absolutely a nod to James Gunn's Superman trolls. The whole reason this post exists, is to say I loved the joke, because fourteen years ago, and I...

Movie Opinion: The Michael Keaton Batman Trilogy - Batman (1989), Batman Returns (1992), The Flash (2023)

The Michael Keaton Batman Trilogy on DVD. Despite its questionable CGI, troubled star, and the turmoil surrounding the DCEU's future when it was released, 2023's, The Flash does give us a new, and probably final, installment in Michael Keaton's run as Bruce Wayne/Batman. With that in mind, this holiday season, I had a real itch to spend a day binge watching what is now The Michael Keaton, Batman Trilogy . To give you some context, I own every Batman movie (except Pattinson's The Batman ) on DVD, and every DCEU movie up to The Flash. The ones I don't own are only missing because I haven't gotten around to buying them, and they're likely still available on a streaming service I'm subscribed to. I've had Keaton's first two Batman movies in my collection for the best part of two decades but I can count on one hand how many times I've watched each. The last time was more than a decade ago. Before I watched them recently, if you'd have asked...

TET.Life (The Extraordinary Tourist Life)

Search This Blog