Ranking Every DC Original Animated Movie Worst To Best
3. Batman: Year One (2011)
The love and care taken with this adaptation is awe striking; it's truly Miller's iconic origin story come to life from the grimy 70's look, to the perfectly Film Noir voice-over. The comic was always closer to The French Connection then Tim Burton, and its aesthetics are brought forward flawlessly.
Seeing things played out in feature format will blatantly echo how much Batman Begins owes to this gripping tale of a city boiling over with corruption, and in desperate need of a hero. That said Christopher Nolan did capture Bruce Wayne's climb up the ladder from zero to hero quite faithfully but the one aspect lacking from said film was Gordon's segment.
Wonderfully voiced here by Bryan Cranston, Gordon makes for a fascinatingly layered character and is the beating heart of our story, the scene where he takes on his corrupt partner in a bare knuckle confrontation is Miller's writing at its best, and the scene is replicated pitch perfectly.
If there is a weak link, it's Ben Mckenzie's Wayne/Batman. It's understandable they wanted a younger, less refined voice, but he just doesn't bring it like the rest of the cast - were Kevin Conroy or Jason O'Mara busy or something? Still, he doesn't sour the soup completely, you're just left wishing they had gotten someone more commanding.