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| Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker (2000) |
Like I mentioned in the prelude, there are a couple of issues this movie needs to work around right off the bat. The first, like I said, is that as a direct-to-DVD movie it doesn't have as big a budget as the films I'm used to watching for this page, and thus it naturally won't look as pretty or be animated as cleanly as some of the bigger budget animations. And, yeah, it's a little noticeable at times. I don't hold this against the movie for what it is, but there are moments, mainly in the wide shots, where the level of detail completely drops, particularly in the characters' faces. It can stand out a little too much in moments, but there's one thing that almost completely nullifies all those quibbles for me: this movie is stylistic as hell. Good God, they managed to work around the budget and ended up making a pretty gorgeous-looking film. The use of shadow in particular is incredibly impressive, and that's not just in specific moments; it's all throughout the movie. The mainly muted colour scheme never got in the way; it only helped to add to the atmosphere of the whole thing. You can tell that a lot of care went into making this thing look as cool as it could, and it really paid off.
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| Kevin Conroy as Bruce Wayne |
The other issue this movie has to work around is the fact that it's springboarding off of a TV show that not everyone would have seen going into this, so they need to make sure they aren't alienating those audiences. It results in a couple of painful expositional scenes when discussing the backstories of certain characters, particularly Terry, but overall the film does a good job of letting you know what's going on in a way that flows with the story. That is, except for Terry himself. I mentioned the expositional dialogue towards Terry, and that's because the film doesn't do an amazing job of establishing his personality in the first half. He's basically presented as a younger Batman, but we don't learn all that much about Terry himself, at least, not enough for a main character. The movie gets around that by not making Terry the main focus. They tell a story that has a lot more to do with Bruce Wayne and the Joker, who are more recognisable characters for a general audience, which was a clever move. In that sense, it's not that important we learn a lot about Terry himself, and we do get enough that I like him well enough by the end, so there's that. He's also played by Will Friedle, who is one of my favourite comedic actors of all time, so that's a lot of points in Terry's favour.
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| Will Friedle as Batman |
Talking of the voice cast, they all do a great job here. This is actually my first time getting an extensive look at one of Kevin Conroy's animated Batman roles, and it's easy to see why this guy became the definitive Batman for so many people. He just brings this gravitas to every line, especially for this interpretation of Bruce Wayne. I can definitely buy that this version of Wayne is this brooding mentor figure, and his chemistry with Friedle is on point. Friedle, to his credit, proves himself as an excellent Batman of his own right. I like the character of Terry, as I said, he feels like a middle-ground between a regular Batman and Spider-Man, though obviously leaning more towards the Batman side of things. He gets the intimidating side of Batman down while also bringing in a youthful element, like we get with Spider-Man, that really works juxtaposing with this older, more cynical Bruce Wayne. A lot of these side characters are also really cool. Before the movie ended I thought for sure Dee Dee was an established comic villain they'd brought over for the movie; they're design and skillset just seemed too well thought out to be these minor villains made up specifically for this movie. But, nope. Original creations. That really impressed me, and just solidified the amount of care and thought that must have gone into making this.
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| Melissa Joan Hart as Dee Dee |
But, and we all knew this already, this is the Joker's movie. Not only is Mark Hamill predictably amazing in the role, but my God, they did not pull any punches. This Joker is legitimately creepy and menacing; I was horrified by a lot of what he was doing, to the point where a satellite laser honestly seemed like a bit of a weak end goal for his schemes. Look at the stuff he was doing earlier in the movie, especially with that tense and gripping flashback scene. That scene felt like the best part of the movie for me; it was the Joker at his most ruthless and Batman at his lowest low, and it really felt earned. I was on the edge of my seat throughout the entire thing, and they'd already basically told me how the scene was going to end before it started. It was depraved, it was despicable, it was truly evil; to go from that to your basic space laser did feel like a bit of a downgrade. Which isn't to say that the final fight wasn't great, it was, and I like how they integrated Terry and his unique character into it (that was actually the first time I really saw how unique he is as a character), but it just paled in comparison to the intensity of what had come before it.
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| Mark Hamill as the Joker |
Nitpicks aside, Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker (2000) was a great time, and a must-watch for Batman fans, though maybe not as an introduction to the Batman mythos. I have my gripes, sure, but at the end of the day, this movie did its job: I'm genuinely interested to watch the Batman Beyond show. Well played, movie. Well played. 9/10.
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