For those who miss the original RoboCop

Ah, Robocop. When most people think of RoboCop, they think of the over-the-top violence. When talking about what RoboCop’s violence meant for the action genre, Edward Neumeier, one of the film’s writers, said it was a commentary on “how ludicrous the genre was becoming”.

Ironically, RoboCop’s abundance of action causes most people to only look at it on a surface level and see only an action film amongst a sea of other action films. It has that in common for what I’m about to recommend to you: ‘The Dark Knight Returns’. You see, I could’ve chosen something award-winning and mainstream for this competition in order to appeal to judges, but it’s a better service to the community if I draw your attention to something niche that you didn’t even know existed. Besides, The Dark Knight Returns isn’t just a film experience for RoboCop fans; it’s THE film experience for RoboCop fans.

The Dark Knight Returns is a 2012-2013 two-movie, animated adaptation of the 1986 four part Batman comic book series of the same name by Frank Miller, with each movie simply being subtitled ‘part one’ and ‘part two’. This comic series is often lauded for being one of the best comic works of all time; I can’t stress enough how influential The Dark Knight Returns was for Batman. It’s nigh unquestionable that ‘The Dark Knight Rises’, ‘Batman vs Superman’, and ‘Joker’ wouldn’t be anywhere near the same movies without the ideas from the comic. I realize some of those films were poorly received, but that’s what happens when people try to copy and paste elements from one story into another.

The Dark Knight Returns films, on the other hand, aren’t panel for panel, but most of the key moments are the same. They even added some stuff in, and it actually improves upon the source material. Sadly, The Dark Knight Returns is part of a wide number of the DC Universe Animated Original Movies, with all of them being straight-to-DVD releases, causing these films to go larger unnoticed compared to the Hollywood DC films. There are actually dozens of these DC animated films, and while they have a pretty big following for straight-to-DVD releases, it’s understandable as to how The Dark Knight Returns went relatively unnoticed to a mainstream audience given the sheer volume of DC animated films, with many of them being superhero movies oriented around action rather than plot.

Frank Miller, the author of The Dark Knight Returns, would actually become be a head writer for RoboCop 2 and RoboCop 3, the less well-received entries in the series; as expected when you put a number on the end of a title. This could be attributed to Miller largely being ignored by the developers, Orion Pictures, who were much more restrictive of the story now that the RoboCop brand was a money maker. Still, if you think there’s some gems in the sequel RoboCop films, that’s probably Frank Miller you’re seeing. For example, RoboCop 2 was intelligent enough to explicitly predict Detroit’s bankruptcy 23 years before it would actually happen in 2013. You know, just the biggest urban bankruptcy in the history of the U.S, no big deal.

Remember how I said that RoboCop was more than just an action film? That’s because if anything, it’s a dark satire. It presents the audience with a cynical glimpse of our world in the future, where it’s run by blatantly insincere corporations, and even the children have become desensitized to violence and tragedy.

RoboCop is a product of its time, being released in 1987, and is seen by many to be a direct critique of 1981-1988 US President Ronald Reagan’s policies, namely ‘Reaganomics’ and the gung-ho attitude regarding military matters at the time. To the majority of people, the satire is supposed to provoke anger or disgust at the real-world implications, but on the other hand, RoboCop is like a sick love letter to everything and everyone the film mocks. It sits there presenting an absurd world with a sarcastic smile on its face and says: “This is what you’re turning our future into. Satisfied?”

If you’re struggling to make the mental connection between the R-rated RoboCop and Batman, here’s part of an interview with Frank Miller than sums up everything you need to know: “[Batman] was created in 1938, and the character was just ruthless in his methods, terrifying to criminals. Over the years, that got softened and softened, because people started thinking that comics had to be just for kids…and Batman had to be made much nicer. And eventually, no kid could relate to him anymore.” Don’t get the wrong idea; this Batman isn’t a gunslinger. There’s even a nice little detail where Batman needs to fire at a small plastic explosive to set it off, but misses a few times because he’s clearly never used a handgun before. Batman also retains his infamous ‘no killing’ rule because he believes criminals deserve a trial.

So, do you need to be a Batman fan to appreciate this movie? Not really; but there’s a few things you’ll want to know if you want to fully understand things on your first viewing: at the start of the movie, Batman visits where his parents were killed in front of him on their way home, causing the place to become known as Crime Alley. The Justice League, the team of DC superheroes working together, used to exist. The main member you’ll recognize is Superman, an alien that but looks human with multiple powers, whose only weakness is Kryptonite. Green Arrow, otherwise known as Oliver Queen, was a part of the Justice League, even though like Batman, he’s got no powers.

Two-Face, real name Harvey Dent, makes an appearance in The Dark Knight Returns. His origin story is that after one side of his face becomes horrifically disfigured, his sense of justice becomes perverted, and he turns to his own personal brand of crime. He’s got a weird obsession about duality which causes him to be obsessed with the number two; his main gimmick is a coin that he scratches one side off of, and flips it to determine what he should do next, believing that random chance is the only thing that’s truly fair. The only other villain you need to know about is Scarecrow, one of Batman’s old enemies, who used to use a weaponized gas to induce hallucinations that would horrify the people who inhaled it.

Dick Greyson was the first of Batman’s ‘Robins’, but he went off and became the solo vigilante ‘Nightwing’, presumably hanging up the cape the same time the rest of the Justice League did. Jason Todd is the second of Batman’s ‘Robins’, and was killed by the Joker, with the event partially being responsible for Batman retiring. The Dark Knight Returns is set ten years after the retirement of Batman, so with respect to the characters that most people would be familiar with, it has the tone of a futuristic setting, although it doesn’t quite have the vibe of a dystopian future in the same way RoboCop does. For instance, there are actual scenes depicting Ronald Reagan in The Dark Knight Returns.

The Dark Knight Returns has some of the same absurdist satire that you’d see in RoboCop, with Ronald Reagan being even more blatantly insincere than the newscasters in RoboCop who report on wars and crime whilst being in no way emotionally affected by it. Here’s an example of the satire in the Dark Knight Returns; the news interviews an upper class pedestrian about the Batman’s crime fighting methods in Gotham city and this is what he says: “It makes me sick to see such a violation of people’s rights. We have to strive to reintegrate the disenfranchised into society…not revel in their punishment. We have to show patience…Excuse me? No, I’d never live in the city.” It's meant to be an example of the hypocrisy seen when the upper class criticize how the rest of the world is run, all the while without becoming directly involved themselves or having to live in the lower class neighborhoods.

Another example of this commentary on classism are these two back-to-back news interviews of people on the streets; one says: “[Batman] is a monster, striking at the foundations of our democracy. Where are the principles that make this the noblest country in the world?” The other says “Frankly, I’m surprised there aren’t a thousand more like [Batman]. People are sick and tired of being afraid. He’s taking back what’s ours.”

The Dark Knight Returns has a lot of the same features as RoboCop; the films are intercut with brief news and talk show segments that give you some perspective on the world and how it’s changing. Unlike RoboCop, though, the majority of people on the television aren’t insincere like the newscasters or the deliberately tone-deaf ‘Nukem’ commercial. The Dark Knight Returns is more a commentary on government, classism, and authority, with less overall emphasis on corporations and commercialism. For example, when Batman learns that a military general sold a bunch of high-end weapons to a gang, Batman confronts him, only to find out that even after the general gave years of service to his country, the army still wouldn’t pay for his wife’s life-saving medical operation.

The everyday people in The Dark Knight Returns are a lot more grounded in reality compared to RoboCop, since the purpose of the TV segments doesn’t revolve around corporations running the media while faking being sympathetic. The absurdist satire in The Dark Knight Returns mainly applies to the government; when Reagan is asked about Batman at a press conference, Reagan immediately deflects the responsibility of making a decision to the less important state representative, who then deflects it to Gotham’s mayor. By only really satirizing the government, The Dark Knight Returns makes it feel like its world is filled with ordinary people living in the absurd government’s world, whilst in RoboCop, the world has become saturated with absurdity in almost every aspect, almost as if all has already has been lost; even the hero is part of the satire. In this way, RoboCop feels like a question: “Is this really what we want for our future? Can't we do any better?” The Dark Knight Returns, on the other hand, feels like an attempt to answer the question.

Like RoboCop, The Dark Knight Returns also commentates on how desensitized the world has become to violence because of its overexposure to it. For example, when Batman is speaking to the police commissioner about the gangs in Gotham, the commissioner says this: “…they’re not like the usual street crooks. A mugger, he’s after a wallet. It makes sense. These kids; it’s just random violence. There’s no humanity in them at all”. Batman and RoboCop are both brutal at times, but it’s a statement on how violent the world has become that such brutality is necessary, although RoboCop is more a statement on the gung-ho attitude of the government.

Batman himself is brutal as a means of getting through to criminals by instilling fear. Since he’s a vigilante, the law has no hold over him, so it’s also a statement on authority. There’s a point in the film where a criminal’s lawyer attempts to get his client out of jail due to there being no evidence that would stand up in a court, despite him shooting at an officer the day before, which the commissioner immediately approves. The lawyer instantly doubles back on his words because he knows that if his client doesn’t get police protection, then there’s nothing to stop Batman from paying the criminal a visit. Since Batman is outside the authority of the law, it’s literally safer inside prison than to be out in Gotham city with Batman on the loose.

You might think this has some fascistic implications, but according to author Frank Miller, Batman’s role in the plot is a sort of wish fulfillment. Batman is supposed to be an authority free from corruption and error; the antithesis to the government that’s opposed in The Dark Knight Returns. To quote Miller: “I think that in order for the character to work, he has to be a force that is beyond good and evil. It can’t be judged by the terms we would use to describe something a man would do because we can’t think of him as a man…As far as being fascist, my feeling is…only if he assumed office. If there were a bunch of these guys running around and beating up criminals, we’d have a serious problem.”

RoboCop is also meant to be this same sort of wish fulfillment; the film’s creator’s intentionally referred to him as an ‘American Jesus’, with the mysticism being replaced by technology. This is represented by RoboCop being reborn from his human origins, with him even walking across water later in the film.

An example of how all these social commentaries tie together to make The Dark Knight Returns is the riot arc. A nuclear missile from Soviet Russia is intercepted near Gotham City, resulting in a literal (albeit unrealistic) nuclear winter due to the incompetence of the government when it comes to keeping international peace. However, the nuclear missile is a fictional weapon called a ‘Coldbringer’, which doubles as an EMP that wipes out power across most of the country. This causes a flying plane to lose control and crash into Gotham, starting massive fires. The electronic locks on the cells in the police station are deactivated, and the gang members that Batman had put away break free. At the same time, the everyday citizens start looting in a panic. A vigilante group inspired by Batman, calling themselves the Sons of Batman, decide to try to take charge with force, with many of them having guns. Batman commandeers them before they begin, criticizing their use of weapons: “These are loud and clumsy. These are the weapons of cowards.”

In the middle of a burning Gotham, the crowd of looters runs into the crowd of now free gang members, and in their fear, the two begin to clash. However, Batman and the Sons of Batman break up the violence on horseback in a battlefield without electricity. Batman addresses both sides: “I know you’ve had your differences in the past. Some of you will even argue that you can’t work together. That’s fine; those people will stay tied up, and it will not be a function of which group you are in. The rest of you can lend a hand to keep our city from falling apart.”

One of the uptight, upper class looters that Batman had injured as part of breaking up the fight refuses to get up and help, bitterly saying “I’m suing”, to which one of the Sons of Batman responds “Good luck with that.” With no public or corporate identity, Batman has no accountability; he’s free of the corruption that the police might encounter if they were the ones to exercise such force.

With much of the country falling victim to rioting and looting due to the EMP, Gotham becomes the safest city in the country thanks to Batman, causing him to become an enemy of the government, due to the humiliation of the government being more incompetent than the actions of a single man. Even the police force eventually turns on Batman, much like the corrupt police force turns on RoboCop.

Both RoboCop and The Dark Knight Returns draw inspiration from what was popular in the 1980’s. For example, Batman uses Judge Dredd’s catchphrase “I am the law” in the film, and early models for RoboCop show him having a helmet very similar to Judge Dredd’s. The original RoboCop, which came out a year after comics for The Dark Knight Returns, actually has a scene that’s taken from the comic, albeit with some tweaks. In the hostage scene in RoboCop, the titular character’s arms punch through the wall one at a time to grab the gunman and pull him through the wall. In the comic, there’s also a hostage situation, but the manoeuver is all done in one quick motion with little detail, and Batman just stands in the hole he breaks in the wall while holding the criminal. Still, the film adaptation fleshes out the maneuver, with Batman’s arms busting through the wall one at a time, just like in RoboCop.

The Dark Knight Returns soundtrack is also full of the recognizable synthwave elements that were popular in the 1980’s, with a soundtrack by long-time DC composer Christopher Drake that puts Hollywood’s best to shame. Batman’s inner monologues that were in the comics aren’t present in the films, but the soundtrack is emotive to the point that it doesn’t even matter. It’s one of the reasons I find The Dark Knight Returns to be more re-watchable than RoboCop, the other being that the schadenfreude in The Dark Knight Returns is that much sweeter. Batman is a classic when it comes to the vigilante hero genre; being a one-man army single-handedly acting as the long arm of the law has become one of film’s ultimate power fantasies.

The schadenfreude is greater because you get a glimpse of how Batman’s retirement has affected him for ten long years; he’s so pent up and angry from being unable to strike out against crime. In some sense, once he returns, he almost becomes possessed by the Batman persona, with him having to hold it back constantly during his retirement.

Both The Dark Knight Returns and RoboCop have the same ‘first night’ scenario, with Batman finally deciding to put an end to his retirement. In RoboCop, Murphy’s just been reborn, and takes off in his car with the iconic theme starting; you feel the power and the hateful will for vengeance against crime as the trumpets kick in. In The Dark Knight Returns, it’s different; it factors in the fear that Batman intends to strike in the hearts of criminals. You barely see him for the first two-and-a-half minutes. The music is quiet for the most part on the dark, stormy night, with the soundtrack encompassing all the seediness of the crime in the city. Then the main theme of the film kicks in, and it’s the exact same feeling as the trumpets in the main theme of RoboCop. Batman hasn’t been reborn like Murphy has, hasn’t gained any new technology, but it’s the sheer release of being back from retirement, of being able to right all the wrongs that he was never able to, that make this scene.

Despite the various arcs in the two The Dark Knight Returns films being interwoven, there’s interestingly no central antagonist in The Dark Knight Returns. Still, it’s what the villains represent for Batman that makes things interesting. There’s a fine line between having a villain you can appreciate the grittiness of, thus raising the stakes and making the schadenfreude at their comeuppance greater (like after Murphy’s ‘death’ in RoboCop), compared to having a villain that’s so uncomfortably gritty that you just want to stop watching. The Dark Knight Returns walks that line close to perfectly.

The detail of the 2D animation in The Dark Knight Returns isn’t quite as smooth as what you’d expect from, say, a Disney film, but there are intelligent tricks in the animation you won’t pick up on in your first viewing. For example, most of the characters are typical cartoons reminiscent of Western animation, but the backgrounds and effects often use much smoother lighting without being surrounded by typical black cartoon lines. Whenever there’s motion blur, or whenever a character moves in and out of the camera’s focus, the black cartoon lines disappear, giving the animation a more realistic, more 3D appearance.

I’d be lying if I said that The Dark Knight Returns wasn’t perfect for RoboCop fans because Peter Weller, the voice of RoboCop, voices Batman in these films. Even though Weller is iconic as RoboCop, the actor hasn’t had a leading role since, mostly appearing as secondary characters in TV series like ‘Dexter’ or ‘Sons of Anarchy’. You can tell that a lot of love was put into this movie’s voice actors, especially when you’ve got well-known talent such as Conan O’Brien, Tara Strong, and Yuri Lowenthal voicing one-off characters that usually aren’t on screen for more than a minute.

Peter Weller’s 25 years older in this than he is in the first RoboCop movie; his voice is a little drier than you might be used to, but it lends itself to the performance due to Batman’s age, while still retaining what makes it Peter Weller. To quote Weller himself: “There was no particular focal point that I was using to create the character, it was just a…a non-egalitarian…a non-democratic guy who’s used to having things his way and is subsequently cranky if he doesn’t get them that way.”

Even the action in this film is deceptively intelligent. There’s some segments that initially look like they’re there just to prolong the action, but once the movie’s over and you have a moment to think about it, you realize the subtle intelligence behind what happened. It’s the kind of movie that stays with you even after it’s over. After all, isn’t that the best kind of movie?