Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Part 2
an aggressively mediocre and uninspired adaptation of a story that was so insanely unique it completely transformed the entire superhero genre.
visually flat and uninteresting. the boondocks with initial d 3d car graphics. most egregiously, the color has been sucked dry like a vampire with a bendy straw.
every satirical edge has been carefully sanded off, leaving the viewer wondering why wb would even bother adapting a story foundationally based on its lampooning of <PERSON>-era politics (besides a fat paycheck). 952
this refusal to deal with any thorny topics leads to the biggest issue- these films don't acknowledge that <PERSON> is fucking crazy. without <PERSON>'s neurotic inner monologues essentially all of his unhinged interpretation of <PERSON> is lost. it's super odd to watch music cues and script/cinematography choices frame positively the explicitly selfish and self-destructive violence of a man who has gone off the deep end into his own imaginary theological battle of good and evil. then again, nowadays can we even be sure that <PERSON> was cognisantly writing the story that way and didn't just think his weirdo liberterian nightmare was kinda awesome? 698