Introduction: Adaptations

In essence, literary adaptation is whereby one literary genre such as a novel is adapted in another literary genre or form such as a film or a play. In some cases, poems or books may be adapted into video games. In some instances, adaptation may be done across the same genre, whereby the key reach is to serve a wide audience and people from different demographic groups such as whereby novels get adapted into storybook versions for children. Adapting across a similar genre is done to serve a wide array of purposes. However, when editing the original work, ethical requirements require approval from the original owner. The process of adapting work from one literary genre to another is a difficult task since it requires that the form that the work is being adapted to functions in all dimensions of the original work such as characters, dialogue, and concept. Achieving all the dimensions of the original story is tough and development may be lost as well as originality (Carmel, 9).

Apparently, adapted works are lucrative to most producers as well to the stage. This is because the original work being adapted enjoys an already existing huge following. Adaptations appeal to an even larger number of people since the title and characters may be an existing franchise. In recent times, the film industry has been known for adapting popular novels into film and television series or animated cartoons.

The process of transferring a written novel wholly into a feature film is referred to as film adaptation. The work in the film is entirely derivative since the storyline is based on an existing written piece of literature: so are the major themes and characters. In most cases, the common adaptation form is where films adapt stories from existing novels. The feature films are based on events as they unfolded in the novel, with part of the dialogues and characters borrowed from the novel in the same manner. The aim of adapting a novel into a film is either to tap the existing fan base and commercial market or to boost the novelty of a particular author in instances where the author's work did not gain much prominence during its time as it would in a film.

As expected, some things may be left out, and others may be added in adaptation to a different genre, which raises arguments on development as people argue that what they see in the movie is not what happened in the novel. Adaptations arouse more than mere feelings of loyalty between the novel and the film. Therefore, it is important to critically analyze adaptation on more than just the screening of the film and understand adaptation. The inevitable discussions are on matters such as what the novel achieved that the movie could not achieve and vice versa. Critics tend to understand the deeper relationship between films and novels since films use verbal and visual means, which the novels cannot achieve in writing. It is essential to view adaptations in the film as different kinds of art on their own without likening them to the written novels (Cartmel, 28).

In this essay, a comparison will be made between a comic story of Batman and the film in which the story in the novel was adapted. Batman has been used as a character in DC comics by Miller and has been adapted in film. The main points of comparison are between Frank Miller 's DC comic stories on Batman and Christopher Nolan's adaptation of the same in film especially on 'The Dark Knight Returns'. The points of comparison will be on character development and the story development in the film as linked to the original comic books.

Discussion: Adaptation of 'The Dark Knight Returns'

In the current trilogy, Christian Bale plays the role of Batman in a film directed by Christopher Nolan. Nolan has played a critical part in the adaptation done in these films, with popular movies being such as 'The Dark Knight Returns', which is an adaptation of a comic novel of the same title written by Frank Miller. Batman has starred as a fictional character in many comic publications, and has been subject to various adaptations in film (Miller et al. 27). Previous adaptations of the character have been in films such as 'Batman' and 'Batman and Robin'. Warner Bros Company even tried to adapt the same to a television series in the 80s. in these two films, the reception from the audience was too poor, and works that had been scheduled for release on the same character had to be canceled.

However, Warner Bros were relentless and commissioned yet another project they titled 'Batman Versus Superman', which was followed with a decision to reboot the Batman film franchise that kicked off with the Film 'Batman Begins' directed by Nolan with Bale playing the lead role. Nolan went on to direct other two films in what would be a trilogy with 'The Dark Knight' corning in 2008 and 'The Dark Knight Rises' in 2012, whereby Christian Bale starred in both films. The two later films were a huge success earning more than a billion dollars worldwide, which made the trilogy the second most successful corning behind 'Pirates of the Caribbean'. Nolan did not stop at these two, as he is set to bring another adaptation of the comic in a movie in 2016 which will be titled 'Batman versus Superman: The Dawn of Justice'. This is said to set the stage for yet another flick in 2017.

Frank Miller wrote a miniseries of four books in 1986, where batman was the star and published by the renowned DC comics. The title was applied first in the film adaptation following the recollection of the story in the miniseries. The story is about a man named Bruce Wayne, who is a fifty five year old that comes home after retirement and takes part in fighting crime on his own, amid intense opposition from the government as well as the police of the city of Gotham. On the other hand, 'Batman: The Knight Returns' is an animation that is set in two parts on the Batman character as written in the book of the same title by Frank Miller, which was a sequel. Both parts of the film were released in 2013 (Miller, 38).

The audience received the first part of the film positively, claiming that the animations were excellent, with good voice performances too. However, the segments found in the newscast did not translate well on the screen, a factor that saw them lose touch on the thematic punch that they had in the former comic. This lack of a thematic punch made the movie look lie it was on its very extraneous best. Criticism is equivalently drawn from Batman's monolog and the poor quality apparently seen in the DVD extras. The second part received higher ratings and more appreciation since the joker personality in Michael Emerson was portrayed, with Blu-Ray enhancing the quality of the movie extras. Movie pundits have termed these two flicks as the best Batman flicks to exist. In fact, the flicks seem to show the Miller comic in greater vision and light than he did in his comics. However, the joker personality in Batman is highly criticized as it was portrayed in a greater sense (Brooker, 69).

However, with Nolan introducing the bad guys in the film in a hyper-realistic manner, there were negative reactions from factions of the audience. A muscled Bane holding the city under siege as well as at ransom is a far better deal than having a joker bombing the entire city. However, establishing a tone of the real world into the Nolan production, one would question the moral and sense behind sending the entire police force all at once to the sewer. Also, it is questionable how Wayne breaks his back when he hangs from a rope. Another question raised was on how Wayne was able to make it back into Gotham with no money at all following its shut down as well as the reasoning behind Wayne wasting time painting a bridge at a moment when the city was under attack by terrorists.

In the film, Batman has futuristic gadgets with super-powered people that would not belong in a real world unless in a science fiction movie (Miller et al. 60). So far, Nolan has done an incredibly good job in adapting the film trilogy based on the comic hero Batman. However,  his production has left the company, Warner Bros, in a position where more is demanded of them in matters of creativity in production in the upcoming Batman flicks. They need to deal with questions on the breaking of Wayne's back as it also will enhance handling the arrival of aliens with super powers. Also, they need another reboot on Batman to have him act within the confines of the justice universe, although fans already acknowledge what exists. Hence, caution is needed in stepping into that kind of ground (Brooker, 120).

In a way, Nolan may have missed important points made by Miller, which made the comics very popular. In the Miller comics, Batman ought to have been a psychopath: someone that would have been impossible to have a friendship with in normal instances. However, Nolan makes the character seem noble, and with pure intentions of saving the city of Gotham. The version of Batman created by Miller was obsessed with the fight against crime to a great extent such that it would have easily seemed like myopia. The version created by Nolan is one that shows how framed, and unjust arresting Batman was. As for Miller, he showed in his comics that Batman had indeed committed crimes and was to be held responsible as much as his crimes had in their own brought some amount of justice to Gotham.

Conclusion

Concisely, the development of plot and characters has a difference in these two versions of Batman (in comics and in a film adaptation). Miller seems to exercise courage in his convictions, but Nolan is torn between having Batman as a vigilante, a friend of the children, and a good cop. As much as Nolan paints a picture of Batman that is appealing to every demographic, it is apparent that he fell short of the comics by Miller. Nolan did an excellent job in capturing Batman’s character in a manner that was more appealing although Miller still holds low regard of the adaptations.