Batman: The Long Halloween, Part Two - Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

Batman: The Long Halloween, Part Two

Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:


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Movie
As a short summary, The Long Halloween was taken from a 13 part graphic novel story that is pretty much the spiritual successor to Batman: Year One, taking place in the early years of Batman’s career as a vigilante. Part one covered the Holiday killings, where a mysterious hitman is taking out gangsters in the city, taking place on different holidays. As the killings continue, Batman (Jensen Ackles) is more and more suspicious that it’s not your normal criminal killing off other criminals. He’s gone through his small (at the moment) rogue’s gallery one by one eliminating them from the pool of potentials. However, there is one man left that fits the bill, but he doesn’t know if he wants to believe it.

Spoilers ahead. If you haven’t read many Batman comics, or if you don’t know the story of the original graphic novel you can skip ahead, but most anyone who’s seen Batman over the years KNOWS where this is going.

Well, The film picks up after nearly a year of holiday killings, and the mysterious murderer strikes again. This time taking out Carmine Falcone’s rival, Marone, starting what seems to be a chain of events that will unravel the Falcone legacy. Falcone’s son in law (who happens to be Marone’s son) agrees to turn state’s evidence with Harvey Dent (Josh Duhamel), but poor Harvey is in for a rude shock when he finds out that it’s all a ruse for Falcone to try and kill the district attorney.

However, things take an odd turn (or a very obvious turn) when Harvey starts hearing voices in his head. Voices that we all know is the precurser for him turning into one of the biggest villains in Batman’s gallery or rogues. Simultaneously Bats is still trying to figure out if the Holiday killer really is Harvey/Two Face, and every question leads him down a road that may not lead where he expects it to (or the audience).

The film starts out with a really odd note for those of you who didn’t read the graphic novels or watch the post credits sequence in The Long Halloween: Part One. But if you either read the graphic novel or go back and watch the post credits scene it sets the stage for what is about to happen with Falcone hiring super freak villains to take down Dent. The story itself is much more tightly focused than part one, mostly because part one was simply setting everything up. This is the big finale where we find out what happened to all of the clues that were left behind. Part of the movie tries a VERY obvious ploy to get us to look one way (it’s pretty obvious from the beginning that Harvey was the red herring), only to pull the rug out from under us at the very end.

The movie takes a lot of elements from Batman lore, including the combination agreement between Harvey Dent, Gordon and Batman that we all got to see in The Dark Knight, then crafts it into a murder mystery that sets up Dent to become his infamous self, all the while intertwining another subtle mystery that is hidden in the main one. A good story that plays out well, even if it’s never “perfect”.




Rating:

Rated R for some violence, and bloody images




Video:

If you’ve seen my review of Part One, then you know exactly what to expect, and it’s not surprising why either. They were both basically created at the same time, and both encoded at the same time onto single layer discs with low bitrate (15 or less most of the time) and have the same visual art style. Yeah, it’s ok and does the job, but the encodes are not that great either. Banding and crushed blacks abound, with blocking and a few haloing issues around faces (although one of them could have been intentional as a “glow” from a light source in the room). The artwork itself is clean, but rather simplistic by design to match the comic book. Clarity is generally good, but dark shots are a bit noisy and the obnoxious banding gets in the way. Colors are muted in general for the release, with only splashes of red for Miss Falcone’s dress, or green of a grassy yard popping through the grim visual tone. Good enough, but not anything to gush over.







Audio:

I'm copying a little bit from the Part One review simply because the two tracks are SOOOOOOOO similar due to being created and mixed at the same time. The 5.1 DTS-HD MA track is another experience. It’s brash, loud, and well detailed throughout the 85 minute film, much like previous DCAU films. The film tends to be more low key than others though, acting as a mystery and not as a non stop action film. The action scenes with Two-Face and Grundy are loud and powerful with some nice bass, otherwise the LFE response is rather soft for the film.. Dialog is always crisp and cleanly located in the center of the room and surrounds filled with lots of chaos. Like many of the DCAU films it’s not STUNNING, but it is quite an impressive track that should please just about everyone.









Extras:

• DC Showcase – Blue Beetle (New Animated Short) – Sufferin' Scarabs! Silver Age Blue Beetle is back! And, had he ever starred in a 1960s Saturday-morning limited-animation cartoon with its own jazzy earworm of a theme song, it would have been just like this! Welcome to the adventures of Ted Kord, alias the Blue Beetle, as he teams up with fellow Super Heroes Captain Atom, The Question and Nightshade to battle that nefarious finagler of feelings, Doctor Spectro.
• A Sneak Peek at the next DC Animated Movie – An advanced look at Injustice.
• DC Universe Movies Flashback
-- Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Part 2
-- Batman: Hush
• From the DC Vault
-- Batman: The Animated Series – "Two-Face, Part 1"
-- Batman: The Animated Series – "Two-Face, Part 2"

Final Score: ​

I enjoyed The Long Halloween: Part One quite a bit a few months back It was a nice slow paced mystery that hearkened back to Batman as a detective more than just a vigilante. However part two manages to blast that one out of the water and become an even BETTER sequel. Mostly which I ascribe to the fact that it’s payoff for which the first part was merely the setup. Two parters like this usually suffer from that dichotomy. Anyways, the Blu-ray is fairly well done, but never perfect, but the story is well worth checking out as it’s great dramatic crime thriller of a Batman story with solid acting all the way around. Definitely recommended.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Jensen Ackles, Josh Duhamel, Naya Rivera, Troy Baker, Billy Burke, Alastair Duncan
Directed by: Chris Palmer
Written by: Jeph Loeb (Graphic Novel), Tim Sheridan (screenplay)
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 AVC
Audio: English: DTS-HD MA 5.1, French Spanish, German DD 5.1
Subtitles: English SDH, French, German, Spanish, Dutch
Studio: Warner Brothers
Rated: R
Runtime: 88 minutes
Blu-Ray Release Date: August 10th, 2021

Recommendation: Fun Watch

 

[tripplej]

Thanks for the review. I do enjoy the animated Batman movies so will check this out as well as the first part.