The second installment continues the mystery of the Holiday killer, and features quite a few villains from the comics. A rated-R Batman animated film doesn't come around all that often, and they take great advantage of their freedoms.
Disclaimer: Warner Bros. Home Entertainment provided us with a free copy of this Blu-ray/DVD that we reviewed in this blog post. The opinions we share are our own.
“Will this holiday ever end? The reign of terror wrought by the Holiday killer continues in Gotham City. With each calculated crime, the stakes rise as tensions boil over between the Falcone and Maroni crime families. As Batman, James Gordon and Harvey Dent race to solve the deadly puzzle, a breach at Arkham Asylum brings villainous players Poison Ivy, Scarecrow and Mad Hatter into the game. Based on the critically acclaimed graphic novel, Batman: The Long Halloween Part Two concludes this gripping chapter in the Dark Knight’s saga.”
The second part of the Long Halloween saga continues to engage the audience with the mystery of the identity of the Holiday killer. As Batman and James Gordon continue to subvert the activities of rival crime families, Harvey Dent is slowly spiraling out of control, with continued threats on his life, and pubic accusations that he himself is the Holiday killer. While Part One focused heavily on story elements and the mystery involved, this one begins to present some action, featuring some of the comics most identifiable villains that come together to wreak havoc on Gotham City.
What Batman: The Long Halloween Part Two does best is to give fans of the graphic novel a good story. While we didn’t have as much action sequences in the first, the mystery of the identity of the Holiday killer is what took precedent, and honestly still does, wrapped around the Falcone family and everyone’s sordid past. One of the most interesting things this animated version of the story does is to seek to correct a plot hole from the graphic novel in terms of the identity of the Holiday killer. Not having read the graphic novel myself and looking up the ending of the story, what they’ve done is somewhat minor in terms of the change in order to side-step a would-be plot hole, but they’ve also removed one of the twist endings of the graphic novel story which made things rather confusing in my opinion. Without giving anything away, it seems to be a logical change that only helps the conclusion of the story. It’s also great to see a rated R animated film, Batman no less. It’s a trend that is setting themselves apart from the MCU, which is exactly the direction I think they need to go.
While the majority of the story follows a somewhat straightforward path as the holidays come and go, with some interesting exploration of Bruce Wayne’s past, a lot of the crime syndicate storyline is still a bit muddled and confusing. The problem with the story as a whole is that there are so many side-stories that it’s hard to keep things straight at times. We’ll randomly focus on Harvey Dent, Selena Kyle, James Gordon and his family, some of the villains, the crime families, etc. in no real logical structure. The story doesn’t feel like it’s building to something, just that it’s two films worth of exhibition before the ending. I’ve had such a good time with the previous DC Animated films, I really wanted to enjoy this series because it had such an interesting premise, but for me, there was something major missing that connected the pieces together. One of the big twists at the end is information the audience had no way of knowing either, what seemed to me like a very poor way to surprise readers.
If you’re a fan of the graphic novels, I’ve no doubt the story is more comprehendible than if you’re trying to navigate all the myriads of back stories and side stories for the first time, which does make an appealing case for a second viewing. If you enjoyed Part One, you’ll of course enjoy the finale of Part Two and everything leading up to its climactic ending.
Video
Batman: The Long Halloween Part Two is presented in 1080p High-Definition Widescreen 1.78:1. The animation is excellent, and colors coming through very bright and vivid. The dark lines of the animation are well-defined. The film of course takes place in the dark for the majority, and the deep blacks look great on this Blu-ray disc, especially contrasted with some of the brilliantly bright colors in certain sequences.
Audio
The audio is presented in DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1. Although the animation is impressive in its own right, the audio is where this really shines. Sound effects especially sound incredible, bouncing from speaker to speaker, immersing you entirely in the action. With the increased action in Part Two, especially during one of the final moments, you’ll get a wide range of great effects from various villains.
Special Features
Some interesting stuff on this set, including much more content to go through. This includes:
- DC Showcase Short: Blue Beetle – Sufferin’ Scarabs! Silver Age Blue Beetle is back! And if he’d 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! Thrill to the adventures of Ted Kord, alias the Blue Beetle, as he teams up with fellow 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, Injustice
- From the DC Vault: 2 Bonus Cartoons
For me, there are much better animated Batman films out there, but fans of the original graphic novel will certainly enjoy seeing this come to life for the first time. Props to DC for tweaking the ending as well, which solves a few issues, and may delight fans alike. Part One available now, and Part Two tomorrow!
