TV Review - Batman: The Long Halloween

Based on the 13-issue comic book series by Jeph Loeb, this adaptation has been divided into two parts. The adaptation, written by Tim Sheridan and directed by Chris Palmer, is pretty faithful. That may satisfy comic book fans. I'm not sure it serves this film's story overall. Reportedly, this comic book was the inspiration for Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy, specifically The Dark Knight (2008). It's also reported that this comic book series is the inspiration for the upcoming film The Batman (2022). It will be interesting to see how the 2022 film adapts the story, but the 2008 flick was a better rendering than this one. Palmer's adaptation though does have its strengths.

First off, this story feels very much like Batman: Mask of the Phantasm (1993), which came out before Loeb's comic book series in 1996. That 1993 film was the first animated Batman film to be released theatrically and one of only two to do so. It centered on a murder mystery involving a masked figure killing a bunch of gangsters and mobsters. Joker was involved and ultimately the masked figured turned out to be someone personally connected to Batman himself. Loeb's comic book and Palmer's adaptation are essentially the same thing. The only real difference is that the whole thing is structured around the gimmick of each of the murders occurring on a specific holiday in the year, which is ridiculous because it makes the murders easier to predict and ultimately easier to prevent.

Jensen Ackles (Supernatural and Smallville) stars as the voice of Bruce Wayne aka Batman. It's not exactly clear how early in his crime-fighting career he is, but he does talk about being somewhat new to the idea of being a detective, which might explain why he's not that good at it. The 1993 film also depicted Batman early in his career, but he was a lot better detective than he is here. 

The crazy thing is that there are a series of murders targeting one group of mobsters. The murders occur on every holiday for a year. The killer leaves behind evidence. The killer in fact leaves behind the murder weapon, a special gun that has a silencer on it in the form of a nipple for a baby bottle. Batman has not only the Gotham Police Department and a captain in that department helping him. Batman also has another so-called vigilante, if former criminal helping him too. Yet, it still takes over a year for Batman to solve this case.

Naya Rivera (Step Up: High Water and Glee) voices Selina Kyle aka Catwoman. She's the aforementioned, former criminal who is helping Batman on this case. She's obsessed with the mobsters for another reason, other than solving the case. Yet, she is invested. She's practically stalking the mobsters, much in the way that the killer is. Yet, she's unable to figure out, let alone catch this killer. It's a bit ridiculous too with her presence here and not really grasping at any of the clues.

In The Dark Knight, Nolan does a good job of making the Joker feel like a vital part of the narrative and the overall themes at play. Here, the presence of the Joker, as well as many of the other Rogue's Gallery feel extraneous and added to pad the runtime here. That felt especially true with the whole Poison Ivy stuff. Her part could have been cut. The Joker is at first just a red herring. Yet, the Joker's involvement later on could have been cut out too and not much would have been lost in terms of the main story here. In fact, much of "Part Two" felt extraneous or padding. The story depicts all of the holidays in the year from Valentine's Day to Halloween, and it got really repetitive and only underscored how inept Batman and the police were at solving this crime.

Josh Duhamel (Love, Simon and Transformers) voices Harvey Dent, the district attorney for Gotham City. He works with the police and Batman to take down the mobsters in this city. Batman also considers him a friend. As such, Harvey is a target of the mob who try to kill him. Harvey is dating a young woman who appears to have mental issues. She might be depressed for some reason. At first, it seems as if she's depressed because Harvey is so consumed with his work that he hardly has time to spend with her, but, as the story goes along, we realize there's something deeper and more traumatic at work.

If one is familiar with The Dark Knight, then one knows that Harvey becomes a villain known as Two-Face. The way that Harvey becomes Two-Face or the reason why he becomes Two-Face in The Dark Knight was more interesting to me than the way he does so here. The way he does so here is true to the comics, but it feels like a cop out. It's easy to say that the Joker is criminally insane, but when you make Harvey also insane or suffering from an extreme mental illness, it dilutes the overall theme, particularly when it comes to his idea of unfairness in the pursuit of justice.

Part One, Rated PG-13 for violence, bloody images, language and some smoking.
Running Time: 1 hr. and 25 mins.

Part Two, Rated R for some violence and bloody images.
Running Time: 1 hr. and 27 mins.

Available on HBO Max.