This “Deluxe Edition” of Batman: The Long Halloween might not have a whole lot in terms of bonus features but putting together the two parts does make for a lengthy but entertaining film that might not be as good as The Dark Knight Returns but it’s still a solid on its own.
Batman: The Long Halloween
— Deluxe Edition —
(2022)
Genre(s): Drama, Crime
Warner Bros. | R – 168 min. – $54.99 | September 20, 2022
Date Published: 09/27/2022 | Author: The Movieman
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Warner Bros. Home Entertainment provided me with a free copy of the Blu-ray I reviewed in this Blog Post.
The opinions I share are my own.
Note: The screen captures were taken from the included Blu-ray disc.
THE MOVIE — 3½/5 |
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Plot Synopsis: Held hostage by two warring crime families, Gotham City is rife with crime and corruption. Adding to the chaos is the mysterious Holiday killer, who has been targeting the underworld and leaving a trail of terror… and body bags. As Batman (JENSEN ACKLES), James Gordon (BILLY BURKE) and Harvey Dent (JOSH DUHAMEL) race to solve a deadly puzzle with ever-increasing stakes, a breach at Arkham Asylum draws Poison Ivy (KATEE SACKHOFF), Scarecrow (ROBIN ATKINS DOWNES) and Mad Hatter (JOHN DIMAGGIO) into the game.
Quick Hit Review: Batman: The Long Halloween is an adaptation of the popular graphic novel which I’m also a fan of so I went into this, when Warner released as a two-parter, I had some high hopes. While I do think this was a solid animated feature, I didn’t think it verged on greatness especially compared with 2013’s Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, though it was way better than Batman: The Killing Joke and even Batman: Hush. The plot on this follows the graphic novel fairly closely with a few changes, unlike Batman: Hush which turned Hush’s identity on its head, and not for the better. The voice casting was alright with Jensen Ackles doing okay as Batman/Bruce Wayne and Josh Duhamel voicing Harvey Dent (and later Two-Face) was a decent choice for that part while the late Naya Rivera, who died in a drowning accident, had a few good scenes opposite Batman as Catwoman.
The animated line from DC hasn’t exactly hit home runs in my book of late however I did appreciate some aspects of The Long Halloween, not just some fine voice work and good looking animation, but the film noir score was also well done and set the perfect tone from the opening credits. As it is, this was an okay movie worth at least one viewing. |
SPECIAL FEATURES – 2/5 |
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This two-disc release comes housed in a standard HD keep case and comes with a slip cover. Inside is a redemption code for the Digital HD copy. The only feature is Batman: The Long Halloween – Evolution of Evil (24:56) featurette, along with 4 Bonus Cartoons. |
4K VIDEO – 4½/5, BLU-RAY VIDEO – 4½/5 |
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Warner Bros. releases Batman: The Long Halloween onto 4K Ultra HD and Blu-ray, presented in the original 1.78 widescreen aspect ratio and 2160p and 1080p transfers, respectively. The picture here on the 4K disc looks good with well defined detail and colors appearing nicely balanced and there were no signs of banding, artifacts or other flaws that tend to show up on animated films. The Blu-ray meanwhile also looks nice and I really didn’t notice a significant difference, perhaps the 4K getting a slight boost with the HDR10. |
AUDIO – 4¼/5 |
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Both the 4K Ultra HD and Blu-ray discs come equipped with a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track. I generally find these lossless tracks for animated features not packing much of a punch however dialogue does come across the center channel with good clarity throughout and there is some respectable depth for the various action sequences. |
OVERALL — 3½/5 |
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This “Deluxe Edition” of Batman: The Long Halloween might not have a whole lot in terms of bonus features but putting together the two parts does make for a lengthy but entertaining film that might not be as good as The Dark Knight Returns but it’s still a solid on its own. |