Good news! It didn't suck. In fact....it's right up there with The Dark Knight Returns and Superman Red Son for me. There is a lot to talk about without spoilers so I will attempt to keep this coherent. The first thing I gotta say is, the film had me on two fronts from the start. The first shot of the Gotham skyline is absolutely gorgeous and the opening titles are easily the best out of the modern animated DC movies. If Matt Reeve's The Batman has an opening even half as good as this, it may get a 10/10. I'm so thankful we didn't have to wait long for part 2, and was actually quite curious where they would split the film. I very much liked and appreciated how they handled this story, with a long game of holiday related murders leading Batman, Jim, and Harvey to figure out who the mysterious killer is as boundaries are pushed on all sides. It's a very complicated case man, a lot of in's, a lot of out's, a lot of what have you's. I actually went and read The Long Halloween before watching the whole film and there was so much in that book that I was wondering how they would put it to the screen, because the book is very much a detective story with not a lot of action, it's stylized as all hell with at least a dozen Sin City parts composed of black, white, and red but I can safely say I love the production. The animation is absolutely great, the backgrounds are impeccable and the character designs have these thick black outlines that give this mix of The Brave And The Bold with Venture Bros., I kinda like how minimalistic yet striking the batsuit is in this it gave me heavy season 4 of The Animated Series vibes. Cast is wonderful and brings nothing short of their A-game, with Jensen Ackles getting the promotion to Batman since Under The Red Hood and has such a strong great voice and as a Supernatural fan I was impressed how much I didn't just hear Dean in the role. Naya Rivera is right up there with the all time greats of Catwoman voice acting in this, she was a joy to watch and I have nothing but love and respect for her. Josh Duhamel taking on my favorite Batman villain was also spot on, I adored the relationship between Harvey and his wife Gilda you can really get that sense of true romance in their perfomances and the same goes for Bruce and Selina, but yeah he was mighty good as Harvey and I swear he sounded just like the original Animated Series Two-Face near the end, way to go my guy. Wonderful to see Troy Baker back as Joker, how I missed this man in this role, despite not a load of screen time. The absolute stand out performance, believe it or not, is once again the man of a thousand DC characters David Dastmalchian as the Calendar Man. Best performance I've seen him give yet in the DC universe, can't wait for Suicide Squad, and while I always hear Maurice LaMarche from the Arkham Games when I read the comics he is awesome in this part! Here's to many more future parts my friend. And the absolute best part is that they treat the story seriously and not only that but it's a total run time of about 3 hours so it doesn't rush, you would be surprised how many quiet moments there are in this film. It really struck me that they just focus on these characters, cause at the end of the day a lot of the graphic novel did the same. I can't tell you how much I love it. Sure they change stuff, streamline stuff, yet it really didn't bother me and something struck me that really needs to happen to more people. A lot of people shit on adaptations, oh it didn't follow the book exactly, oh they changed this element, and I was sitting there thinking why would you want to watch a movie where you know exactly everything that is about to happen? Cause this movie kept me guessing, I was wondering where they were going with it cause the book ends on kind of an open note where debate and discussion is encouraged, so it didn't feel like a carbon copy of the book. They did their own thing while still adhering to the story of the original work and paying respect to it. That is no bad thing. I did however take a bit of grievance with two things, one being the ending that seemed out of left field and contributed nothing, I liked the book ending way better. Second is the movie projects Batman as a crimefighter but not a detective, it even brings up multiple times how Bruce didn't expect to be a detective. Bollocks! Great bolshy yarblockos to you! I know this kinda follows the events after Batman Year One so he isn't flawless in his technique, but seriously are you taking the piss? He studied how to be a detective! Urgh, but other than that excellent film. A serious fullhearted recommendation, 4 stars, 8.5/10 maybe even a 9, now I think the only big story they need to cover now is Knightfall. But time will tell, and I will see you Friday.
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