Written by Tim Sheridan
Directed by Chris Palmer
Bruce (to Falcone): "I believe in Gotham."
Two years ago, DC Animation gave us a version of Hush that was too removed from the source material for it's own good and given how immensely popular The Long Halloween is, I admit that I was somewhat dreading this adaptation.
Split into two movies, the first one covered about nearly half of the infamous comic with the mysterious Holiday Killer targeting the Falcone empire but not quite getting Carmine Falcone (Titus Welliver) himself.
Kicking off with Halloween and Falcone's nephew Johnny Viti winds up the first victim before Thanksgiving then resulted in the Triad Falcone sent after Harvey Dent (Josh Duhamel) being the second group to get taken out. It's up to Batman (Jensen Ackles), Jim Gordon (Billy Burke) to try and figure out the identity of the killer along with Dent's personal vendetta with Falcone.
Of course there are some false starts here. Twice Batman mistakes someone else for the killer and in both cases, he's proven wrong.
With the Joker (Troy Baker), the Clown Prince of Crime simply wants to take some respective competition while the increasingly rejected son, Alberto Falcone (Jack Quaid) wants a life away from his father's influence before becoming the final victim in this first part on New Year's Day.
Falcone definitely is the driving force behind this story with Holiday targeting those connected to him, including his own family and a bodyguard on Christmas while at the same time, Falcone also resorts to desperate measures to get Bruce Wayne on side.
Along with Batman, Gordon and Dent all working together, there's Catwoman (Naya Rivera) in the mix too. She's happy to see Dent burn all of Falcone's laundered money to the ground while being a sympathetic ear for Alberto.
The dynamic between Batman and Catwoman feels somewhat less antagonistic here than in the comic itself. There's also a perplexing moment where Selina outs Bruce as Batman to Alberto before the latter's death, which was strange.
As for Dent, his drive to get Falcone is prominent throughout the movie but there's also a bigger emphasis on his crumbling marriage to Gilda (Julie Nathanson) as well as a milder version of that with Gordon and Barbara (Amy Landecker) to boot.
As for Batman, this movie clearly seems to be based in his early days with him being forced to act more as a detective than an enforcer. The way he handles this Holiday Killer case highlights how much he needs to hone his skills in that regard.
- This two part movie was one of Naya Rivera's last roles prior to her death last year.
- There are non speaking cameos from Poison Ivy, Scarecrow, Penguin and Mad Hatter. Solomon Grundy and Calender Man have brief speaking roles.
- The second part of this movie will be released from July 27th.
- Chronology: This first movie covers from Halloween to New Year's Day.
Batman: The Long Halloween Part 1 kicks off the classic story pretty well. It's not a faithful adaptation (no Riddler for instance) but it's an improvement on a previous one mentioned earlier in this review and hopefully the second part can stick the landing.
Rating: 7 out of 10
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