AndrewBloom

7/10

Spoilers

[6.8/10] Part 1 of the *Batman: The Long Halloween* duology ends better than it finishes. The table-setting and throat-clearing here is tedious. Few of the characters pop. The mystery it sets up isn’t especially compelling. But once all the establishing elements are in place, and the movie starts smashing various characters and scenes into one another, it becomes a creditable enough, Bat-infused potboiler, if not necessarily a high water mark for the Dark Knight. My biggest problems with this flick are fundamental. At base, the creative team seems to be going for “serious adult drama” and just can't quite ahcieve it. The main characters are flat and uninteresting. The performances behind the main characters are flat and not terribly convincing. And the art style -- halfway between some clear anime influences and the blocky outline style of *Archer* -- is flat and not terribly eye-catching. The movie seems to be aiming for a sober, prestige-style crime drama, but your craft generally has to be excellent to make that vibe work, otherwise things can come off stolid and forced. Unfortunately, *The Long Halloween Part 1* veers in that direction. There’s a lack of score here, which is normally the kind of naturalistic approach I like. But given the awkwardly paced conversations, one-note vocal performances, and stock characters, the end result is that a lot of key scenes are just downright boring. Thankfully, the villains add some spice! Troy Baker’s Joker is essentially just a recreation of Mark Hamill’s, but by god, there are worse blueprints to pull from! Joker is, as expected, an agent of chaos who spices a generic mob conflict up considerably. And David Dastmalchian brings a good Hannibal Lecter-style vibe to Calendar Man, whose serene and clinical taunts to Batman and Gordon are also a highlight. The mystery is no great shakes, but has its moments. Credit where it’s due, my money was one Carmine Falcone’s son as the culprit as well, so the script suitably swerved me there. Dent blaming the mob and the mob blaming Dent for the killings creates some suitable conflict, and throwing a wildcard like Joker into the mix does a good job of escalating things (no pun intended). I can pretend I’m super invested in the answer to the whodunnit, but it’s a fine enough scaffold to support the rest of the character interactions and set pieces. My big problem is that I just don’t care about the main characters. There’s a little something with Batman himself struggling with his father’s legacy and connection with the mob, as well as his growing pains concern that he’s not a good detective. But his relationships with the likes of Alfred, Gordon, and Catwoman don’t feel developed or convincing enough for me to really give a damn about the scenes intended to dramatize those ideas. Gordon himself is fairly generic, is decent. The “police officer husband/dad works all the time” bit is fairly rote, as is the “”you two have to work together” shtick he arranges with Batman and Dent, but it’s fine enough. The same goes for Carmine “The Roman” Falcone, who is the most off-the-shelf version of a gangster you’ve ever seen, but is fine for what the story needs him for. The weakest element is probably dent. There’s at least a thematic throughline here of Bats, Gordon, and Harvey each having their major activities interfere with their personal relationships, and it could be interesting. It does take some chutzpah to do a superhero story involving a couple that can't conceive and is divided over whether a child is even wanted. But the back-and-forth between Harvey and Gilda never comes across as real or compelling enough, to where the movie’s reach exceeds its grasp. And Harvey never feels terribly conflicted or complicated, to where the seeds of Two-Face have yet to feel like they’ve really been planted. Despite that, and the spate of mostly indifferent action *Long Halloween Part 1* offers, the movie has a few things going for it. For one, there’s a few small but nice moments, like Bats leaving Solomon Grundy a Thanksgiving plate. For another, the *Holiday Inn* of superhero crimes conceit not only adds intrigue to the proceedings, but lets the movie add a little extra seasonal flavor to each segment. And despite not having much to do, Alfred is a welcome presence in this, with some smart remarks and hard-earned wisdom to dispense. Overall, *The Long Halloween Part 1* tops out at “good enough”, but as it builds to its crescendo, things become more promising, which (hopefully) bodes well for part 2.