Movies…with a little bit of obscure culture and sports mixed in
“The killer known as Holiday continues to stalk the Falcone crime family while a new class of costumed criminal rises in Gotham City. Batman suspects that a former ally might […]
“The killer known as Holiday continues to stalk the Falcone crime family while a new class of costumed criminal rises in Gotham City. Batman suspects that a former ally might be the serial killer.“
Director: Chris Palmer
Writers: Jeph Loeb, Tim Sale, Tim Sheridan
Staring: Jensen Ackles, Josh Duhamel, Naya Rivera, Troy Baker, Billy Burke
Streaming: HBO Max
Release Date: July 27, 2021
A direct follow up to Batman: The Long Halloween, Part One (2021) released a month after its predecessor, Batman: The Long Halloween, Part Two (2021) focuses more on the Falcone crime family and how Bruce Wayne’s past connects him to the events of the present. There are not the same amount of action set pieces as in the first, but the evolution of Harvey Dent to Two Face, and the expanded exposition of Selina Kyle and Wayne ensure the audience isn’t left in the entertainment lurch.
During the post credits scene of Batman: The Long Halloween, Part One, we see Wayne become transfixed by Poison Ivy. That story continues and the billionaire has been under-the-influence of her spell. Wayne has been singing over assets to Ivy and by association, the Carmine Falcone. The first action of the movie is when Catwoman comes in and vanquishes Poison Ivy, saving Wayne and Alfred from further self harm.
During the time of Batman’s absence, the Holiday killer has continued to strike. Come Mother’s Day there is another murder and Scarecrow escapes from Arkham Asylum. Things are staring to add up, and the gangster feud that is underlying Gotham ramps up even more when Holiday kills Maroni’s father. This results in Maroni fainting help to the District Attorney Harvey Dent, but the truce is obviously a façade. Maroni splashes acid on Dent’s face, accelerating the process of the DA becoming Two Face.
From there, Two Face becomes the main antagonist and Carmine Falcone gets lowered on the tier of evil. The newly minted gangster has hired the likes of Poison Ivy, Scarecrow, the Mad Hatter, the Joker and Solomon Grundy to invade Falcon’s building. There is a massive battle where Batman teams up with Catwoman in order to protect Falcone from the invading forces. Unfortunately, the mission to save those form the attack is unsuccessful. Dent manages to shoot Falcone and his daughter Sofia also falls to her death.
Happiness is not on the menu at the end of Batman: The Long Halloween, Part Two. Rolling together the plot from Part One and Part Two, Batman uncovers that Gilda (who was in a relationship with Dent), was the Holiday killer. She was in a relationship with Alberto Falcone when they studied together at Oxford, but because of Falcone’s loyalty to family and lack of flexibility, their love was not allowed. GIlda understandably hates the Falcone family for ruining the idea of love and also ruining the chance of her having any children with a forced abortion. Batman does not arrest GIlda after she says she is done killing people.
Batman: The Long Halloween, Part Two is good. I mean, it is just a really well made animated comic book movie. Everything I said about Part One applies to Part Two. The only thing that makes this sequel a bit lesser is that it reverted a bit too much to the fan fare that comic book fans love. The amount of classic Batman villains that just randomly teamed up together at the end is objectively absurd. The Joker takes orders or following Two Face? I don’t think so. There were no mentions of The Penguin prior to the final 20 minutes of the movie.
The twist at the end with Gilda being the Holiday killer is well thought out, but we didn’t need the Selina Kyle being secretly related to the Falcone family. The story in Part Two doesn’t wrap up as cleanly as it could. It is like a nice Christmas present but the wrapping job is subpar.
STANKO RATING: B (3.0/5 Stars)
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