Review Detail

The edit is a fantastic attempt at mixing up 'The Batman' 2022 film and editing it into the format of a miniseries. As someone who enjoys all of films, TV shows and miniseries, I find that the latter is a nice 'sweet spot' between films (which can sometimes be too brief and lack character development) and TV shows (often outstay their welcome by going on far too long). True, Don Kamillo is working with the film and only has around three hours worth of footage, but I feel that his edit works brilliantly in the form of four approx 45 minute episodes.

The episodic structure really helps to break up the narrative, as Don makes each feel like an event, giving every volume its own title cards and title. This makes the film feel fresh. Don recommends to watch one episode a night over four nights - what I did was watch two episodes on one evening. Then life got in the way and it took me another week, but I watched the two remaining episodes on the same morning. I feel this inadvertently worked well for me, because it essentially split the film in two for me, and two episodes on two occasions were very easy to digest. I do tend to binge watch series anyway, so watching the entire thing in one go wouldn't have been a problem for me, but it isn't in the spirit as Don intended it. Hence, I feel that splitting up the episodes into two sets of two with a week apart as I did worked well for me.

In terms of the actual narrative of the edit, I found it pretty experimental. I am familiar with the original release/source material, as I have saw the official film three times (the first time the day it came out in the cinema in 2022), so I knew some of what to look for. There were rearrangements and scenes added, as Don notes. The edit begins with Batman setting the scene and with the major being murdered after this - I believe this works better than the official release, as does the fact we don't see the Riddler spying on the mayor. The scene with Batman talking to the Joker later in the miniseries is something I have never saw before, and it really was creepy and well-placed where Don has put it. Some other scenes are rearranged too, though Don has been careful to be subtle and not radically alter the entire experience. Don explains his changes in his mission statement, and I must say the placement of the bikes scene at the start of the final episode works well as I felt it was a bit of a downbeat note to end the official release. Closing the miniseries/film with Alfred explaining about his father's death to Bruce works really well as it's a 'wow' moment and allows the feeling of betrayal in Bruce to fester until this final moment. It's worthy of finishing an epic project with grand scale like this. Most of the editing works very well but I particularly like this ending.

The audio and video looks great - no problems to report. Each episode is about 6 GB which is adequate for 45 mins to give good picture and sound quality. I felt like it looked good and sounded good so the maximum rating in these respects is deserved. The editing for both is also good as I have said - as well as rearrangements of scenes, the actual scenes themselves have been altered here and there with different lighting and so forth, and I think it's for the better.

Overall I believe the miniseries is extremely entertaining and a great success - I am sure many others have enjoyed it going by the other reviews. I tend to leave a year minimum between rewatches of films (I do sometimes break this rule), but all being well I can see me alternating this miniseries with the official release on future rewatches. The changes are effective but subtle, and they don't confuse anyone who is watching. The changes make perfect sense and actually improve the narrative structure, and that is all any viewer can ask for. It also allows for natural 'breaking points' if anyone doesn't want to watch the almost 3 hour film in one go.

Don clearly put a lot of work into this and it's only right that I acknowledge that by leaving a fairly detailed review. Brilliant work and thanks to Don for allowing me to watch it.