Batman: Year Two (Miniseries), The

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.

Perfect edit. I don't use this site too often and when I found this I just had to watch. DonKamillo perfectly edits the movie into 4 'episodes' and it's my new preferred way of enjoying The Batman. I've put it on with my friends and family and they all thought it was cool and more digestible than the actual film. Major props, definitely one of the best edits I've come across

The way you split the movie up into a miniseries works flawlessly for this movie. Each "episode" has a good chunk of drama, character development, and action to stand on its own. It also made the viewing much more accessible, and makes the overlying dark and foreboding tone of the movie easier to handle too. I still ended up finishing it in one day but I was able to get dinner and some errands done in between the episodes lol.

The title cards/opening for each segments were made flawlessly, and really sold me on the episodic format of this edit. Reordering and restructuring of certain scenes helped character introductions tremendously. Batman being the first introduction was such a simple but great change, as it immediately sets the stage for how this iteration of batman will be handled, and helps frame the rest of the world we see around him. Having riddler appear from the darkness in the Mayors room was *chefs kiss*. We have plenty shots which establish his stalking and methodical approach to his victims, so this more abrupt intro really helps immerse us with the rest of the cast trying to solve the case. Finally, the romance between cat lady and batman being tuned down was also a great touch. The title card covering their supposed kiss is another great choice of editing.

A great experience and might even be the definitive way to view this movie. It addresses many of the complaints I had regarding the original film, and makes it much more digestible to introduce to new viewers.

I have a list of relatively nitpicks I wanted to point out below. While my comments on the scenes may be verbose, they did not impact my enjoyment of the series overall.
Book 2:
34:45 - this is an awesome introduction to the new batmobile, but I feel it goes on for a bit long, especially with the ending being a rather anti-climatic scoot by the batmobile. I'm not too well versed on automobiles but I thought that bit of movement was an editing quirk at first. It would be interesting to see penguins goons start scrambling while having the sound and shots of the batmobile preserved to speed up the scene a bit, and to have less of penguin just blankly staring at the car.
36:36 - another car scene sorry. Batman finally catches up to the penguin and.... gently nudges his car. Penguin then shoots batman, they stare at each other, a truck honks at them, they stare at the truck, then penguin swerves off onto the highway. I feel that scene could just be tightened slightly.

Part 3
23:34 - When cat lady put her foot on the guys chest, it was clearly getting ready to kick him off the edge. But then she still slings out another sentence before actually shoving him. Not sure if anything can be done here, just a super minor nitpick.

Top-rate edit. The original was a bit of a slog for me, especially the last 40 minutes, but I didn't feel that way at all when watching this edit. The sudden change in tone is a lot less noticeable when it's converted to this episodic format, and made it a lot less jarring.

While the pacing is improved greatly, it's still a little "off" in a couple of episodes, but not in any way that made them unenjoyable.

In terms of the quality of the editing and cuts, I don't recall anything feeling rough or noticeably edited in any way. It was all very smooth and seamless during my watch.

For what it's worth, my wife loved the original version of this movie, but she said she preferred this version after watching it.

What an interesting idea. I didn't know a lot of people had issues with the movie. Not major issues, but issues. Whatever it felt too bloated, the runtime or there was too many ideas going on, especially towards the end. I, for one, didn't have much issue with the movie. I didn't think it was a masterpiece but I really enjoyed it. I saw this fanedit while scrolling around and my curiosity peaked. I just had to see what this Miniseries was about.

The Batman: Year Two fanedit is an interesting look at what could've been an amazing opportunity for DC. Why by no means is this edit superior or inferior to the movie, I just think there was some untapped potential that could've been explored. Instead of stuffing everything you can into 3 hours, you can make, let's say an 6- hour long episode miniseries and really flesh out your characters and ideas. Seeing an unhinged Batman would've been amazing to see on the big screen. We get to see some of that in the movie where he's fighting the criminals in the beginning. Where instead of taking them out efficiently, he beats them into submission. Reminded me more of Mad-Max type than Batman. Also spending more time with the Riddler and see what his motivations are and how he's inspired by Batman to start taking action. Don Kamillo had the right idea of breaking it up into episodes. I just don't think Don had enough material to truly make this an outstanding experience.

Don only has 3 hours of material to structure the story in a way that would flow well for a miniseries. And by that aspect, he succeeded. There were times, where I forgot that this was a movie. It felt natural to see these episodes play out. Each episode adding a layer as the story progresses. And because each episode isn't long at all, you can pay more attention to what's in front of you. Adding a new narrative and exploration of Gotham makes the series a great watch. Don did a hell of job with this fan edit and turning it into a thrilling experience. The only downside is that it makes you wish there was more material to explore rather than the 3 hours it has to offer. Overall, an amazing fanedit.