WesternAnimation Batman: The Killing Joke Review
Batman: The Killing Joke is an animated adaption of the most famous Joker comic created by Alan Moore. This movie was desired by the actor Mark Hamill but this movie can be good but there are more negatives than positives.
WesternAnimation The Killing Joke, now available in multiple choice media! Except, not.
Batman: The Killing Joke manages to massively disappoint even with a tepid level of expectations on the part of yours truly. This to the point of being a lazy and clumsy adaptation that fails to justify its own existence at best, or an unmitigated disaster that retroactively damages its source material at the worst.
...well, to be honest, it's more of a middle ground.
Although an admirable notion, the film tries to do away with the comic's (rather unjustified) nagging accusations of crippling and traumatizing a female character for the sake of motivating male characters into action. Their answer to the problem? Basically throw pieces of an entirely unrelated, middling Batgirl story at their Killing Joke storyboards and see what sticks. It reduces Ms. Gordon come off as a Jason Todd-style moody teenager using the platform of crime fighting as an outlet for self-centered teenage frustrations. And that's not even getting into the controversy minefield that is the instantly infamous BatFucking. Christ, anyone got any bleach that I can pour on the part of my brain storing that particular memory? Even Frank fucking Miller in his most ludicrous of psychoses didn't go there. The conceit of the entire first half of the movie is sloppy and problematic (not to mention pretty damn dull), and is as disingenuous an attempt as anything on the part of the comic medium to combat its ever-increasing criticism regarding exploitation of the opposite sex.
But you know, that's livable. They had to lengthen the runtime somehow, after all. I'd rather they do something like this rather than risk bloating the real meat of the story. Oh, speaking of which...
The "real meat"—such as it is—is just a forgettable shot-for-shot adaptation of TKJ, albeit utterly bereft of Brian Bolland's haunting, thick lines and attention to detail that irrevocably burned every panel into your mind's eye and provided at least one iconic moment for every two pages. The art style used really fails to enhance the story in any way, and that's not even mentioning the choppy, uneven framerate. It's a kick hearing Mark Hamill reciting Joker's iconic "You're going mad" monologue but that's what I hear in the back of my mind reading the comic anyway. Conroy, to his credit, delivers his best Batman voice-over in years. I guess something about animation brings out a fire in his performance that he often fails to convey in other mediums (*cough* ARKHAM GAMES *cough*).
Batman: The Killing Joke is a redundant stinker from start to finish. when it isn't biting off more than it can chew, it props up its entire raison d'etree on the source material without any risk or sense of innovation. Had it not had a full voice cast, it would've been as pointless as those dreaded motion comics. It might be a decent watch for the uninitiated, but brings next to nothing new to long-time fans of the Moore/Bolland masterwork. Just go read that again.
WesternAnimation A Fun Movie Adaptation Dragged Down By A Flawed Prologue
Title says it all, really. When I first heard they were finally making an animated adaptation of The Killing Joke, I was stoked. I mean, really: An animated adaptation of one of the most famous comics in the Batman franchise with the talented voice work of Kevin Conroy, Tara Strong, and Mark Hamil?! That's practically a Batman fan's wet dream. And now that I've finally gotten around to watching it, I can say that it is definitely entertaining, but has more than a few flaws.
Pros:
- As always, Kevin Conroy, Tara Strong, and Mark Hamil are at the top of their game. Kevin Conroy does a great portrayal of Batman and likewise Tara Strong does a great job as Batgirl, but Mark Hamil is the one who truly steals the show with his incredible portrayal as The Joker. He truly nails the Joker's famous monologues and gives an emotional performance as the man who'd eventually become the Joker, showing everyone that Mark hasn't lost his touch.
- Aside from the prologue, The movie stays true to the comic, albeit with a few changes here and there.
Cons:
- While I'm not one to care about animation, the animation of this film isn't as good as other DC animated movies and feels a bit choppy at times. Also, there's a minor animation error when Batman visits Barbara at the hospital and her eyebrows are Grey.
The Prologue: Noticed that I didn't mention the prologue in my Cons? That's because it gets its own little section. At best, the prologue is mediocre. So, the writers wanted to flesh out Batgirl's character. Isn't that cute...but it's WRONG!!! Instead of fleshing out her character, it destroyed her character as she acts nothing like her comic or animated counterparts and comes off as an arrogant, reckless, whiny, clingy Stalker with a Crush. But while that's bad enough, the prologue would have been bearable if not for...
The Sex Scene: Okay, Batman having sex with someone is nothing new, but him having sex with Batgirl is so wrong on so many levels. I've always considered their relationship strictly Student/Teacher, if not surrogate Father/Daughter and seeing them have sex on a rooftop feels like the writers threw the scene in for pure shock value and a failed attempt at Fanservice. Besides, Batgirl is Barbara Gordon. You know, Commissioner Gordon's daughter?! One of Batman's closest friends who would probably be sorely pissed off to find out his best friend was fucking his daughter. Did the writers even think about the Unfortunate Implications of that scene?
So, like I said, the movie is definitely worth a watch but I recommend skipping the prologue.
WesternAnimation What Were They Thinking?
In Sf Debris' review of the Star Trek Voyager episode Investigations, Chuck opened the episode with a bit where he went over moments in pop culture where he asked, What Were You Thinking?? For this part of his review he brought up some rather infamous stories like Spider-Man making a deal with the devil to undo his marriage in One More Day and Superman's Baster Child in Superman Returns.
Moments where you really have to wonder what was going through the minds of the writers/producers where they put forward something that is so clearly a bad idea and yet they did it anyway. Now joining their ranks we have the first half hour of The Killing Joke film adaptation which takes the one of the most well known examples of Women In Refrigerators, which even Alan Moore stated was a mistake, and somehow makes it even worse for not only Batgirl but Batman as well. In the film Batgirl is a whiny child who only became a superhero to impress Batman so he would fall in love with her and the two later have sex on a roof top at the end of the first act.
It's like Bruce Timm looked at The Killer Joke and went, "You Know what this woman getting shoved into the fridge bit needs? A sex scene between someone who's barely out of their teens and a middle age man. Yeah, that's what was missing, nailed it."
This is like something Frank Miller would write in a issue of All-Star Batman & Robin Boy Wonder. Actually I take that back, even Frank Miller drew the line at Batman sleeping with someone who is old enough to be his daughter who doesn't even seem old enough to drink.
Now on to the rest of the movie, it was okay. It's always great to hear Mark Hamill and Kevin Conroy as the Joker and Batman and it's nice that Hamill finally got to do The Killer Joke which he has wanted to do for years. And when the movie gets to the part that is actually based on the graphic novel it was very well done. However, the animation in this film wasn't all that good. The frame rate seemed to drop a number of times, the animation itself looks rather cheap, (especially when compared to the other DC Animated movies and the DCAU) and the movement just looked unnatural even when the frame rate didn't drop.
Even if we ignore the films first half hour, which Hell No, let us NOT ignore the first half hour, The Killing Joke just doesn't seem to work as a film and for me is Okay at best. Hamill and Conroy are of course great but when one of the recommendation of the film is skip the first half hour then the film has a problem.
My honest recommendation is skip the film altogether and just read the Graphic Novel and only check out the film for Mark Hamill's performances as The Joker. Aside from that trust me, your not missing anything.
WesternAnimation Two stories that didn't need to go together
Batman: The Killing Joke isn't one story, but two. The second half is a faithful, tastefully done adaptation of the Killing Joke that features excellent voice work by Mark Hamil. It's shocking, disturbing, and intense, just as the story calls for, but perfectly balanced, showing exactly the amount of graphic material called for and not a smidge more.
The first half is basically an episode of Bt AS if Bruce Timm got to ignore censors and write completely for adults, without worrying about the kids in the room. It's a story about Batgirl, but it's not a very flattering story. Batgirl fails to intimidate criminals (and gets hit on by them instead). Batgirl and Batman clash over crimefighting techniques, Batman gets heavyhanded, Batgirl rebels and gets in over her head, and of course, most controversially, Batgirl has a big crush on Batman, which she eventually acts on by having sex on a rooftop with him. The thing is, none of this is new to the way Bruce Timm writes the character. It's more explicit, sure, but the story elements have all been introduced in the DCAU. Even Barbara as a second-rate crime fighter because she hasn't had the kind of motivating tragedy Bruce and Dick experienced has been done before. It's not an interpretation of Barbara that everyone likes, but this is how he's always written her—just without the kid-friendly filters.
The trouble isn't that the first half is a bad story or a misogynistic story. It's neither. Had it been part of a series like Bt AS, with lots of other stories, some more flattering to Barbara, some focused on other characters, no one would be up in arms, unless they were super-bothered by the whole Bruce-Babs thing (which, to be fair, even in the DCAU, many are). The problem is the entire POINT of having a 30 minute story about Barbara before the Killing Joke material was to lessen the "women in refrigerators" aspect of the story, to make Barbara important and likable in her own right. While it succeeds in contextualizing who she is and why we should care what happens to her, (beyond not wanting such terrible things to happen to anyone), it doesn't do anything to empower Barbara as a character. It doesn't restore any of her agency. It doesn't even make her particularly likable.
The other problem is that the Killing Joke isn't about Barbara. It's not supposed to be. Yes, that makes what happens to her problematic, but adding an unrelated story in front of it doesn't actually change that. Instead, there's an awkward shift when the first half of the movie focuses on Batgirl/Batman's mentor/romance dynamic, and then suddenly transitions to the dark, twisted Joker/Batman relationship. It's disorienting, and the tonal mismatch between the eye-rolling sexist thugs and rom-com quips from Babs' sassy gay friend to Joker's chilling schemes is extremely jarring. Separately, both stories work, although the first is merely average, while the second one is great. Together, both suffer.
WesternAnimation Further proof that Bruce Timm has lost his touch
It’s hard to talk about this like a singular movie, because it’s not. It’s two unrelated short films tied by (at best) some vaguely defined themes (if even that). But once you watch the whole thing, it becomes painfully obvious that this movie wasn’t made because someone wanted to adapt this iconic comic into a movie but rather because WB wanted to make a quick buck. They were obviously worried about the controversy surrounding Barbara’s fridging and they responded to that in the most bizarre and counterintuitive way imaginable. Born out of a mixture of Azzarello’s tryhard edginess and Timm’s infamous Crack Pairing, the first vignette comes across like a teen Batman fanboy’s faux-introspective fanfic. Because when you think “Killing Joke”, you obviously think “doomed forbidden fruit love story between Bruce and Barbara”? I think the only person who would appreciate this creative liberty is Joker himself, because the rationale behind its inclusion is utter lunacy. The end result is that these extra 30 minutes, which could and should have been utilized to flesh out the actual story, add exactly nothing to the main narrative outside making you like both Batman and Batgirl less. But I guess if they were scared of the feminists, they were obviously even more terrified of purist fanboys who don't understand that literature can't effectively be adapted into a movie without changes, or that doing the opposite makes the movie bland and pointless.
Speaking of which? What about the actual Killing Joke portion? Oh, it’s very faithful to the original comic but that’s also its main flaw. It gives you absolutely nothing interesting or innovative to watch, because you've already seen all of it reading the comic, whose beautiful and highly detailed art conveyed the story’s themes and emotional beats perfectly, in sharp contrast to the bland and oftentimes shoddy animation that we get here. Even Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill are very underwhelming in this, likely because of the clearly rushed production, which didn’t give them good direction. All of it just feels flat, soulless, a direct adaption of the source material done on the cheap and failing to evoke the same kind of emotion out of you the comic did. Poor Hamill, he wanted to do this forever and yet when he finally got the chance to fulfill his dream, it turned out to be a half-assed effort that quickly got overshadowed by the Batman and Batgirl bonking scene. Maybe that’s the real “killing joke? Mark Hamill getting screwed over on his passion project due to corporate greed XD
So yeah, this movie(s) is a total waste of time. There’s nothing here worth checking out outside of Joker’s catchy song, which you can easily find on YouTube anyway. Skip it.