Batman: The Killing Joke (2016)

To celebrate its DVD release, there was a special one-night theater showing of Batman: The Killing Joke with a brief talk with Mark Hamill beforehand. This is an R-rated animated film with the best of the best lending their voices with Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill voicing Batman and The Joker respectively. Well, that's what the movie should focus on right? First you have watch the Batgirl filled first half to get there. Actually, before I start getting too critical it's vital to know how the plot develops. Batgirl and Batman have a couple bickering matches (that's not entirely true-- Batgirl does the arguing and Batman will wait and then say one line that signals the end of the conversation) about Batgirl's role in some of the crimes and investigations being tackled. And this fills the first half of the 76 minute film. Then it switches between the present with how The Joker alters the Gordon's lives (and ultimately how Batgirl becomes Oracle) and the past of how The Joker came to be.We'll take this on half by half. When you think of animated films, you'll think of in-your-face messages (unless you're thinking of Pixar of course) told by huggable and adorable characters. But when it's rated R, you totally change the target audience and the way to present your art to them. Subtle references will be picked up and understood and appreciated, and overall the small details will add to the big picture. That's really not how this film starts off. Quickly, Batgirl is in conflict with Batman because she thinks he's being too protective of her by not allowing her to pursue a villain. And Barbara Gordon relates her problems to her gay best friend by saying she is sort of seeing her yoga instructor but that they aren't really together. To top off this very strangely presented sexual tension that is served with humor that just doesn't really make the cut, the writers have to make sure the audience is on the same page. When Barbara leaves the library she works at, she listens in to a couple where a guy complains to his girlfriend that she's being too clingy. It's moments like these that make me cringe at how directly an outside situation relates to one of the main characters. The dialogue and presentation is sloppy-- only slightly being balanced by Batman yelling his cool phrases "Where is he??" and "I'm going to ask you nicely only one more time." Don't lie, guys, you know you read those quotes in your deep, dark, handsome voices. It should also be of note that I watched this film with Amir Kaskas. This otherwise forgettable guy was useful because he has already read the comic and was able to inform me of how this first half introduction wasn't in the comic. I guess I understand why they chose the route because of what happens with Barbara halfway through, but it just didn't generate the development and conflict it hoped to. This movie gets substantially better in the second half. Although I do feel some of facial structures looked weird at moments, the animation (and this applies to the first half in general as well) is superb. And it provides the most depth ever for Mark Hamill to stretch his laughing chords.Although still a bit too direct, the writing is some of the best. The Joker gets some great monologues, Batman has cooler lines, and the messages play out so much better. Trying to show there's craziness in all of us, The Joker formulates an ultimately disturbing plan that tests the body physically and psychologically. And as he does so, the story correlates to an average guy trying to build a family and how his day just continues to get worse. No, it isn't done with subtlety, but its execution excuses for this. The problem I will say is with the second half is ironically the story and presentation. I can't confirm that the comic works it out better, but I presume it does. And I can presume so for a huge reason. I just praised The Joker for some monologues he gets; however, with this as an animated movie, the filmmakers hesitate to add pauses or include more lingering shots. There has to be a flow in everything that is done, so you can't stay in one spot. Because of this, there's not as much impact in the moment of the scene, instead it relies more on the audience recalling it in hindsight. That is where the comic would come in handy; you could stay on a page forever or flip back quickly if you think you recalled something. There's really only one moment in this film where this lingering happens, and that's the final scene going into the credits. People around us were muttering "Wait, is that it?" "Is it really over?" It's an ending to either like or dislike, no middle ground. To me it was a special moment that worked prominently and is more of the subtlety I wanted to be presented throughout. All in all, it's a special screening that could have had more arguments to see it for the one night instead of just buying the DVD, but when you include a crowd that wasn't all too pleasant to watch with, the DVD probably would've just been better. You will have to endure the first half, and although the second half isn't perfect, it is still a quality watch. If you haven't seen an animated Batman film, they have a distinct style that are interesting to watch, and personally from what I've seen, Batman: Under the Red Hood is what I would recommend watching.Okay, the movie included a bad joke, so I have to follow suit. Actually, this isn't so much a bad joke as it is just a short, black joke. Okay, so I was walking down the street, and I ran into Kevin Hart. You can find this review and dozens of others at gillipediamoviereviews.blogspot.com

I first decided to start the film from after the half hour mark (which is where the comic starts), simply because I was essentially only interested in seeing what I'd already read be brought to life through animation, voice-work and music. Other than effective moments from the comic being rendered ineffective through the art being at times disappointingly lacklustre and the dialogue being paced in a way that didn't sit comfortably with me, I still would have given the experience a good 7... but then I went back and watched the first half hour, bringing that 7 right down to an average 5.The first half hour did not help the story at all, rather, it ruined it; particularly through, as an attempt at "fleshing out interest and empowerment", sexualising the one character who was *not supposed to be sexualised*, especially not in *this* story. I'd still watch the film again if I ever wanted a recap of the story, but I will *always* skip the first half hour.

Batman: The Killing Joke fails both its source material as well as a general movie. It doesn't understand what made the original story so good. It doesn't understand the character of Barbara Gordon a.k.a. Bat girl. Its technical aspects leave a lot to be desired. And it doesn't even know how pacing works.But first, let's go over the upsides. It is genuinely pleasing to hear both Mark Hamill as well as Kevin Conroy reprise their roles as Joker and Batman, respectively. Tara Strong as Barbara is also something I will never complain about. The story is not half bad when it is actually about The Killing Joke, especially about Joker's supposed past. And even the animation, cheap though as it looks, can be forgiven when you remember that this was made direct to video on a shoestring budget.Then the problems. They needed to pad out the story. This I can somewhat understand because the original story isn't that long. Making that padding about Barbara is also understandable because the original story has her in a large part and she's the least known out of the principal characters. But did they really have to give her a gay best friend? Did they really have to make the entire first half of the film revolve around her teenage angst because Bruce doesn't luv luv her? I mean, here I thought superhero stories could be about man's struggle with his inner demons reflected on the horrors of the real world. About symbolic battle between shades of light and dark. About discrimination, racism, oppression, difficulties of morality in a world where nothing is truly black or white. But no, apparently superhero stories are just sitcoms where people dress funny.Furthermore, The Killing Joke, the original comic, was such a big thing because it was one of the first stories to really explore the possibility of Joker having a past. Plus it challenged the status quo. Things changed because of it, characters evolved. And this film simply cannot deliver that. Joker's backstory has already been suggested millions of times, there is no status quo to be broken and even the shock value of Joker doing such brutal things that they seem out of character even for him doesn't have much impact because we've seen worse from him. In a movie called The Dark Knight. One of the greatest movies ever made. Perhaps you've heard of it.To add insult to injury, the movie doesn't even earn its R rating. It's a marketing ploy. I've seen movies from the 80s rated PG-13 that have more gore, violence and sexual content than this has.And yet this film is not the worst. Not even the worst animated Batman film. The voice acting is strong, the original story is good, borderline great, and the animation has some good moments. Even its flaws are merely annoying. Not something I'd recommend, but it's watchable.

Based on the one-shot comic book of the same title from the late 1980s, "Batman: The Killing Joke" is a disturbing story that deals with four main issues: Joker's vicious assault on Batgirl; Batman's uneasy alliance/relationship with Batgirl; Joker's origin story; and Batman's perverse affinity for The Joker.After an unnecessarily lengthy intro of Batgirl's/Batman's relationship which doesn't truly mesh with the second and third acts (said intro not part of the comic book, as far as I can remember), "Killing Joke" gets to the meat of the story, when The Joker attacks Batgirl and kidnaps her father, who is Police Commissioner Gordon. Batman goes on a rampage, going after every criminal he comes upon to get evidence of where The Joker is. But when Batman finally finds The Joker, will it be too late? Will The Joker bring out the madness in Commissioner Gordon? Will Batman finally succumb to his own rage and kill The Joker?My most memorable, movie moment of "Batman: The Killing Joke" is **SPOILER ALERT** the scene when Batgirl, not in costume, opens her apt. door expecting a friend and instead sees The Joker pointing a gun to her stomach.Fans of the source material — I'm one — will most likely not find this adaptation as satisfying as the original. The comic was less than 48 pages if my memory serves me correctly, and in those few pages it packed one hell of a story that was well-paced and intense. This movie, by expanding a short story into near-feature length, adds scenes and sequences that slow the movie down. Yes, the extra stuff adds backstory which yields greater understanding of the main characters; but the pacing and high intensity are sacrificed.Although far from being great, "Batman: The Killing Joke" is a good movie; and Mark Hamill's performance as The Joker is outstanding, as usual.Mannysmemorablemoviemoments