Batman: The Killing Joke

So obviously when i first heard about this movie, i was really pumped, and kept up with updates as it came closer to the release.

I've always loved the PG-13 animated Batman movies, and of course I hear about this one's R rating I'm wow this is going to more amazing than any ever before it.

So the time finally comes and of course I go to the one night theater showing.

Strong start, love it, some good action, funny moments. But then I notice that all the bad guys say "freaking" quite often. Was this a prelude to the rest of the movie?

Yes. It was. The R rating was a total scam. There's some brief bloody shots, like 2 actual curse words (mild too), an IMPLIED sex scene, an even what was to be considered the most controversial part of the original comic...was completely censored as well. It was PG-13 by my standards. "The Dark Knight Returns" and "Assault on Arkham" were both PG-13 and had WAYYY more blood, violence and language than this did. (Assault on Arkham also had more sexual scenes and still remained PG-13). It was just really disappointing.

The plot was really loose too. When the movie ended I was like..."wait what?" There was no climax. The rising action just quickly crashed into the falling action and ended. This just goes to show that not every comic looks good on the big screen.

Really the only thing I liked was the fact that Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill were in it.

Would I recommend it? It's worth a watch, I guess. Just as long as you go into it thinking, "This is a PG-13 movie."

If you want to watch something better as far as PG-13 Animated Batman goes, "The Dark Knight Returns" (not to be confused with "The Dark Knight Rises"), "Assault on Arkham", and "Under The Red Hood" are all three very amazing movies.

The complete first half hour was completely unnecessary, it may have intended to add emotional weight to when Barbara got shot, but the studio could have encapsulated that in a much better way. The main antagonist of the film failed to show up until half way through the movie which made the first half utterly boring. In addition, the needless sexualization of Batgirl and her 'special' relationship with Batman was also among the list of unnecessary items that were in this movie, this also contributed to ruining the characterization of Batman. The Joker was on point as one would usually expect. However, in summation the movie fails to capture the magic that the comic presented us with.

OK... I'll be honest: I was waiting something great and I didn't get it. Maybe because of the very high expectations that the movie just couldn't reach. There was a couple of things that bothered me. I think the important part was too short (about 45 minutes), they gave too much emphasis to the Batgirl prologue, I mean, the Joker appeared 30 minutes after the movie initiated, for God sake! Yes, there was some things from that part that I thought were interesting, I'm sure some people will hate them though. I was very uncomfortable with the inconsistency of the art style, sometimes The Joker looked amazing, sometimes... not very good; besides, the animation was very weak in several scenes, I mean like 10 fps and that's unacceptable Mark Hamill and Kevin Conroy's work was the best of the movie, I can't complain about that. It was OK. But they could do it a lot better.

When "The Killing Joke" is actually about the source material, it's a decent adaptation. It's dialogue-faithful, the tone is good, and really, if they've gotten Conroy and Hamill as the two leads, you know they're taking this seriously. And that infamous scene is incredibly effective.

But it's that first half-hour that doesn't work. It's tacked-on and certainly doesn't do Batgirl or Batman any favors (the latter of whom just seems a tad creepy). This is (for better or worse) the Joker's origin story, incendiary though it is, and I can understand why they'd want to flesh out Barbara's character; but it still doesn't work because Batman doesn't recall her horrific fate later on in the movie. She's no longer relevant beyond the shock value. The intentions were there, but it could've been done better.

Within this running time, there are 45 minutes of good movie. Skip the first 30 and you don't miss a thing.

6/10

One of the most acclaimed graphic novels of all time has now come to the big screen. Not only is this one of the most acclaimed novels ever but it's one of the most controversial. The story is basically an origin tale for the infamous Batman villain, The Joker. When this movie was initially announced back at the beginning of 2016 there was some serious hype surrounding it. Especially when it received an R rating. One thing that really made me nervous though was how quickly this actually released. Obviously, it could've been in production long before it was announced back at the beginning of the year, but after seeing the film, I don't think that's the case.

The first thirty minutes of the film is a kind of prelude involving, mostly, Batgirl. It talks about how she came to quit being said superhero and draws a thread between her and Batman. Now, this story is controversial for a reason. Not only does it explore tough themes but it shows the details of these horrible things. The story in the graphic novel is brutal, uncompromising, and pretty tough to get through.

However the film is just the opposite. It tries hard to retell the story seen in the novel, yet any emotional drama is all but lost. This mainly has to do with the length of the film itself. Being only 80 minutes, it's rather short. As I said, the first thirty minutes revolves around Batgirl. And this segment of time is absolutely the worst to sit through. It's tedious, overly long, and so cliché and predictable that there's nothing remotely enjoyable.

While, this part of the film is undoubtedly the worst from a storytelling standpoint, there are a number of things that remained consistently bad throughout. Most notably was the animation. From a studio like Warner Bros you'd expect some decent art work, but not here. The back drops nor art design is well put together. It's clunky, with no style to be found.

It looks like they took the animation from a rough draft of the animated series and colored it in. This issue becomes even more clear whenever it attempts 3D animation. The other blaring issue that continues through the film is the music. Which is completely contrived and formulated to the point of it being so cliché that is, in fact not cliché.

As the film ended, a crowd that once cheered for the lights dimming, was left in stunned silence. Not a good stunned silence like you get after watching 'Gone Girl', this type of silence is the kind where people don't know what they just saw. For me, this had to do with the complete lack of any emotional resonance. When it attempts to recreate the power of the novel it fails.

It doesn't commit enough to the drama of the story. Even with its R rating it doesn't draw the same toughness the novel does. It lacks the rawness that the novel has to make it's audience queasy. It's not graphic enough to be disturbing and it's not lighthearted enough to be fun. It just bounces from scene to scene with little connecting one to another. The best way to describe it is that it goes from this scene to that scene and than it ends. That's about it. ​This is one film that should have been great. All the pieces are there. It has a great studio behind it, an excellent voice team, and a brilliant story. But it lacks the emotional power that the novel has. Even though it has its R rating it doesn't fully commit to it, or anything for that matter. Without coherent direction and the overall first draft vibe of the film it's hardly the experience we've been lead to believe it is.