Batman: The Killing Joke (2016) User Reviews

An imperfect joke

[Mr-Fusion · 6/10 · 17 November 2016]

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

Rehashed Work

[straightace · 5/10 · 26 July 2016]

I'm not sure how to approach this movie. I wanted to like this movie I really did. I wanted to like everything about it. From its revival of the good old' Batman TAS to the voice actors to the sweeping soundtrack, the polished animation reflecting a dark Art Deco Gothic – whatever the hell you call it – STYLE. Maybe I was asking for too much but perhaps a little story on the side too. Pretty please?

That being said, I also slapped a big 'REALISTIC Expectations' sticker over my eyes before watching the screen come alive. I knew this wasn't going to be as good as Batman: The Animated Series. But I was glad to have something reminiscent of that monolith of 1990's animation and storytelling. Boy was I in for a surprise.

The core issue of this movie is not the A) story it chose to tell or B) how it told said story but rather C) the juxtaposition of a classic show's established world (including its location, characters and story) with a modern flavor. Telling a new story that kind of breaks the older established world we all fell in love with on the TV screen. Then yes we have the story itself, a dark telling of how the joker became to be, without Warner Bros. censorship. This complicates things a bit. So without further ado, let's go down the list!

Issue #1: Old World with new rules that break it.

Really jarring, adds a new dimension of sex that was apparently very crucial to the story (or not). Enter strong powerful female figure defined by her sexuality, hit on by every hot criminal she meets, then making kinky love to Batman on rooftops with creepy goblins looking over ("it's only sex!") Definitely not a shallow character, no shortage of hot gay library friends and definitely loads of problems like deciding which guy she wants to be with. Let's see what's behind door number one – BATMAN.

Who is Batman? In this movie, he's pretty much a Zoltar of lazy story exposition. Says the most obvious things. Has no inner conflict. Has no fears. Has no emotions no feelings yet in the end we are supposed to feel his turmoil in fighting the Joker. Batman ladies and gents, is purely a device in this film. Batgirl was fan-service. And the movie spent a good 40 minutes setting up her love story to Batman when all of this information could've been relayed in a few key scenes! Why didn't this happen? Because the real star of the show got pushed out – the Joker!

Wasn't the story about the Joker more than anything? He isn't a witty clever funny man anymore. Now he's just misunderstood and 10x darker than Nolan's version. Although voiced by Hamill, he doesn't even compare to the TAS Joker who lit up the screen. Going to credit this to mediocre writing. Obvious things (90% Batman lines), dumb things (35% Batgirl lines) and unfunny things (75% Joker lines) should not exist. Make your dialogue interesting and worth quoting!

These flat characters, the story's misplaced focus on character and conflict arise from the core issues – the new Batman, complete with its sexy fan-service, empty brooding heroes and second-rate comic relief – just cannot exist in this world. A Killing Joke is a story of its own and if it takes time trying to break the Batman TAS, then it should've been in its own world. Dear Mr. Liu, please do not use Batman TAS for anything if you're going to give us something new. Just give us something new. This story could've been its own thing and it could've been great.

Issue #2: Show don't tell.

Pretty much a copy of the graphic novel panel by panel. Come on spice it up a bit give us different angles, close-ups and MOVEMENT. Show us what animation can do even if it's on a tight budget. Show us the wonder and essence of the world. Make us feel the DESIRE Batgirl has to work with Batman, let us hear the thunder and rain crashing down on everything show us the details that move us emotionally. When we see the Joker from afar talking to the police about his wife, give us those strong visuals that tell the story on their own instead of him flatly saying his wife is dead. Show his loss and his madness. Don't deliver lines at dramatic points. Don't make Batman aware and comment on his meta-role as a foil to the Joker – that's obvious and doesn't need to be in focus (even if in the original).

Issue #3: Same story no insights.

The Killing Joke is a very dark story and sometimes less is more. The Joker on his tirade fails to truly shock the audience. What he chose to do should've been the true horror of the story and presented as such so it sneaks up slowly on the audience. This could've been accomplished in so many creative ways. It was literally just given to the audience and rather quickly.

In closing, it makes me think twice when an older 1993 movie like Batman: Mask of the Phantasm (highly underrated btw) outdoes The Killing Joke as a serious film with some substance to pack and scenes that tell a story on their own. I can't believe I'm saying this but the Joker was downright chilling in Phantasm and I watched that movie as an adult. It's not the inner fanboy leaking but a respect for the art. Watch Phantasm or Batman TAS if you're looking for a mature story that knows what it's doing. They may not have the newest animation or fan-service but it does have characters you'll care about and a story that will touch your soul.

Good, not great

[Smarmelade · 7/10 · 22 July 2016]

I've always thought that The Killing Joke is actually not long enough and not quite suitable enough for big screen. This just proves it.

There's a lot of padding to extend the run time. First 20-ish minutes are brand new stuff, not from the comic book. It deals with Barbara and her relationship with Batman. Also, they have sex. Yeah, so, moving on.

I guess that new stuff had purpose to extend the run time and maybe add some more character to Barbara, to make the later stuff more impactful. But somehow it (new stuff) becomes totally disconnected from the rest. Again, the comic didn't have that much material to put into an hour plus long movie. So while it does fill the time, it doesn't add much or subtracts from the whole picture. Although, that sex scene was a bit unnecessary.

There are few more fillers along the way and they are also in that "nor adding, nor subtracting anything from the whole" formula.

Ending was a bit weird too. While it will be an eternal debate about "did Batman strangled Joker or not?", in the comic, that last page ended perfectly, they both laugh, then they both stop, and you can only "hear" incoming cop sirens. Here, similar, only we hear Batman weird laugh extending into fade to end credits. While a small thing, it kinda annoyed me. Also, there's a mid credits stinger, which was also out of place and felt a bit unnecessary.

Now, it's nothing new that Alan Moore doesn't want to have anything with transferring his stories to big screen, here they skipped him completely and credited Brian Azzarello for story. I guess he did the best he could to expand the story to fit into an hour and 15 minutes animated feature. Only those fillers were kind of whatever.

Voice acting and all that, Mark Hamill, Kevin Conroy, Tara Strong, Nolan North.. all the good stuff about that. Music, also fine. What I want to write a bit more about is animation. Now I'm aware how painful process of animating can be but here we got DC average animation to DVD/BR home feature - bit stiff, not much texture to the world and characters but passable. It could (should) be way better though.

Directing was OK but I can't shake the feeling that a bit of quality directing and editing would make this thing a whole lot better. But it's OK.

And that's the running theme here - OK. Good but not great. In the end it was just another DC animated straight to DVD/BR feature and not exactly suited for the big screen. I would be OK if they never made this, but I'm OK with this as well but it could be better, as I already said. I expected more, was fine with what I got... but... I expected more dammit.

Something That Could Have Been Among The Best Comic Adaptations...

[timdalton007 · 7/10 · 3 December 2016]

The Killing Joke (that is the graphic novel written by Alan Moore and illustrated by Brian Bolland) is considered one of the definitive Batman/Joker stories ever told. It's a controversial one to be sure as well with what Moore chose to do to one of its supporting characters. So when it was announced that it was, at last, receiving a screen adaptation, fans couldn't help but be excited. When the news came that one of the definitive Batman/Joker performance teams (Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill) were playing those roles, it was even harder to be excited. So much so that despite being slated to go straight to DVD, it received a successful yet brief cinema run as well. Was it to prove to be as successful as its original comic counterpart?

Yes and no.

Let's look at the 'no' side of the equation first, shall we? The problem is the film's opening half hour which focuses heavily on Batgirl aka Barbara Gordon (voiced by Tara Strong). Instead of feeling a natural extension of the original Alan Moore tale (which takes up some forty five minutes of screen time), it instead ends up feeling tacked on like the longest ever James Bond style pre-credit sequence. Worse, it has not a single connection to the actual plot and does nothing to really develop the characters it does involve except in trivial ways. The perfect example being a rooftop confrontation between Batman and Batgirl that ends up with a legitimate "what was the writer thinking?!" moment. That said, it's not bad and wouldn't have necessarily been a bad short film on its own but glued into Killing Joke, it pales by comparison.

That said, once it got beyond that opening half hour and into actually doing what it sets out to do, it works and works bloody well. Writer Brian Azzarello turns the original Moore (who for his own reasons has been uncredited on a number of works adapted from him for years now) into a full functioning script laying out the narratives of the Joker wounding Batgirl, trying to drive Gordon insane, and confront the Batman while also looking at the day that made the Joker into the man he is. It's also played out just as Moore wrote it and Bolland illustrated it in all of its unsettling glory.

All of which is anchored by the ever excellent DC animated production values. The voice acting is everything would hope for it to be from Conroy's Batman to what might very well be Mark Hamill's best performance as the Joker. Whatever else one cay say about the film, Hamill shines as one of the definitive Joker performers gets to bring to life perhaps the definitive tale of the character and Hamill does it wonderfully from one line to the next, showing the tragedy that comes to underline the character. The supporting does well though those in the first half hour do as well as might be expected with the material they're handed including Ray Wise as Commissioner Gordon, Strong's Batgirl, and Robin Atkin Downes as Detective Harvey Bullock. It's a solid cast to say the least.

The animation is also solid. While it never quite manages to catch the same realistic and neo-noir tones of Bolland's illustrations, it does presents something that is a close match for it. Even better for comic fans, the film recreates some of the iconic panels from the original comic splendidly. For the most part, the DC animated films have had good animation and this one is no exception to that rule.

In a way though, despite what the film does successfully, it feels like it doesn't quite live up to expectations. In large part, that comes down to the underwhelming opening half hour which stands in stark contrast with just how good the remainder of it is. In a sense then, it's a a shame they stuck that prologue onto it because this might have been among the best comic screen adaptations otherwise. What it is instead is nearly 2/3 of one and 1/3 of something that's watchable but not as good as it ought to have been.

Good movie, but it should have been great.

[eddsixpi · 7/10 · 11 August 2016]

Goddamn it.

I really wanted The Killing Joke to be DC Animation's return to greatness.

The parts that are actually The Killing Joke are great, but I just can't ignore the first 30 minutes. It felt like a random episode of a completely unrelated Batman TV show. I get that they wanted to make Batgirl more sympathetic and an actual character in the movie, rather than just a plot point, but honestly, who cares? Who gives a crap about Batgirl? She doesn't matter, she's irrelevant to the story. The Killing Joke is supposed to be about Batman's relationship with The Joker. Instead, it felt almost as If Barbara Gordon was the main character. If they didn't want to just do a direct adaptation of the novel because it'd be too short, I get it, but find another way to expand it.

But still, like I said, as soon as the actual movie starts, it's great. Hamill and Conroy were obviously great. They stole the show, specially Hamill. I didn't like Commissioner Gordon's voice though, it sounded weird.

Overall, good movie, but it should have been great.

Not bad, but not great

[stormfury · 7/10 · 30 July 2016]

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.

Great Animation and Darkness

[Michael_Elliott · 18 September 2016]

Batman: The Killing Joke (2016)

*** (out of 4)

An already bad situation for Batman turns even worse when he realizes that the Joker has escaped and is on the streets again.

BATMAN: THE KILLING JOKE pretty much came out of nowhere and become a huge hit to fans and critics. I guess it's easy to see why so many positive vibes would go towards this animated film and especially since so many people were unhappy with BATMAN VS SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE. With that said, as good as this film is I still think it has been overrated by some who are calling it a masterpiece.

Still, there's no question that this is a highly entertaining movie that manages to keep you glued to the personal drama effecting Batman and there's also the great rivalry with the Joker. These aspects is what keeps the film moving at such a good pace and I really thought the Joker character was highly entertaining and sinister just the way he should be. Mark Hamill does a very good job with the vocal work on the Joker and I thought Tara Strong was also very good with Batgirl.

The animation is top notch as you'd expect and the screenplay allowed the darkness of the city to blend in with the characters. This darker approach is something that "some" people don't like but I thought it was perfectly suited for the animation. BATMAN: THE KILLING JOKE is a darn good film and one that more people should check out.

More added to Moore ... a good attempt!

[SpandanNath · 7/10 · 23 July 2016]

What will hit fans on the face right in the beginning is how the movie begins. Mark Hamill, during a promotion of the film, stated that Moore himself will probably not like the changes made in the film. It is probably true. It is quite possible that fans will feel similarly. While Moore's masterpiece sets the mood and tone of the graphic novel right in the beginning, one may wonder why at all begin the movie with a Batgirl pseudo-4th-wall-breaking monologue. The monologue proves that the filmmakers knew that there was a fair chance that fans will hate the inclusion of a Batgirl introduction. For a moment, during the first 20-30 minutes (which has absolutely nothing to do with the Joker) the audience might even think that probably Batman will have a heart-to-heart with Barbara about his encounter with the Joker in the Graphic Novel. Thank the good sense of the director, that did not happen. Why would that happen, right? It's not like they are having sex and want to spill their guts and feelings out.... wait a minute, something of that sort does....spoiler...

When the Batgirl arc (sort of) is over, the real story begins all of a sudden. It will surely make the audience wonder what was the real connection? Anyhu, rest of the movie is pretty faithful to the Graphic Novel. However, the mood is already set on a different note and the movie is struggling to set the new mood. The flashbacks are very important, but in the movie it almost seems it is being rushed through. The moment Joe finds out about the tragic fate of his wife has been dealt with such disconnect, it is almost a forced attempt to be faithful.

The whole mood of Batman and Joker understanding each other at some level - the "one bad day" - is lost when Barbara's injury becomes the connecting point between the unnecessary Batgirl introduction and the mid-credits introduction of Oracle. As an audience and a fan, I most missed the afterword and the art afterword of the Graphic Novel. Of course, they didn't need to do it exactly, but something of that kind would have made the movie great.

In spite of all the negatives, it is a good watch. Definitely, do not miss it, but also do not expect the quality of The Flashpoint Paradox or The Dark Knight Returns brought to the fans by the DCAU.

Decent movie, but Alan Moore would hate it...

[sinuois · 8/10 · 23 July 2016]

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.

Over-hyped, Unimpressive, R rating misleading.

[sdmeshotto · 7/10 · 2 August 2016]

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.

A bland retelling of a powerful novel

[Rendanlovell · 4/10 · 25 July 2016]

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.

A great adaptation

[wanderlazaro · 8/10 · 23 July 2016]

First, It is important to say that I'm not a geek, a huge HQ fan, or anything like that. So, if you want a review done by an expert, this is not the review for you. Otherwise, if you appreciate an honest review you can keep reading. Batman the killing joke is a great adaptation to the screens of a very successful HQ. The humanity that the plot line conveyed to the joker, mainly at the end of the movie, was surprising. This was the high point of the movie for me. His philosophy that states we should embrace the chaos through madness is well built and you can understand his answer to all the randomness around us. At the end of this movie, you will probably even feel bad for the guy. Perhaps, you might even been convinced that, as the joker says, "we really are just one bad day away from being him". Ps: English is not my first language, so don't mind the mistakes.

Bin the first 30 minutes and you have a more fresh feeling,entertaining film

[JustALittleBitRandom · 6/10 · 8 August 2016]

Batman goes on the hunt for The Joker who is kidnapping and torturing Commissioner Gordon and his family in a similar way to his own descent into madness.

One thing that immediately stands out about this film is how much it seems to want to be like the graphic novel that it is adapted from. This is because the dialogue seems like it has literally been taken from the novel itself and copied word for word, this is accompanied by animation that looks like it's just a moving version of panels from the original comics/ Killing Joke graphic novel. It basically seems to be a direct literal adaptation of Alan Moore's famous, classic novel. This might majorly stand out at the start of this film adaptation because the first 30 minutes of the film seem to be a bit slow and just a long build up and introduction to the lives of Batman and Batgirl/ Barbara Gordon and so later plot details are further understood or emotional pain for certain characters is deepened because of this connection with the characters. In fact the connection with the characters in this film isn't really that strong and at times they just seem to be there ,even Batman has this feeling when he is present in some scenes, this can also be said for the character of the Joker (voiced by Mark Hamill) he might be one of the best things about the film but he doesn't seem very understandable in his actions and motives until later in the film when his backstory ,if it is even his real one due to the character previously making up many different backstories making him more mysterious and in some cases creepy, is revealed and we see what his life was previously like and what drew him into the state of madness that has made him one of the most famous and iconic on-screen and comic book villains ever. As this is done the character of The Joker gets better and better and more enjoyable and the same can be said for the rest of the film as more is revealed and as more events unravel/ occur the pace gets quicker and the film gets better and more entertaining pulling the audience in and providing a more detective style superhero film which at times feels fresh, new and different.

If you ignore the first 30 minutes then Batman: The Killing Joke is a fresh animated superhero film that not only shows a new side to the character of The Joker but puts him centre stage as the star of the show. Overall it might have a dodgy script and seem like a literal direct lazy adaptation at times but it's an enjoyable film with some highly entertaining moments.

*** <-- Three Stars (Out of Five)

They wasted good material and awesome actors...on this?

[kronoase · 3/10 · 28 March 2017]

I was a fan of the graphic novel, so I will admit that already set a high bar to please me. I would never have considered watching it but for the voice talents of Hamill and Conroy.

So I got comfortable and watched, hoping to be 'disturbed.' I was...but not in the manner which I had been expecting. It was FLAT. Like a soda you enjoy left open in a warm room allowed to lose every bubble of carbonation as well as achieve a temperature of lukewarm tepid. My mind wished I could somehow spit it out now. But no... It is there now. Any fond memories of the graphic novel...gone. Replaced with this.

Keeping this "spoiler free" was extraordinarily easy as it is already a spoiled mire of good talent and incredible source material wasted.

Roundly poor

[bob the moo · 23 October 2016]

I have read the graphic novel from which this film comes, but it has been years and I did not bring anything to this film version other than the hope that it would be a good film. I also didn't care that it got an R-rating in the US; I cannot think of a film that was 'good' simply because it was graphic, and those excited that a franchise got such a rating are really missing the point. Anyway, watching the film was a serious disappointment. The first half was dull and lacking anything that really linked to the second half in a satisfying manner. I really do not care whether or not it is in the source material, for me it was more that it was dull and disconnected. The second half I the film proper and to be fair it is better, but not as good as it needed to be.

There is a real lack of grit and atmosphere in the delivery. For all the time spent with Batgirl, the film could have fleshed out dialogue, horrors, and conflict between the characters. Instead this felt truncated and lacking roots. For all the potential in the led two, there was little delivered but yet just enough to indicate what it could have been. It felt rushed, which may have been true because the film as a whole has a cheap feeling. The animation has little character or depth, and looked basic in both detail but also in movement. Searching online as to why, it seems that the animation was every 4 frames, which contributes to a choppy feel despite reducing cost. The voice work is good throughout, just a shame not to have a better product to deliver.

The Killing Joke had a lot of hype, most of which I ignored. Even with no preconceptions and reasonable expectations though, the film didn't deliver, and feels cheap, rushed, and poorly filled out.

Unpredictable Ending !

[deepumpoudel · 7/10 · 23 July 2016]

First off, this is not the best Batman movie there is. Neither is this the best Joker movie. But it is a good movie. I don't understand the First Act of the movie, it is weird and there had nothing except a little bit of character development that was not really required. Other than that I don't have, pretty much, any problem with this movie. I love the Joker in this movie and the story they created for him. I like the character arcs and I like the Batman.

But what I find absolutely incredible about this movie is its ending, trust me you will not be able to predict its ending no matter how many predictions you have. And I loved that about this movie. if you like Batman and if you like comic book movies you definitely should watch it. I mean, I enjoyed it and I think you will. So yes, give it a watch.

A solid entry in the DC animated universe

[darkreignn · 7/10 · 7 November 2020]

"Batman: The Killing Joke" is one of the most acclaimed graphic novels of all time, so saying I was excited to viewits animated adaptation would be an understatement. I left my expectations at the door, fired up Netflix, and sat down with my cousin, who fell asleep about 15 minutes into this movie.

Full disclosure: I am not the biggest fan of animation; that's not to say I don't enjoy it. Maybe my lack of enthusiasm for animated film is because of my lack of viewing high-quality animation. Luckily, "Batman: The Killing Joke," is, in fact, high-quality. As a fan of compelling drama, intriguing moral dilemmas, and of course, Batman, this movie delivered. To be perfectly honest, this was one of the most thoroughly entertaining animated superhero movies that I have seen, period.

Why did I enjoy this movie? For one, while the first third of this film has been met with polarizing reactions, to say the least, I really enjoyed the character building of Batgirl, and the exploration of her relationship with Batman. Sure, some of the dialogue and situations presented were extremely melodramatic, but I can't deny that I found it fascinating. The fact that Batgirl is basically the main character of the first act of this film was also an unexpected twist that consistently held my interest, and I enjoyed watching her interactions with Batman, as well as the criminals of Gotham. Also, the focus on her makes the inevitable incident regarding her and Mr. J all the more impactful.

And when Joker presents himself and the focus shifts to Batman, the film picks up in a big way. Batman is already an inherently interesting character, and watching him struggle with his own sense of morality in the face of Joker's psychotic behavior is riveting. Mark Hamill plays Joker to perfection, perfectly encapsulating his madness, as well as demonstrating a more sympathetic side during the film's flashback sequences. On the other hand, and it pains me to say this, I found Batman's voice actor to be lacking. While Mark Hamill sounded like he was relishing his performance, Kevin Conroy, the actor who plays Batman in this film, sounded like he was reading his lines directly off the script. Now, whether this is due to a legitimate lack of enthusiasm on his part, or because the lines simply do not translate from page to screen, is not clear. What is clear, however, is that his performance, while lackluster, is perfectly watchable, and did not detract from my overall enjoyment of the film as a whole.

Additionally, I did find the animation to be, as a whole, cheap and bland. There were certain scenes that look absolutely gorgeous, almost as if the graphic novel leapt from the page to the screen. Besides those few sequences, though, the animation did feel unnaturally stiff and under-detailed. This may not be an issue for you, but since this was a major release based off of one of the best graphic novels of all time, I did expect a certain level of polish and detail that this movie did not deliver.

"Batman: The Killing Joke" is a fantastic drama. With a gritty story that explores how much pain a man can take before he abandons his humanity and loses his mind, this more grounded take on a Batman story is sure to satisfy your itch for a dark, yet entertaining, animated superhero film.

It should have been the best Batman movie...

[thesuperskamaster · 6/10 · 2 January 2017]

I have to admit, I was a little disappointed in this one. Which is frustrating, because as a whole it was actually pretty good, but there were some problems that really should not have been there. The Killing Joke is my all-time favorite graphic novel. I have read and re-read it dozens of times, so when I heard DC was making a Killing Joke movie, I was ecstatic. When I heard they got Kevin Conroy (the one true Batman) and Mark Hamill (the best Joker ever) for it? I literally ran around squeeing with joy-- and I'm a grown man. When I caught wind of the special, one-night-only event to see it in theaters? I pulled out my wallet and got tickets, because my favorite Batman thing ever was going to be a movie. It's never fair to expect perfection of a movie adaptation, so I let myself go along for the ride as it started with a Batgirl story. I nodded, thinking "Cool, this'll set up the Killing Joke stuff that happens with her to have more emotional weight." And it should have, but then it went in a direction I still feel very uncomfortable with every time I think about it-- spoiler: Batman and Batgirl have sex. Okaaaaayyyy.... Yeah, no, that should only happen in the context of Dick Grayson being Batman when Bruce has disappeared. There is an uncomfortably large age gap, it's not true to the characters, and it's just weird. Even though the story keeps showing us Barbara wanting it, it's still not right because of everything about who they are as characters. Then, after that... interesting... encounter, we move into the actual Killing Joke turf. I will say that section was well-adapted and definitely worth watching. But another complaint about this movie is that the art quality was very inconsistent, and often was downright bad. Did I expect it to look exactly like the graphic novel? No. But did I want it to be at least on the higher-quality end of the scale for DC animated movies? Of course I did, and it was probably the worst looking one to date.

A great batman film no doubt but...

[rippermaster-121-980673 · 7/10 · 23 July 2016]

This was staged to be the darkest batman ever but i have seen darker mainly "Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Part 1&2". It wasn't bad it just didn't deliver promises, Mark Hamill was perfect as always in the role of joker. There is a end credits scene that teases future films. IMO: it is a good film i would even stretch to call it a great film (compared to DC's releases this year) but if you are looking for a dark and gritty i would recommend Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Part 1 and for live action i would recommend Christopher Nolan's trilogy my favorite character in this film was either bat-girl or joker as they shined the most out of anyone. its R rating was earned due to partial nudity a heavily implied sex scene (it doesn't show us anything) and gore. 7/10

My kind of Bat movie

[pcinpocket · 10/10 · 22 July 2016]

I have been waiting for this movie since i saw the trailer. Movie is well designed and its very well plotted. Obviously it has some disturbing scenes, but that's what make this movie intense.

It more about proving a point. Half the movie is narrated by Bat girl.

Joker wants to prove a point and as always he fails. Its about madness. Which is not by choice.

Epic rivalry between batman and joker, turns into a very mature understanding. But this is a point that they can not go back where they have started.

The joker's past is a really sad. All and all its the one of the best DC movie. I am a Batman fan. Maybe i am biased. But who cares.

What the hell was this?

[siderite · 6/10 · 31 July 2016]

I am not much into Batman, but I wanted to watch this because of all the hype of it being R-rated and because I liked the trailer. It is a bit longer than an hour and in it there are only defective people. The R-ratedness was not really something that I noticed, really. Maybe because I am from Europe. It just seemed a normal violent hero movie.

I could go into the Joker origin story, I could understand the senpai fixation of Bat-Girl, I could even get Batman's uberdominant stance - I mean, it's his signature mark. What I couldn't get was the ending. It completely went as nuts as Joker himself and deconstructed the entire Batman universe.

Now here come mild spoilers: Batman almost wants to get killed walking calmly into what is clearly a trap, only to finally catch the Joker and then... he talks to him. The reason for it is because he knows at one time or another he will kill Joker or viceversa. But that pretty much dissolves the reason Batman does anything he does. If he knows jails won't hold the Joker, why is he jailing him all the time?

The entire film underlines the futility of every character's efforts and even life. Batman jails people only for them to always get away, Batgirl does things for the kicks and then she loses them, Joker doesn't understand why a sociopath like him is the joke of the story and the other - Batman - is a hero, the gangsters go through the motions only to be foiled at the end, almost expecting it, and Gordon fails in everything: as a father, as a cop and as an upholder of order.

Bottom line: the joke at the end... it's not funny. I feel it was intentional and therefore my analysis holds ground: this is a story that outlines the pointlessness of the Batman universe and if you look into the story of the writer, it may very well be what he had meant all along. The Killing Joke was supposed to kill Batman, the comic book.

One of DC's worst blunders.

[Hellspawn92 · 4/10 · 15 April 2017]

This movie is awful. As a stand alone movie, it's weak and ineffective. As an adaptation, it's a travesty.

What should be a deep, poignant movie that reflects on the nature of good and evil, why we become what we become, whether free will exists and other fascinating themes, becomes a lame action movie full of fan service, bad writing, bad characterization and terrible pacing.

This movie is doomed by a complete misunderstanding of what made the comic great, a bad writer and total lack of respect for its characters (especially Barbara Gordon).

Everything great about the comic was done poorly or taken out. And all the additions are awful.

A fan of the comic will hate it and a newcomer will just wonder why the hell the comic is considered a masterpiece, if this is the story people raved about for 30 years.

Animation is decent and voice acting is good, so I gave it a 4/10 out of respect for those things.

But this one of the worst things ever produced by DC.

People are overreacting

[webhead-43310 · 9/10 · 24 July 2016]

Although this movie is not perfect by any means, it adapts most of the short graphic novel into a decent animated movie. Performances are amazing as always with Mark Hamill blowing everyone away again. People are however furious with this scene that takes place between TDK and BG, which I don't really see an issue with. In the comics and on some traditional media I do feel some sort of tension between these two and even though it might be a little out in left field it doesn't ruin it at all. I personally really enjoyed the film as an avid comic book reader and fan of Batman. Everyone calm the f*** down, it's just a movie, and it's fine.

High expectations,mediocre results.

[rianchakraborty23 · 6/10 · 25 July 2016]

Umm so first thing's first,the animation was absolute garbage,like seriously,most TV cartoons have better animation,and it was so bad that it was almost irritating to watch the movie.

The plot was just okay,Mark Hamill and Kevin Conroy make sure they don't turn you down with their voices but what really got me into it was the last 10 minutes or so,they were absolutely incredible to say the least,however the first 1h or so was just dragging.

Honestly the movie,according to me,would have been a lot better if the length was shorter. However,I do recommend Batman fans to watch it,just for the last 10 minutes.

DC Animated's Killing Joke Absolutely Not For Fans of Novel

[MackMonMay87 · 4/10 · 26 July 2016]

(Warning: This review contains spoilers about the story, especially for those who haven't read the source material.)

DC Animated productions, mostly headed up by the fantastic Bruce Timm, have had a series of hits, with great animated films such as Batman: Under The Red Hood, Batman: Year One, Flashpoint, Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths, and more. Even some of their generally lesser efforts are entertaining and still enjoyable.

Timm also worked on the great Justice League animated series, Batman: Beyond, and of course the original Batman: The Animated Series, which helped pave the way for all of DC's animated productions.

It goes without saying that Bruce Timm knows the Batman character and what drives him, and what Batman stories need to be told, so that's why this recent adaptation of Alan Moore's classic 80's graphic novel: The Killing Joke, is such a disappointment.

If you haven't read the Killing Joke, do yourself a favor, and go ahead and do that now, if you're in any way a fan of the Batman character. It's not the most comfortable read, but gives insight to how dark the world of Batman is meant to be.

The Killing Joke features a great misunderstanding of the themes of the story, and a lackluster and dull set of production values to go along with that thematic miss.

The animation is the first thing that turned me off to this piece. Unlike the fluid fight scenes and lush colors of The Dark Knight Returns, or the sharp, defined shapes of Under the Red Hood, The Killing Joke has awful character designs and flat, bland colors, with vehicles rendered in a 3D that looks like bad Playstation 1 graphics. None of the fight scenes, which are often a crowning achievement for DC animated, have any intensity or true kinetic action to them. Whenever the characters are still, you can truly see the lack of detail in the designs, which makes the characters look very plain.

As far as the story, the movie takes the worst possible turn you could by adding a whole 30 minutes of story and background centered around Batgirl that is plodding, dull, and feels like a totally different story and style than when they arrive at the Alan Moore material over halfway into the movie. They use direct dialouge from the Alan Moore material, some of which felt awkward and strange-sounding spoken aloud, especially contrasting with the much different sounding dialouge of the first act of the movie. One of the spoilers I'll mention here is this clunky first act ending in Batgirl having a totally out of place sex scene with Batman. I gave up hope on enjoying this animated film at that moment, since I knew they had totally departed from the comic book's vision of the story, already muddling the story with irrelevant events, and then making it worse by confusing the relationship of two of the characters.

Batman and Batgirl have a parental relationship, like between him and Robin, where he mentors, trains, and sometimes keeps her in check, as Batman is an uncompromising character who always does things his way. This scene served no purpose in the story, and makes it seem as if he's going after the Joker because Barbara is his lover, not because of the tragic events that happen.

On top of all of this, I didn't feel that the original novel's ambiguous ending translated to an animated format. They didn't build the tension of anything that happened in the movie, it all just kind of came and went.

Even the fantastic voices of Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill don't really have the same usual enthusiasm here. They still have a great sound for the characters, but the intense feeling you get from hearing those portrayals at their best, in past material, just wasn't here. I have to say that especially Kevin Conroy felt like he was phoning it in, which pains me to say as he is the definitive Batman voice in my opinion. The rest of the voice cast is forgettable, with some especially stilted lines from the actor playing Gordon, who's supposed to go through some very serious, harrowing events here. It's a shame that Bryan Cranston wasn't available again for the role.

Overall, the poor animation, terrible and blundering writing, and the mediocre voices contribute to a very dull and flat telling of what should be a dark, disturbing, and uncompromising Batman story. What we're left with in return is a product that makes me think this story really should be left in the comics.

Batman: The Killing Joke gets a 4 out of 10, only for the continued commitment of Conroy and Hamill. Let's hope that this isn't their final work together in these parts.