There are plenty of comic books worthy of being adapted into films, either live action or animated. Every single fan of comics accepts this as an undeniable fact. Just look at how Marvel and DC alike have used the basis of some of their great storylines to form the plots of some of the movies in their live-action universes: Marvel used the Civil War arc for their latest Captain America venture, while DC loosely used elements of the well-known Knightfall storyline in creating "The Dark Knight Rises." However, many comic book fans often look to animated movies when looking for plots that resemble the comics much more closely, with some even being exact replicas of the graphic novel they are adapting. DC, in particular, have been ruling this section of the market, with many of their movies all being extremely well-reviewed. These include "Justice League: War," "Wonder Woman," "Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths" and the (absolutely phenomenal) "Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox." So it's fairly understandable how so many people, myself included, who were extremely excited when an animated adaption of Alan Moore's acclaimed graphic novel "Batman: The Killing Joke" was announced, with an R-Rating to boot, making it the first R-Rated DC Universe animated movie. This comic has aged extremely well, and is seen by many as a turning point for the character of the Joker, making him into the more murderous and psychotic criminal we all know and love today, with the book giving a more detailed insight into the character's psychosis than fans had ever seen before. Now, this movie has been released digitally and on DVD. Unfortunately, while by no means all bad, "Batman: The Killing Joke" is a bit of a let down, with entirely new pieces of story being added which only served to lower my score on this one.
Fans of the "Killing Joke" comic book story know that it is a relatively short graphic novel all things considered and it is understandable that Warner Bros may have thought that there was not enough material to fill an hour and a quarter (the average length of one of these animated movies). As a reviewer, let me just say that I am fully aware that sometimes the studio have to make changes to certain elements. However, if the writers are going to add new elements to the movie all I ask is that it fit in with the rest of the story and be just as well written. That, therefore, brings us to my first big criticism of this movie: the first 30 minutes. This is an entirely new first act which sees Batman and Batgirl working together prior to the events of the comic book to bring down a new crime boss in Gotham called Paris Franz (I wish I was joking on that one). Unfortunately, this whole half an hour feels entirely out of place, with all of the new characters introduced not being integrated in anyway into the rest of the main story later on. The whole plot of Batman chasing down a crime boss with no powers, abilities, or even interesting personality (besides a twisted love for Batgirl), also feels very boring and dull, especially considering the Joker comes into the story later on, making the audience completely forget about these early characters. All of the new characters are also stupid and stereotypical to boot: the aforementioned generic mob boss, the British henchman, the much older crime lord, and many more. The whole purpose of this side story is simply to emotional weight to the characters and the events that transpire within the main plot of the story later on. Overall, it feels pointless and out of place.
This is only made worse by the fact that the final 45-50 minutes of the movie are excellently written, and much more entertaining to watch, largely down to the integration of the Joker into the story (after being completely absent for the first act) and his dynamic with Batman and Commissioner Gordon. The Joker's backstory was also a fascinating aspect to see translated to the screen, with the writer's successfully making this murderous psychopath actually slightly sympathetic. That is, until the audience is constantly shocked by the violent and mature acts that are shown on screen. Make no mistake, this is more violent and unlike any animated movie we've ever seen before. However, while I am singing the praises of the writers here with regards this section of the movie, this may be largely down to the fact that scenes of the movie are exact replicas and have dialogue that is word-for-word from it's comic counterpart. The final aspect of the story which I have to mention is the ending. I won't spoil it here, but they absolutely nailed it. Appropriately shocking and ambiguous, the ending leaves the audience speechless as promised by the synopsis and leaves us up to decide what has truly just happened on screen.
Look, there's one more element regarding the story that I just need to talk about. If you've seen the movie or have simply been reading up on the movie recently, there's a fairly high chance you know what I'm talking about. It takes place about 20 minutes into the movie, around two thirds into the dull first act, and you may want to skip this paragraph if you want to avoid absolutely all spoilers revolving around this movie. Still here? Then let's talk about the unbelievable "#Batsex" controversy. Yes, that's right, I can now confirm for myself that this is not some sort of mass joke across the Internet and is actually a part of the movie. So, while Batman and Batgirl are chasing down the new crime boss I mentioned, there is a scene on a rooftop where Batman is trying to convince Batgirl that she needs to leave this particular case alone. As she gets more frustrated, she starts hitting him, eventually pinning him on the floor before....starting to kiss him. What follows isn't shown explicitly, but they do straight up say what happened. This is a downright insult to the character of Barbara Gordon and is included for no reason other than in an attempt to add more emotional depth to the character so that Batman is more emotionally affected by the tragedy that strikes later in the movie. Barbara is absolutely ruined by this scene, and I'll explain why. Rather than being the strong, independent character that she has always been in the comics, able to hold her own without the constant aid of the Batman and continually standing up against his judgement (although there is some of that here), she was never portrayed as the emotionally confused and clingy young woman that is seen here. Her conversations early in the movie with her stereotype friend in the library would be more akin to conversations you would here in a high school between two teenagers than between two adults. Overall, this may be more my reaction as a fan than one any other viewer may have had, but I see this as an insulting and cheap ploy to add some emotional weight to a character with absolutely no regard for the history and personality that they have had in the comics for over 30 years.
Let's move on, however, from one of the major negatives of the movie to one of the big positives: the voice acting is on point throughout, and this was to be expected. Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill truly are some of, if not the very best actors to play the characters of Batman and the Joker together over the years. Conroy has voiced the character for so many years and once again delivers a stone cold performance of the Dark Knight, while also doing a great job injecting emotion into the character when describing how close he has come to the edge during his crime fighting career. Mark Hamill once again delivers a suitably insane performance as the Clown Prince of Crime, but he truly shines during the flashback sequences showing the Joker's origin story scattered throughout the movie. These scenes allow Hamill to inject far more emotion into the character than ever before, and it is his performance that makes this character's road to insanity over the course of his "one bad day" actually understandable. The character's suffering and pain is extremely believable and it largely down to this that the audience is able to feel any kind of sympathy or empathy for the character whatsoever. The final main player in the story is Tara Strong as Barbara Gordon/Batgirl. It is mainly in the first act that this character has the time to shine, and Strong does an excellent job of portraying Barbara as an emotional and relatable character, particularly in her feuds and fights with her mentor. However, there is another scene which comes later in a hospital where Strong also does a fantastic job. The rest of the supporting cast also do well although they have got much less to do in the grand scheme of things. The only other character really worth mentioning is Ray Wise who voices Commissioner Gordon. While I'm not going to spoil the extent of his role in the second half of the movie, Wise delivers a very pained performance that is very suitable in the scenes which consistently shock the audience. Overall, there is amazing work across the board from all of the voice actors in the movie.
One aspect of the movie in particular is a very mixed bag. I said much earlier in the review that DC have been outdoing all of their competitors in the animated superhero movie market for years, with excellent animation across the board. The expertise they have persistently shown is present to an extent in this movie. For example, all of the main character's movements and actions look excellent (especially Joker) and are of the standard that fans would have expected from any modern animated movie. The detail that can be seen on these characters is breathtaking and deserves to be commended. The influence of Bruce Timm is particularly clear here. Timm acts as the producer on this movie and was also one of the show runners on the excellent "Batman: The Animated Series." All of the character models look like they have been lifted straight out of that show, which is a nice bit of nostalgia for any long time fans of the character such as myself. However, that said, there are plenty of pieces of animation in the movie that look absolutely terrible. This is completely unacceptable considering today's standards of animation. This never really involves objects or characters in the foreground of frames, but normally in the background. This may seem like a small nitpick to a lot of people but these stick out like a sore thumb. One of the many, many examples of this present throughout the film is in a police chase near the start of the movie. The police cars chasing the large van look incredibly low quality and have not had the sufficient amount of detail applied to them that would be expected of a movie being released in 2016. It only adds insult to injury that the foreground images and characters look so good which means that all of this terrible animation in the background in entirely down to either laziness or a severe lack in budget.
In the end, "Batman: The Killing Joke" is (mostly) a joy for comic book fans, but may infuriate casual viewers in a number of ways. It is undeniable that the first act is only there to add emotional depth to a few certain characters but is an overall weak addition to Alan Moore's fantastic story, with fairly generic plotting and characters throughout the first half hour. Not to mention the lacklustre scene I mentioned earlier, which is guaranteed to infuriate fans of the comic and characters. That's not to mention the background animation in a number of scenes, and you're going to have a much better time if you can ignore that kind of detail. However, this doesn't take away from the positives of the movie. As I said, the second and third acts of the movie are absolutely excellent, and the main characters are all extremely well animated and voice acted. A mixed bag to be sure. DC are undoubtedly still leading the pack with regards their animated features, and "The Killing Joke" comic is definitely worth a read if you get the chance. If you're already a fan of the source material, then I'd say this is worth a watch. If you are just getting into the character and the comics, then it's probably worth checking out a few comics and animated features to enjoy this one more. To be honest, you'll probably enjoy it more. At least #Batsex won't annoy you as much.
Pros
Fantastic voice acting
A compelling and often shocking story
Some great animation on the main characters...
Cons
....But plenty of less than great animation to be found
A dull first act
One particular insulting addition
Rating: 6/10
Release Date: 8th of August, 2016 (DVD Release)
Starring Kevin Conroy, Mark Hamill, Tara Strong, Ray Wise, Robin Atkin Downes, John DiMaggio, Brian George, Maury Sterling, and Nolan North
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