Batman: The Killing Joke Review

Batman: The Killing Joke

The Killing Joke is an animated feature adapted from the graphic novel of the same name. The graphic novel is considered one of the greatest of all time and the definitive Joker story. It's easily my favourite and the reason why Joker is my favourite character of all fiction.

It revolves around the Joker's most personal scheme yet, as he attempts to drive Commission Gordon insane in the same way that drove him to become the Clown Prince of Crime; just one bad day.

This also leads to some flashback sequences showing what appears to be the Joker's origin story and the bad day that caused him to become a homicidal maniac.

This adaption has been highly anticipated for years, so much so that it was shown a couple of weeks ago at select theatres. I was lucky enough to get to see it and I initially enjoyed the majority of it. Now after buying it on Blu-Ray, my opinion has dropped slightly.

I have to say that I do really enjoy the actual Killing Joker portion, which I'll move onto soon, but it's so unfortunate that we have to wade through a half hour of mediocrity to even get to that point.

To lengthen the runtime of the feature, the first half hour features a story mainly focusing on Batgirl. I would have been totally fine with this but they could have done so much better than this. I understand it is supposed to make us feel more sympathetic towards Batgirl/Barbara Gordon when we get to the events of the Killing Joke novel.

The main problem is that this story section doesn't even tie in to the main event of Killing Joke and just seems more like a bonus episode of a Batman cartoon before the main feature starts. The story revolves around Batgirl hunting down the ridiculously named Paris Franz, as he taunts and stalks her in a perverted way.

He's just not threatening and just exists to objective Batgirl which the movie should have avoided doing. It feels like a slog to get through and I skipped right by it as soon as I got the blu-ray. It also features the maligned 'sex-scene' between Batgirl and Batman which had my screening in hysterics. It just comes out of nowhere and seems so unnecessary in the grand scheme of things.

Once that's finally over we get to the real reason to watch this; the actual adaptation of The Killing Joke. Mark Hamill returns in quite possibly his last time playing Joker and absolutely steals the movie. He was always the definitive Joker to me and he gives us one his better performances here. This includes his broadway musical number of 'I Go Looney' which I'll admit was a fantastic choice by the writers. It contrasts so well with the psychological horror going on at the same time which I won't spoil here.

The animation was a bit choppy and a bit more money could have been put into it. It's not too bad but it is noticeable at times. Batman especially looks a little off at first. At least we also have who I consider to be the definitive voice of Batman, Kevin Conroy, returning to the role. Kevin and Mark working together again for perhaps the final time is definitely the highlight of the feature for me.

The actual Killing Joke sections are adapted almost straight from the graphic novel along with most of the dialogue and it does work really well. There are a few changes here and there but I'd say they were necessary. The ending may be my favourite part of the entire thing, but again I won't spoil that here.

Overall this feels like a very mixed bag of a movie. If it was just the 45 minutes of Killing Joke it would be an easy A- rating from me. The unfortunate part is the first half hour that really drags proceedings and had so much potential to be something better. If you are going to buy this movie I would recommend just skipping to the 30 minute mark. It's what I'll be doing in future. Still I'd say it's worth picking up for Batman and Joker fans, and get your hands on the limited edition box set I found on Amazon if you can. It comes with a cute little Joker figurine at no extra cost. There is a good movie in here. You just have to swim through crap to get to it.


Rating: C+

Suicide Squad Review

Suicide Squad


Just over one year ago at Comic-Con, a trailer for a movie was leaked that had everyone talking. That trailer was for Suicide Squad and it looked fantastic. It was pretty grim and a definite contrast from future trailers that tried to give it a sense of fun with music from Queen and Sweet.

I was just about as excited as I was for the Force Awakens release. Finally I was getting another film with my favourite character from all fiction, The Joker, and now we finally had the long awaited big screen debut of Harley Quinn.

So now the movie has been released worldwide and there has been some mixed critical and fan opinion, mostly leaning towards the negative side. I don't think the movie deserves as much of critical panning as it did receive (worse than Fant4stic and Green Lantern, are you freaking serious) but at the same time I don't think it deserves a huge amount of praise it has been receiving from certain outlets and fanboys. I know I myself would count as a fanboy but I wouldn't go as far as to start a petition to close a review site because it gave a movie I liked bad reviews.

Anyway as someone who has grown up with a few of these characters and has read many of their stories through the comic books (including the New 52 Suicide Squad issues which are awesome) I thought I'd throw my two cents in.

Don't worry I won't spoil anything.

I do have to admit that the first twenty minutes of the film are a ton of fun, and I did enjoy the way they introduced most of the squad members. We learn about these characters through Viola Davis's great performance as Amanda Waller, the director who brings the squad together. Through some flashback scenes we get a little background for the bad guys, with most of the attention being paid to Harley Quinn and Deadshot.

My favourite scene from the movie is around this point. It doesn't last very long and it's the one we see at the end of the trailer with Batman chasing down Joker and Harley through the streets of Gotham. It totally reminded me of the amazing Batman animated series and I'd love to see more of just this; Batman taking on The Joker. Hopefully we'll see some of this in the Batman solo movie in a couple of years time.

The best thing about the movie has to be the squad itself, made up of a crew of individually interesting characters. The only problem I have is that we only seem to focus on the bigger names and characters like Katana, Killer Croc, and Captain Boomering just feeling like filler to bulk up the team. I'd have loved more than a two sentence explanation for their backstories and why we should care about them.

The main team members do knock it out of the park though. El Diablo worked well as a character who seemed to be living with some major regrets and a dark past. Deadshot was played well by Will Smith and this is the first time I've enjoyed him in a role in a long time. He plays it with the usual Smith swagger and succeeds in putting a bit of humanity in the hitman.

Margot Robbie totally steals the show as Harley Quinn and proved that she was the perfect choice for the role. Any fan of the character can definitely put their mind to rest as she was just as captivating as the Harley we all know and love from the animated series and comics. I've heard there may be a solo movie in the works for her and I would love to see this.

And that brings us down to the one everyone was waiting for. Jared Leto as The Joker. How was he? Well I for one thought he knocked it out of the park. I always enjoy the different interpretations of Joker and this one was done brilliantly. Just as quickly as he took some of the goofiness of Mark Hamill's Joker he could quickly turn as violent and terrifying as Heath Ledger's. This is the Joker to me. A mix of a clown and psychopathic serial killer.

This also brings me to one of my major disappointments of the film. The last few trailers featured quite a bit of Leto's Joker but he's in the movie for what feels like less than ten minutes. Most other reviews say he has around 25 minutes of screen time, but I have no idea of what movie they were watching because it definitely wasn't anywhere near that. What makes it even worse is that he was pointless and didn't actually need to be here which does piss me off a bit. If he wasn't in this, nothing would have changed in the story.

This also brings me to the main villain of the plot that I won't reveal as it's apparently a spoiler, but they were awful. Barely any build, a flimsy excuse for what they're doing and just not threatening at all. I hate to bring the comparison to the awful Fant4stic, but the finale did feel a lot like that one, and the villain just as bland.

I know I've not really mentioned much about the plot, but honestly that's because there isn't much of one. It's basically just getting the squad together and then getting from point A to point B and beat the baddies for the entire runtime.

I would say overall that the first half is good but it does take a bit of a nose dive as it goes on towards the forgettable final act. It feels like it's trying to be The Avengers but without any previous efforts towards building the characters or the stakes. It is a bit better than Batman vs Superman, but honestly not by much. DC still have a long way to go until they can figure out how to make great movies that don't feature Christopher Nolan. At least we know any future movie featuring Joker and Harley will be worth watching out for. It's not as bad as most critics are saying and a lot of people will probably love this. In my opinion, it's only average.


Rating: C