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+