Released: July 2016
Director: Sam Liu
Rated R
Run Time: 77 Minutes
Distributor: Warner Bros.
Genre: Animated, Action
Cast:
Kevin Conroy: Batman/Bruce Wayne
Mark Hamill: The Joker
Tara Strong: Batgirl/Barbara Gordon
Ray Wise: Commissioner Gordon
John DiMaggio: Francesco
Robin Atkin Downes: Detective Bullock
Brian George: Alfred
Batman has a lot of enemies. His Rogue’s Gallery is extensive: Two-Face, The Riddler, Deadshot, Deathstroke, Poison Ivy, Bane, Ra’s Al Ghul, Scarecrow, The Penguin, and the Croc, just to name a few. As you can imagine, the Dark Knight tends to have his hands full most days. But the one villain that keeps coming back and most people recognize is The Joker. The Joker is quite frankly, the most iconic comic book villain ever created. He is essentially Batman’s opposite. Whereas Batman represents order, The Joker represents chaos. He’s intelligent, quick-witted, colorful, violent and absolutely insane, and he just doesn’t care. But what do we really know about the character and where he comes from? Depending on the comic you read or the movie you watch, he’s either a failed comedian or a mobster that was betrayed by his boss. While there have been many comics and movies that deal with the Joker, perhaps none are as well-known or revered as The Killing Joke.
Opening on a dark night in Gotham City(oooh….ominous!) we see Batman and Batgirl chase down a truck that’s being driven by a couple of hoodlums lead by Francesco, the son of a local mob boss. After failing to catch the criminal, Batgirl sets out to try and find Francesco and ends up getting in trouble again….and again. After Francesco gets apprehended by the police, we learn that the Joker has escaped from prison and is on the loose. If you haven’t read the graphic novel by Alan Moore or seen this movie yet, I’m not going to spoil some of the story for you. The story in The Killing Joke is one of the most well-known and shocking stories told in the DC Universe. A great many people consider it to be the definitive Joker story. I would have to agree, it is phenomenal. The writing is tight, dark and brutal. That’s if you get past the whole Batgirl part of the film. See, the film makers wanted people to empathize with Barbara Gordon, so they threw in a subplot involving Batgirl and a local mobster. It wouldn’t have been so bad if the film-makers had actually respected the characters during the first 30 minutes of the movie. See, what happens is that Batgirl gets the attention of Francesco who seems to have a fetish for her and leads her into a trap. Luckily for her, Batman is not too far behind, but they end up getting into an argument, at the end of which, they fight and….have sex. Yep. On the rooftop in the middle of the night, Batman and Batgirl get down and dirty, even though we don’t actually see it. This bothers me on so many levels. It’s not the fact that they put in a Batgirl subplot to pad out the movie a bit, it’s that they treated Batgirl as a whiny, spoiled girl who has the hots for her mentor, Batman. If that’s not creepy, I don’t what is. This part of the film was not handled properly. I’ll go into detail into how they could’ve fixed later on. When the film gets to the actual Killing Joke plot, the movie gets infinitely better and it’s amazing. From the moment Barbara gets shot to the final showdown between Batman and the Joker, the film never fails to keep your attention. The story is GREAT. It’s incredibly well-written(with the exception of the first 30 minutes of the film, of course) and goes to some VERY dark territory, but it is handled very well.
I’ll tell you what the film does have going for it: The performances. The voice-acting is superb. You’ve got Kevin Conroy, who’s voiced Batman for the Animated Series and nearly every animated Batman film, including Mask of the Phantasm. He’s got this great heavy voice that means business and gets the job done. Tara Strong is…well…strong as Barbara Gordon, and even though her character isn’t handled well at the beginning of the film, she gets her time to shine. The one to watch and listen to, though, is Mark Hamill as The Joker. The Joker has been played by many actors including Cesar Romero, Jack Nicholson and the late Heath Ledger. Each actor gave the character their own unique spin and each performance is iconic. However, it’s Mark Hamill that gives The Joker his most distinctive voice. That maniacal laugh is unlike anything I’ve heard anybody do for the character. Hamill just steals the show. He’s also played the Joker the longest, as he was a part of the Animated Series, along with Mr. Conroy. Just listen:
Some of the artwork and animations aren’t exactly the greatest here. The character designs are alright, but the backgrounds aren’t exactly…popping out at you. Honestly, I’ve seen better artwork from Mask of the Phantasm which was released back in 1995. I understand that they were trying to keep to the art-style of the graphic novel, but some of it just seems…wrong. The action is fine and keeps coming, so it’s never boring at least. The music isn’t the greatest either. There’s nothing here that stands out as far as the music goes. Then again, it’s probably really hard to put music to such an iconic story. There’s also been a lot of hullabaloo about the film’s R rating. It definitely earns that rating, but was it really necessary? A lot of the extra violence happens in the first thirty minutes. There’s a lot of blood spilled in this film. Then there’s the aforementioned shagging session between Batgirl and Batman, which I’m pretty sure was put in there to provoke a reaction. That’s the feeling I’m getting here. I’m not opposed to the extra violence. When you consider the source material, some of it was necessary. Barbara getting shot through the spine was a huge part of the story, and it affected everyone involved, including Batman.
I’m getting back to the story here, as there’s a lot of psychological underpinnings that run throughout the entire film. It basically shows the origins of the Joker and how he becomes the character. He basically has one REALLY bad day, and it sends him over the edge. But you also see some parallels between him and Batman, as Batman himself had a very bad day when his parents were killed. That’s kind of the whole point, that all it takes is one bad day and it changes things forever. So, the idea that The Joker and Batman are not so different is extremely interesting. Their reaction to their given situation is the only real difference. It’s fantastic. Going back to the beginning of the film, they could have avoided certain issues by not making Batgirl whiny, cutting the entire idea where she has sex with Batman and eliminate the scene where she gives Batman her uniform. That lessened the emotional impact of what happens to Barbara later. That would have solved my problems with the movie. Overall, though, the film gets more right than it gets wrong. It’s kind of hard to really talk about the Killing Joke part of the film when the first half-hour of the film failed so hard. But my overall impression of the film is that it’s a pretty good movie. For me, it’s an 8/10. The first half-hour could have and should have been handled better considering the source material. When The Killing Joke actually starts, it’s a 10/10. Even at it’s worst, the film isn’t half-bad. I still recommend it.