Review of Batman and Harley Quinn (2017) by John A — 07 Oct 2017

It's not as glaringly terrible as last year's "The Killing Joke" adaptation, but once again Bruce Timm and the DC Animated Movie crew dropped the ball on what should have been a definite slam-dunk with this latest DC film.

While the premise could lead to some fun storytelling possibilities (like the Batman animated episode "Harlequinade," the Caped Crusader is forced to work with Joker's right-hand lady to halt a villain's catastrophic scheme) the actual script goes for the most lackluster route and concludes with a thud, offering no reason to make it worth watching.

The average viewer would think that hearing Melissa Rauch's distinctive vocals would fit nicely for the (other) title role; unfortunately, whether it was just me being used to associating her voice from her live-action stuff or other reasons, the sound of her speaking [as Harley] with dialogue usually coming from Arleen Sorkin or Tara Strong just rang false to me.

Outside of these issues as its foundation, a bigger problem for me was how Harleen was reduced to a male fantasy, confined to perform that role and nothing more. Without having a fleshed-out character arc, her only part to play in the narrative was simply as an object of lust (which neither serves the character, not the general audience).

For me personally, yet another massive gripe I had with the movie was their frustrating treatment of Nightwing (Loren Lester reprising his part from "The New Batman Adventures"). An interesting character in his own right, the alter ego of former Robin Dick Grayson is made into an annoying idiot.

Even with the (somewhat) cool villains, the return of the "DC Animated Universe" house style to an animated feature, and Kevin Conroy stepping in once more as the Dark Knight, this flick is an easily skippable, wholly disappointing entry of the DC Animated Movie library.