Review of Batman: The Killing Joke (2016) by Joseph D — 21 Aug 2016

It. Was. Unbe-flipping-lievable!!!!! This film could go down as one of, if not the, BEST BATMAN FILM EVER!!!

The story is "The Killing Joke", plain & simple. It's the story where The Joker tries to convince Batman that all it takes to ruin someone, even if they're a high-caliber individual, is "ONE. BAD. DAY.".

At first, it looks like an action film spiced with a bit of drama. But when the Clown Prince shows up, we're literally transported to Freak-O-Town! The narrative is slow, but steady. I was never board while watching, because every part of the story was interesting. The overall story was broken up by flashbacks, but they were not only integral, they provided a nice break in the tension of the main story.

The characters were 110% true to form, they were like the essence of each character throughout their existence, their true forms, finally realized. Batman was hard, because he had to be, even though it visibly pained him to be that way. Bat-Girl was at the point in her career where she could've started to identify with the original Robin/Night-Wing, the Bat was no longer a partner, but a dead weight, & something was gonna give between them. Commissioner Gordon clearly needs his own cape & cowl, that guy is a super-cop, all the way. Harvey Bullock was.....there, I really wish we could've seen more of him; he might not be a community pillar, but at least he's loyal to Gordon, & he's pretty cool in his own right. Alfred was....also there; seriously, he & Harvey get short-changed for the sake of the story, but at least they were there. And now, we get to the Clown Prince of Crime & Chaos himself: The Joker. Was. Messed. Up!!!! He makes Heath Ledger look like a boy-scout! He inspired terror, disgust, & even pity! When he was on screen, you just knew you didn't want to be in the same STATE with him, much less the same room! But we finally got to see multiple layers of the character, really almost all of the characters.

The voice cast was at the top of their game; to paraphrase Mr. J, I think they're destined to do this forever!

The visuals were AWESOME!!!! We got everything that's best in animation: mate paintings, large scale drawings, classic character animation, CGI, & all of it was blended perfectly!! Not a single line out of place or mismatched color!!

4 bat-a-rangs out of 5, this film has just about everything it needs to please fans from all walks of life, it might be a bit too intense for little kids (it is an R movie after all), but if you want The Batman the way he was meant to be, & you're not squeamish, I highly recommend this movie!

Oh, & just a little reminder for future viewers: when he credits start to roll, don't CRY because it's over, SMILE because it happened! ;-)) \m/.

?#?HAHAHAHA?!!!!!