Review of Batman: The Killing Joke (2016) by Freddie K — 07 Aug 2016

"It's far too late for that".

Ugh.

Why oh why oh why....

Batman: The Killing Joke, is a cartoon feature length adaptation of the graphic novel, infamous for it's bat on clown tale of woe, in which The Joker just wants to prove that everyone can go mad.

I don't know where to begin with this void of crap.

First of all, I'll start with the good bits. Animation is decent, but nothing special. The last scene of the movie is pretty mind-bending stuff. It poses a lot of mysterious questions. I guess that's what I can respect about this one the most, It's a mystery. A mysterious atmosphere, we all know how it'll end...but the Joker asks 'Why should it not end my twisted way?'. My last note of praise is that the voice actors are good. Mark Hamill as the joker is pretty iconic now.

The bad then? The first 30 minutes of this movie, is completely unnecessary. Of all the characters to add in to get exposition, batgirl is the one. A alias which has no relation to the climax of this movie. NOW if BARBRA GORDON was given more exposition, then maybe I would understand the torment 'supposedly' given off by the joker. Except it's not terrifying at all. It's stupid and nonthreatening. His origin story, albeit tragic, isn't horrific. For such a deranged psychopath, they skimped out a chunk of massive research into the pits of his mind. Like a translation of the novel they were in limbo of changing too much (batgirl beginning bit) and keeping it all the same (some lines from the movie are from the novel). Keep in mind I haven't read the comic, but I know the general jist of it.

This isn't terrible. No way, there are some interesting moments, but apart from that, there was not a single wave of effort to shock and make the audience mourn for Barbra Gordon, mourn for Batman, Jim Gordon or even the joker. Waste of my time to watch this, it's like the white noise of a comic book movie. Existing but not impacting.

Oh, and also, #Batsex.

C-.

40/100.