Review of Batman: The Killing Joke (2016) by Wailun L — 30 Jul 2016

Slight Spoilers.

It was a real shame, a tragic, that this would be the version of the Killing Joke. What's ultimately the most disturbing about this version of the Killing Joke ISN'T what the Joker does to the Gordons, which is what's supposed to be the case, but instead what the movie itself does to Batgirl/Barbara Gordon and that is Hyper sexualized her. Not only did they have a Batgirl Prologue in to this film, but a roof top sex scene between Batgirl and Batman. Now it's very important for me to point out that I have no problem with em making sexualized characters in the Batman universe but Barbara Gordon/Batgirl has never been one of them, and/or at least never gave off any sexual vibe towards Batman. Batgirl and Batman; They've always had a platonic relationship, I felt like Batman was almost like a second father to Barbara. However I guess Sam Liu/Bruce Timm and Brian Azzarello are not par-tic-u-lar-ly familiar with the character, which seems CRAZY because they work at DC, They don't even seem to have a passing knowledge of the character. There were so many egregious segment that were super out of character for Batgirl; She was flatter by Paris Francesco flirtations, not anything that would happen to Barbara and/or any depiction of the character. They gave her a sassy Gay friend at the library, his role was only there to talk to Barbara about her sex life, and that one scene where he was like you always liked the bad boys Barbara, ... WTF NO! Barbara has a type, and she's always liked the good guys. But I think the most egregious thing they had Barbara do was when Batman didn't call her back after they slept together and she just moped around for awhile. Here's an idea, Batgirl, why don't you just go fight crime while you're waiting on the Bat, It really made it seem like she only became Batgirl just to get into Batman's Pants, um NO, WTF. This film made Batgirl just so pathetic and sad!

The Batgirl/Barbara Gordon Prologue DID Not intensify the Killing Joke story at all, in facts distracts from it, which is unfortunate. I thought the Prologue was going to reinforce the crosshair of Jim Gordon and the Batman relationship, and how Barbara was in the middle of both of them, she was not only a connection between them but also a liability, but instead they focus on sexualizing Barbara in a misguided attempt to earn that R rating. Come on, when you have the Joker, there are much darker and appalling ways that they could've earn a R rating film. This film caused the Joker to be a supporting player, rather than the Main and that's really sad. The 2nd half of the film, where the killing joke finally comes to play felt rushed, and there were so many good lines missing. It was really ashamed that they didn't put more of the Killing Joke into this 71+ minutes Film.