Review of Batman: The Killing Joke (2016) by Jack B — 26 Jul 2016

I'm a huge Batman fan and love the source material this movie is based on. It was great to hear Mr. Conroy, Mr. Hamill, and Ms. Strong voice Batman, the Joker, and Batgirl/Barbara Gordon again. The movie doesn't start out like the graphic novel. It provides a backstory which is good on its own, but I felt that it didn't tie to the Killing Joke plotline very well.

Once we get into the actual Killing Joke storyline, it stays true to the source material, almost too true. It would have been nice if they used some opening part of the story with Batgirl to fill in some parts of the Killing Joke story line. Then the two wouldn't have felt so disconnected or forced.

One of the things that comes out of the graphic novel that people might not pick up in the movie is the Joker's name...in the graphic novel he's referred to Joseph Kerr. Granted this is only one possible name for him, but it falls inline with a lot of the other villain names like Pamela Isley, Edward Nigma, etc.

Some people might feel the story a bit disturbing at times but that was part of the appeal of the graphic novel...it wasn't your typical Batman/Joker story. It's certainly not for younger viewers. All in all, I enjoyed the movie and will most likely watch it again (and again and again).