As Batman hunts for the escaped Joker, the Clown Prince of Crime attacks the Gordon family to prove a diabolical point mirroring his own fall into madness.
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Reviews
Highly Overrated But Still Good
I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.
Blistering performances.
The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.
Batman: The Killing Joke is adapted from the Alan Moore graphic comic.The animation is dark with some bone crunching violence, this is a cartoon not aimed at kids as it examines the violent psyche of the loony Joker (Mark Hamill) but also shows the character in more normal times in flashback.Batman (Kevin Conroy) plays second fiddle here as he tries to look for alternative ways to deal with the clown prince of crime who has escaped from the asylum again. The trouble is the film relegates Batman as a second fiddle to Batgirl who appears for the opening part of the film and tells of her relationship with Batman.This is one of these DVD releases that would go straight to pay television. It still comes across as being rather quickly and cheaply made. Hamill provides a good vocal performance.
I first decided to start the film from after the half hour mark (which is where the comic starts), simply because I was essentially only interested in seeing what I'd already read be brought to life through animation, voice-work and music. Other than effective moments from the comic being rendered ineffective through the art being at times disappointingly lacklustre and the dialogue being paced in a way that didn't sit comfortably with me, I still would have given the experience a good 7... but then I went back and watched the first half hour, bringing that 7 right down to an average 5.The first half hour did not help the story at all, rather, it ruined it; particularly through, as an attempt at "fleshing out interest and empowerment", sexualising the one character who was *not supposed to be sexualised*, especially not in *this* story. I'd still watch the film again if I ever wanted a recap of the story, but I will *always* skip the first half hour.
This feature length animated film is an adaptation of the best-selling graphic novel, "The Killing Joke." The book was ground-breaking in presenting the origins and background of the most popular supervillain of all time, The Joker. The book's hard-edged approach to storytelling and the depiction of the characters, was something new to fans of Batman comic book readers. The above film aimed to capture all of this and did a pretty good job. The opening scenes about Batgirl are completely irrelevant and too long. The dialogue is rather glib and moronic to say the least. The writers should have created a prologue showing a typically evil criminal act committed by the Joker. It takes 30 minutes before the proper storyline begins and the whole thing is only on for 73 minutes. However, after 30 minutes have elapsed, the film improves a good deal. Batman pays the Joker a visit at Arkham Asylum in order to discover what makes the Joker tick. A series of flashbacks unfold as we the fans come to understand how the Clown of Crime came to become the way he is. The scenes involving Commissioner Gordon and his daughter are quite disturbing and shouldn't be seen by viewers under the age of about 17. That goes for this film in general as the violence is rather more graphic than usual. It was ideal to have Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill reprise their respective characters once again. Who else is going to be associated with these characters in animated form? Thanks to this film, Batman and the Joker come to respect each other in a rather twisted kind of way. It is a deadly scenario of "cat and mouse" between the two of them. The two actors deliver the goods and they are the ones worth remembering. The tone is rather a grim one but "The Killing Joke" had to be made that way in order to do the graphic novel justice. I enjoyed the scenes based at the deserted fairground in Gotham City. The setting is a natural habitat for the Joker. Commissioner Gordon in his being tortured, added some drama to the proceedings. The animation is excellent and Batman and the Joker are illustrated superbly. To enjoy this film, forget about the prologue and focus on the remaining 40 minutes or more.
I do not understand how someone can justify giving this movie a theatrical release. It is more like a couple of episodes from a Saturday morning cartoon than it is a movie.It starts with a hardly related subplot that serves little purpose but to weaken Batgirl as a character and show us that Batman is Batman. It is almost like those movie releases on VHS where they obviously just put some episodes from a show together to form a movie.Once the story with the joker begins, the movie gets a bit better, at least partly due to Hamill's performance. There are some interesting moments, but even this part of the film feels like a low budget replacement. And the visual style does not fit the story at all. It's like they read the source material and decided to make a 90s animated show about it, only less pretty.