Batman: The Killing Joke (2016)

Batman: The Killing Joke (2016)

6/10

Starring the voice of

Kevin Conroy

Mark Hamill

Directed by Sam Liu

Sticking to source material of a classic is very keen when you want to keep fans coming in for seconds, that is one thing writers of The Killing Joke movie adaptation missed. They decided to spend the first half of the animation building us up for the second half.

Now if you have read the 1988 classic The Killing Joke by Alan Moore, you will find the second half of this movie true to the plot and wish the first half was never included.

In Warner Bros. attempt to extend the movie to a full length feature film, they added an intro.

The intro is based on the role of Batgirl as Batman’s sidekick. We see her struggle to finding her feet working with the already matured hero.

The Killing Joke comic was a very controversial issue due to many intents/events not thoroughly explained. So When watching the R-rated animation about the origin of Joker, it seemed to have been marred by an attempt to give another character a good back story.

The hurt the movie tried to make us feel for Batgirl when Joker shut her in the stomach which had her bed ridden went over my head with the long wait I had to endure to see the story begin.

The movie graphics are not half bad and the voice acting had both icons Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill reprise their role as Bruce Wayne/Batman and Joker respectively. If for the lack of anything having them both back to voice the main characters was reliving.

The movie starts with Batgirl narrating her ordeal with being Batman’s sidekick. The distance he keeps her from getting close to him or getting close to harm or harming others. This infuriated Batgirl constantly as she feels she always have to prove to Batman that she can handle herself. Her attempt to prove, got her almost killed and kidnapped, to add the final nail to the coffin she crossed the line with Bats and that ended their relationship as partners.

Time passed and Batman is trying to reach out to the Joker by visiting him at the asylum, to get them both to back off being on each other’s tail as he fears death is in the air if they continue, but Joker had escaped and has plans of his own. He shuts Barbara Gordon (Batgirl) and kidnaps her father Commissioner James Gordon. He then ventures in torturing James in an attempt to drive him crazy.

Well the movie does have the final scene from the comic, where both characters stand before each other and Joker tells Batman the below joke and they laugh together. For me the wait was annoying, but I did enjoy when the movie got back on track.

Two inmates in a lunatic asylum who try to escape. One inmate jumps across a narrow gap between the asylum and the adjoining building, but the other is afraid he'll fall. The first inmate offers to shine his flashlight across the gap so the other can walk across it, but the second inmate replies, "What do you think I am, crazy? You'd just turn it off when I'm halfway across!"