The Killing Joke Animated Movie - Review

It was incredibly bizarre to hear negative controversy surrounding this film when an animated adaptation of Alan Moore and Brian Bolland's 1988 graphic novel has been generally eagerly awaited for a long time. The Killing Joke story is widely considered a classic and Mark Hamill, iconic voice of the Joker, has long stated his desire to partake in an animated adaptation.

And yet when the production is finally being made, critics crawl out of the woodwork pleading poor taste when they were nowhere to be found before. This leads in to The Killing Joke's biggest problem in trying to appease those critics who felt that Batgirl's character was needlessly victimised. An entirely new story is stuck on the front of the film with the intent of fleshing out the character of Batgirl. Unfortunately after twenty five minutes this rather uninteresting introduction has only made things worse.

In the original Killing Joke story Batgirl is only briefly in it but suffers crippling injury and humiliation from the Joker. What many critics don't seem to understand is the distinction between depiction and endorsement. This is a very dark, mature story and the events within are grim and horrific, this doesn't mean the author or the filmmakers and writers of this adaptation condone or glorify the actions of the central villain.

It feels stupid to even bring up that a psychopathic villainous bad guy like The Joker will do terrible, evil things, because it's storytelling 101, but apparently these critic's concerns were loud enough that the filmmakers here have wasted time and resources bending over backwards to appease them.

No I'm sure they meant to portray this guy as an objective moral compass.

This added section focuses on Batgirl as she grapples with her competency at vigilantism and her romantic feelings for Batman. This already feels awry as the relationship between Batman and Batgirl has personally always felt more Father-Daughter than Husband-Wife to me but I tried to open my mind to a different approach.

A mafia upstart named Paris Franz (Honestly) commits a bunch of robberies and gets under Batgirl's skin by taunting her with unwanted flirtation. In fact, almost all of his lines sound like they're from a creepy lecherous rapist which seems to just be asking for more trouble from the critics of the sexual undertones in the original story. The difference is here, it's overt and blatant rather than an ambiguous interpretation and serves no purpose to the story other than showing Paris is a prick, which we would've surmised anyway from him being an arrogant, thieving mafia punk.

Perhaps it's meant to serve as some parallel to Barbara's feelings for Batman. That Batman is ambiguous in his motives for ordering her to avoid conflict with Paris, either out of criticism of her competence or jealousy of his affections. That's fine I suppose but it feels like a subplot for a different film. The entirety of this new added section feels like a different film and doesn't support or enhance the main story at all, hence my reluctance to even refer to it as a "prologue".

The relationship between Batgirl and Batman never feels particularly engaging either. Batman is characteristically a brick wall of emotion, whilst Batgirl mainly yells at him for leaving her out of missions. This is meant to signify an over-protective boyfriend atmosphere but again for me it felt more like a strict father or teacher forbidding her from dangerous situations.

NanananananananaNOPE.

The tone becomes even stranger when we follow Barbara at her job in a library where she cryptically discusses her relationship concerns with her gay best friend who constantly makes sexual quips and I feel like I'm suddenly watching a poorly written rom-com.

As I continued struggling to decipher what on earth Brian Azzarello was going for with this section there was a hint of Watchmen-esque satire that I can't confidently say was intentional. Something strange and demystifying about Batgirl standing on a water tower yelling at Batman down the phone "It was just sex!" while he drives his Batmobile around a dockyard scowling at the windscreen.

Most Batman films that attempt a romantic subplot bring those elements in during his scenes as Bruce Wayne where he is more relatable, more human and arguably more emotional, but Bruce is entirely in the cowl for this section and at times might as well be a cardboard cut out complete with pull-string that plays "No" and "Stay here".

So this additional section falls almost completely flat for me and I'm baffled by its inclusion when it certainly contains nothing to sate the Batgirl critics nor adds anything to the central plot. At the end of the film they've added a scene where Barbara begins her role as The Oracle which I guess is nice but The Killing Joke was never really about her so it feels very forced and pandering. The only thing I can say is that the action sequences are enjoyable, the animation isn't the smoothest throughout the film but it is tense and well-thought out.

Which leaves us with the actual Killing Joke story of which there is far less to say because it's pretty good and faithful to the source material. There are some lines removed and a few added, shots occasionally angled differently and some art details changed. Some of these changes I'd actually consider improvements whilst others don't always work as well as the source material.

It has enough little tweaks and things done differently to justify its existence as more than a graphic novel in motion but retains most of the memorable moments, writing and dialogue that made the original comic so great. As for the controversial elements, they actually seem toned down from the original comic but not enough to diminish the effect which is probably all the filmmakers should have done in the first place.

Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill reprise playing Batman and Joker respectively with Hamill on top form as both the Joker and the man he was before the insanity. Special mention to Ray Wise as Commissioner Gordon who also gives an excellent performance. Some of the minor characters, criminal underlings and Joker's freakshow henchmen are less compelling but on the whole the cast and production value is solid.

As I mentioned in the preceding Batgirl segment the action sequences are good but the animation looks a little choppy in places as though there just aren't enough frames in a sequence. This rarely distracted me from the film however but is worth mentioning as a subjective potential niggle.

So when it comes to a recommendation for the animated Killing Joke movie it's not a clear or easy decision. The newly added Batgirl story really serves no purpose and should be an opening half to some other movie at best. The Killing Joke tale itself is faithful to its source whilst standing on its own merits with briefer moments in the comic fleshed out and some individual tweaks to the story proving interesting and not feeling out of place.

If you're happy to fast-forward past the first twenty five minutes and are a fan of the original comic, then seeing it come to life here is enjoyable and worthwhile. If you were critical or uncomfortable with the original comic then this will certainly not convince you. Overall I just wish DC would stop letting opinionated critics and browbeaten fearful studio execs mangle their film productions before they're even released.

Lookin' at you Suicide Squad...