(Disclaimer: Due to
the necessity to address certain moments from the plot in order to explain the
controversies surrounding them, there will be some minor spoilers in this
review. Fear not though, folks, for I will not be directly spoiling anything
from the ending for those who haven’t read the graphic novel.)
There have been many iconic Batman storylines over the years
and one of the most famous was the 1988 one-shot graphic novel The Killing Joke. Written by legendary
comic writer Alan Moore, the man behind other classic stories like V for Vendetta and Watchmen, The Killing Joke focused
on the Dark Knight’s most infamous adversary, the Joker. Moore explored the
backstory of the Clown Prince of Crime in order to uncover just what it was
that led to him becoming a criminal psychopath. The end result was a storyline
that many considered to be not only one of the absolute best Batman stories of
all-time but also the definitive Joker story. It’s so iconic that both of the
modern-era Batman films that featured
the Joker, Tim Burton’s Batman and
Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight,
were directly influenced by it. Nearly three decades later, fans rejoiced when
it was announced that DC would finally be doing an adaptation of Moore’s story
in animated form as part of their line of ‘DC Universe Animated Original
Movies’. Even better, Batman and Joker were to be voiced by arguably the most
iconic duo to ever play the parts; Kevin Conroy (Batman) and Mark Hamill
(Joker), who had done the roles for years on Batman: The Animated Series as well as other various forms of DC
media like Rocksteady’s Arkham games.
Seems like a home-run, right? Well, unfortunately that’s not really the case
here. Because while this adaptation does deserve some credit for its effort to
stay as faithful as possible to the source material, it ultimately suffers from
what the filmmakers had to add to it in order to meet a much more suitable
run-time. Said additions were done as an attempt to ‘make amends’ for the most
controversial aspect of the comic; how it portrayed the character of Barbara
Gordon AKA Batgirl. And yet these additions only end up making the whole
situation worse, resulting in an incredibly disappointing affair for fans of
the storyline.
The primary addition to this story comes in the form of a
30-minute prologue that is intended to further develop the character of Barbara
Gordon AKA Batgirl (voiced by Tara Strong). Having spent much time fighting
crime with Bruce Wayne AKA Batman (voiced by Kevin Conroy), she starts to
realize that she is close to being taken ‘to the edge’, as Batman calls it, and
decides to retire from crime-fighting. Sometime later, Batman comes across a
crime scene that could have only been perpetrated by his long-time enemy, the
Joker (voiced by Mark Hamill). Unbeknownst to him, the Joker has broken out of
Arkham Asylum and has purchased a run-down amusement park as part of a doozy of
a plot in order to ‘prove a point’ in that ‘all it takes is one bad day to
reduce the sanest man alive to lunacy’. This plan ends up affecting not only
Barbara (in a very disturbing way) but also her father, Commissioner Jim Gordon
(voiced by Ray Wise). It is during this time where we also begin to learn more
about old Joker. As it turns out, a long time ago he was once a struggling
comedian who desperately tried to support his pregnant wife Jeannie. Hoping to
earn enough money to move them into a nicer neighborhood, the comedian meets
with a pair of criminals and agrees to lead them through the chemical plant
that he used to work at, before he quit in order to become a comedian, so that
they can rob the business right next to it. Unfortunately for the comedian,
things only proceed to get worse from there as a string of unfortunate
accidents come together to become the ‘one bad day’ that ends up driving him
insane.
So yeah… this film’s 30-minute prologue was not part of the
original comic… and it shows. This film’s first half hour literally has nothing
to do with The Killing Joke whatsoever.
Seriously, Mark Hamill’s Joker doesn’t even appear in this part of the film.
But the absolute worst part of this sequence is how they portray the character
of Batgirl. For those who haven’t read The
Killing Joke, the comic was rather controversial in regards to how it
portrayed Batgirl. The story saw her brutally shot in the spine by the Joker,
paralyzing her from the waist down which subsequently led to her adopting a new
persona, Oracle. Part of the story also saw her being stripped naked by the
Joker, who then proceeded to take pictures of her in order to torture
Commissioner Gordon. So it’s understandable why some people weren’t too happy with
how Barbara Gordon was both depowered, and in some cases very much objectified,
in the story. Even Alan Moore himself admitted that he went a bit too far with
the story in general. But when it comes to the film adaptation, it only gets
worse from here. Basically all that this 30-minute prologue does is portray
Batgirl as a hopeless romantic who frequently loses focus whenever someone
tries to put the moves on her. And yes, as many of you have no doubt heard by
now, there is a scene where she has sex with Batman. No comment. I mean in
hindsight this 30-minute prologue ‘could’ve’ been effective in regards to
actually further developing Batgirl’s character in order to make the tragedy
that happens to her in the story even more impactful. But that doesn’t happen.
So how about when the film does get into the actual story of
The Killing Joke? Well I hate to say
it but even that part feels a little lackluster in terms of how its handled.
Now to the film’s credit, the filmmakers clearly spent a lot of effort in
regards to staying as faithful to the source material as possible. Save for a few
changes in dialogue and how certain scenes are set up, many scenes in the
second half of the film legitimately feel like they came straight out of the
comic. However, I can’t really explain why but some of these scenes feel off in
terms of the emotional impact. One specific scene in which pre-accident Joker
learns of his wife’s death due to a household accident is executed differently
from how it was handled in the comic and as a result it really doesn’t get
across how emotionally devastating this is for him. After all, she and their
unborn child were the reason why he decided to work with the two criminals in
the first place so when he tries to back out of their agreement, the two force
him to still do it and of course it ends up with him becoming the Joker. This
is another example of how the longer runtime could’ve been used more effectively.
Maybe the filmmakers could’ve bulked up the original story a bit more. Perhaps
they could’ve put in a few more scenes between the Joker and his wife, who literally
appears in only one scene before she’s killed off. But again, that’s not what
happened and instead the filmmakers more or less played it safe. Sure it’s
faithful to its source but ultimately it doesn’t really live up to the quality
of either that or its legendary voice cast. Heck, the animation ain’t really
that great either.
Ignoring the, to be perfectly blunt, rather terribly handled
prologue, perhaps the biggest issue with The
Killing Joke is that it’s ‘too’ faithful to the source material. The
original comic was a pretty short story so obviously it wouldn’t cut it for a
feature-length film. And while I’m sure that they could’ve potentially gotten
away with just doing a 45-minute short film, instead they decided to add more
to the story in order to reach a more suitable run-time. But ultimately they
didn’t make any changes to the actual Killing
Joke story, which actually sort of ends up being a problem. And yeah… that
prologue. Obviously the point of it was an attempt to ‘do justice’ (seeing how
this is a DC film, no pun intended) to the character of Batgirl after her arguably
questionable portrayal in the original story… and it ends up being a major epic
fail on every level. Not only is this arguably the worst portrayal of the
character to date, it’s one of the worst portrayals of any superhero character
period (DISCLAIMER: None of this, I repeat, NONE of this is the fault of Tara Strong.
She’s still one of the greatest voice actresses in the industry. It’s the
writers who failed both her and the character.). And as a result, the opening
leaves a bad taste in your mouth that unfortunately stays throughout the film,
even when it gets to The Killing Joke.
I’m actually surprised that this was released in theaters given its rather low
quality. I mean I know DC’s animated films don’t have as big of a budget
compared to the live-action films but given the prestige of the original story,
I don’t see why they couldn’t have given more money to the filmmakers to do the
best adaptation possible. In short, this is not that adaptation. But despite
all that I’ve said in this review, if you are a fan of the original story, this
is still worth checking out if only to see the legendary duo of Kevin Conroy
and Mark Hamill performing this legendary Batman/Joker story… just skip the
first 30 minutes.
Rating: 2/5
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