(Warning: This review contains spoilers about the story, especially for those who haven't read the source material.)
DC Animated productions, mostly headed up by the fantastic Bruce Timm, have had a series of hits, with great animated films such as Batman: Under The Red Hood, Batman: Year One, Flashpoint, Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths, and more. Even some of their generally lesser efforts are entertaining and still enjoyable.
Timm also worked on the great Justice League animated series, Batman: Beyond, and of course the original Batman: The Animated Series, which helped pave the way for all of DC's animated productions.
It goes without saying that Bruce Timm knows the Batman character and what drives him, and what Batman stories need to be told, so that's why this recent adaptation of Alan Moore's classic 80's graphic novel: The Killing Joke, is such a disappointment.
If you haven't read the Killing Joke, do yourself a favor, and go ahead and do that now, if you're in any way a fan of the Batman character. It's not the most comfortable read, but gives insight to how dark the world of Batman is meant to be.
The Killing Joke features a great misunderstanding of the themes of the story, and a lackluster and dull set of production values to go along with that thematic miss.
The animation is the first thing that turned me off to this piece. Unlike the fluid fight scenes and lush colors of The Dark Knight Returns, or the sharp, defined shapes of Under the Red Hood, The Killing Joke has awful character designs and flat, bland colors, with vehicles rendered in a 3D that looks like bad Playstation 1 graphics. None of the fight scenes, which are often a crowning achievement for DC animated, have any intensity or true kinetic action to them. Whenever the characters are still, you can truly see the lack of detail in the designs, which makes the characters look very plain.
As far as the story, the movie takes the worst possible turn you could by adding a whole 30 minutes of story and background centered around Batgirl that is plodding, dull, and feels like a totally different story and style than when they arrive at the Alan Moore material over halfway into the movie. They use direct dialouge from the Alan Moore material, some of which felt awkward and strange-sounding spoken aloud, especially contrasting with the much different sounding dialouge of the first act of the movie. One of the spoilers I'll mention here is this clunky first act ending in Batgirl having a totally out of place sex scene with Batman. I gave up hope on enjoying this animated film at that moment, since I knew they had totally departed from the comic book's vision of the story, already muddling the story with irrelevant events, and then making it worse by confusing the relationship of two of the characters.
Batman and Batgirl have a parental relationship, like between him and Robin, where he mentors, trains, and sometimes keeps her in check, as Batman is an uncompromising character who always does things his way. This scene served no purpose in the story, and makes it seem as if he's going after the Joker because Barbara is his lover, not because of the tragic events that happen.
On top of all of this, I didn't feel that the original novel's ambiguous ending translated to an animated format. They didn't build the tension of anything that happened in the movie, it all just kind of came and went.
Even the fantastic voices of Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill don't really have the same usual enthusiasm here. They still have a great sound for the characters, but the intense feeling you get from hearing those portrayals at their best, in past material, just wasn't here. I have to say that especially Kevin Conroy felt like he was phoning it in, which pains me to say as he is the definitive Batman voice in my opinion. The rest of the voice cast is forgettable, with some especially stilted lines from the actor playing Gordon, who's supposed to go through some very serious, harrowing events here. It's a shame that Bryan Cranston wasn't available again for the role.
Overall, the poor animation, terrible and blundering writing, and the mediocre voices contribute to a very dull and flat telling of what should be a dark, disturbing, and uncompromising Batman story. What we're left with in return is a product that makes me think this story really should be left in the comics.
Batman: The Killing Joke gets a 4 out of 10, only for the continued commitment of Conroy and Hamill. Let's hope that this isn't their final work together in these parts.
DC Animated productions, mostly headed up by the fantastic Bruce Timm, have had a series of hits, with great animated films such as Batman: Under The Red Hood, Batman: Year One, Flashpoint, Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths, and more. Even some of their generally lesser efforts are entertaining and still enjoyable.
Timm also worked on the great Justice League animated series, Batman: Beyond, and of course the original Batman: The Animated Series, which helped pave the way for all of DC's animated productions.
It goes without saying that Bruce Timm knows the Batman character and what drives him, and what Batman stories need to be told, so that's why this recent adaptation of Alan Moore's classic 80's graphic novel: The Killing Joke, is such a disappointment.
If you haven't read the Killing Joke, do yourself a favor, and go ahead and do that now, if you're in any way a fan of the Batman character. It's not the most comfortable read, but gives insight to how dark the world of Batman is meant to be.
The Killing Joke features a great misunderstanding of the themes of the story, and a lackluster and dull set of production values to go along with that thematic miss.
The animation is the first thing that turned me off to this piece. Unlike the fluid fight scenes and lush colors of The Dark Knight Returns, or the sharp, defined shapes of Under the Red Hood, The Killing Joke has awful character designs and flat, bland colors, with vehicles rendered in a 3D that looks like bad Playstation 1 graphics. None of the fight scenes, which are often a crowning achievement for DC animated, have any intensity or true kinetic action to them. Whenever the characters are still, you can truly see the lack of detail in the designs, which makes the characters look very plain.
As far as the story, the movie takes the worst possible turn you could by adding a whole 30 minutes of story and background centered around Batgirl that is plodding, dull, and feels like a totally different story and style than when they arrive at the Alan Moore material over halfway into the movie. They use direct dialouge from the Alan Moore material, some of which felt awkward and strange-sounding spoken aloud, especially contrasting with the much different sounding dialouge of the first act of the movie. One of the spoilers I'll mention here is this clunky first act ending in Batgirl having a totally out of place sex scene with Batman. I gave up hope on enjoying this animated film at that moment, since I knew they had totally departed from the comic book's vision of the story, already muddling the story with irrelevant events, and then making it worse by confusing the relationship of two of the characters.
Batman and Batgirl have a parental relationship, like between him and Robin, where he mentors, trains, and sometimes keeps her in check, as Batman is an uncompromising character who always does things his way. This scene served no purpose in the story, and makes it seem as if he's going after the Joker because Barbara is his lover, not because of the tragic events that happen.
On top of all of this, I didn't feel that the original novel's ambiguous ending translated to an animated format. They didn't build the tension of anything that happened in the movie, it all just kind of came and went.
Even the fantastic voices of Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill don't really have the same usual enthusiasm here. They still have a great sound for the characters, but the intense feeling you get from hearing those portrayals at their best, in past material, just wasn't here. I have to say that especially Kevin Conroy felt like he was phoning it in, which pains me to say as he is the definitive Batman voice in my opinion. The rest of the voice cast is forgettable, with some especially stilted lines from the actor playing Gordon, who's supposed to go through some very serious, harrowing events here. It's a shame that Bryan Cranston wasn't available again for the role.
Overall, the poor animation, terrible and blundering writing, and the mediocre voices contribute to a very dull and flat telling of what should be a dark, disturbing, and uncompromising Batman story. What we're left with in return is a product that makes me think this story really should be left in the comics.
Batman: The Killing Joke gets a 4 out of 10, only for the continued commitment of Conroy and Hamill. Let's hope that this isn't their final work together in these parts.