Movie Review - Batman: The Killing Joke

You've heard my opinions on the original graphic novel. Now we get an animated film based on that very novel. I have to say, of all animated DC films, this one is by far the most anticipated one of the lot following the 2 part Dark Knight Returns. And with the cast of Batman: The Animated Series taking on their respective roles, this truly is one for the fans. So let's dive in:

So the film begins with a prologue that wasn't in the original novel where we see Batgirl (reprised by Tara Strong) helping Batman (reprised by the greatest Batman of them all, Kevin Conroy) in stopping a bank robbery from happening. This then leads to Batgirl getting an admirer from the robbers which ultimately gets the better of her and has her come to blows with Batman (leading into a controversial scene which I won't spoil) leading to her retiring as Batgirl. Going into novel territory, Batman meets up with detective Harvey Bullock (voiced by Robin Atkin Downes) to investigate a crime that may have been done by none other than the clown prince of crime himself, the Joker (reprised by the greatest Joker of them all, Mark Hamill). Before too long however, James Gordon (voiced by Ray Wise) gets abducted by Joker's henchmen to be humiliated for the Joker's pleasure, Barbara Gordon gets shot in the spine and has the Joker take nude photos of her, ultimately leading Batman to stop him while we get some insight in the Joker's origins through flashbacks.

Now let me just point out that aside from the scenes leading up to Batman seeing Joker (or someone looking like him) in that prison cell, all of this happens in the graphic novel so if you think some of this is messed up, then you don't know nothing about the messed up mind of the Joker. To address the controversial scene, yes it does go against what we know about our heroes, but to be honest, its inevitable for things like that to happen and for Batman, its not the first time an encounter like this would happen to him and an ally of his. But going back to the story at hand, I felt that it did everything right and made a film that's faithful to the source material with veteran Batman actors taking on their respective roles and being great as always when doing it. Who knows what happened to Joker and Batman at the end of it, but you know what. If this is the final project for Conroy and Hamill, then I'm glad that they took this on because it is such a great story and the film despite certain scenes and the pacing, makes it just as good if not better than the novel. 9/10