Batman: The Killing Joke (2016) Movie Review
There is nothing worse than a bad adaption to a great story. There is also nothing worse than a decent adaption to a great story ruined ruined by adding unnecessary filler just to extend the length of it. That is the case here with DC's latest adaption of a comic book in animation form with The Killing Joke. When it was announced that both Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill would be reprising their voice just for this film I couldn't help but get excited.
If you want to watch The Killing Joke, then you can skip the first 30 min or so of this movie. The contents of those first 30 min take away so much from the story and characters that appear that I am shocked that someone allowed this to be added. It is so bad that I had a hard time even watching that movie with some moments just being offensive to everything that makes these characters interesting. The choices are made worse when it forces the story of original source material to change because they've changed the dynamic of the characters so much just for shock value.
The animation is very poor for a movie that is getting a limited theatrical release. I've even seen TV animated movies with better quality. Its ashamed because this is a studio that has the money and time to put in the effort for good animation. It is not a good sign when a person on YouTube redraws your film to better fit the source material and that look infinity better than what was released. I noticed how much it was trying to go for the dark realistic look similar to what we are getting in the live actions films. Its not working there and clearly doesn't work here either.
The best parts of this movie is the line for line, shot for shot adaptions of the source material but I would much rather just read it instead of watching it because of the poor quality all around. If it weren't for Kevin Conroy or Mark Hamill, I don't see how this movie would get any attention at all. Its a ashamed because this a good story that was just ruined by unnecessary choices by the creative team.
I am sure that one day a fan will take the time to do this justice and make a fan drawn edit of the film using the voices of this film. But until then I would say skip this and read the graphic novel instead.
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