DC And Warner have at their hands one of the most iconic Batman narratives of all time, a narrative that asks the question if the Joker is truly someone too weak to endure a really awful life, or if he can submit someone to so much pain they can become exactly like him. All it takes is one bad day, he insists. “The Killing Joke” is surprisingly only seventy six minutes in length and still manages to feel way too long. For an iconic story with such a meaty premise, DC and Warner obviously have absolutely no idea how to put it to screen, and manage to botch this adaptation big time. With “The Killing Joke” we have to endure what is one long winded and dull prologue that leads literally to nowhere, just to allow the viewer to connect to heroine Batgirl.
It’s not enough most of the film is centered on her and that she narrates the story, but the first half of the movie revolves around Batgirl garnering the attention of a sadistic young mob boss named Paris Franz who is so intrigued by her, he begins murdering and committing cruel deeds for her. This prompts the self-realization in Barbara Gordon where she realizes the thrills of being Batgirl really center more on garnering the affection of Bruce Wayne. It’s not to fight crime, or help people, it’s to be Batman’s version of Harley Quinn, I assume. The writers tack on a painfully awkward and underwhelming romance sub-plot turning Batgirl from a heroine who is victimized by Joker to merely just another of Batman’s girlfriends Batman avenges when she’s victimized by the Clown Prince of Crime.
With the sexual and romantic sub-plot of Batman and Batgirl, Batman comes off as a complete bastard who might seem like the trigger to transform Batgirl in to her own version of the Joker. It’s only when we realize the prologue goes absolutely nowhere that the sexual confrontation has little fallout, thus remarkably miniscule effect on Barbara Gordon until she’s shot by the Joker. Once the Joker escapes Arkham Asylum, he wages a campaign of terror on the Bat Family, mortally wounding Barbara, and kidnapping Commissioner Gordon, intent on driving him mad and turning him in to his own twisted facsimile of the Clown Prince. We’re given an implied origin of the maniacal clown prince, all the while Batman is left to stop the Joker once and for all and prevent him from delivering a final blow and prove that the traditional law structure simply doesn’t work.
Especially for someone too far off the deep end, like the Joker. The one redeeming element to “The Killing Joke” is the mesmerizing performance by Mark Hamil, now considered the quintessential voice by fans alike. That said, “The Killing Joke” is a terribly awful adaptation that injects uncomfortable and unnecessary sexual themes for the sake of gratuitous controversy. It’s pathetic how Warner has only seventy minutes to adapt the Alan Moore story and “The Killing Joke” still ends up feeling spread way too thin.
It’s nothing more than being controversial for controversies sake. This was a calculated decision on their part, make no mistake. The Killing Joke is legendary for being controversial, and they wanted to do something to get people talking about this adaptation. The way it was handled was just so creepy too. They basically made Bat-Girl into a horny geek girl cosplay fetish, that forces herself on Batman because she is frustrated and the only way she can express herself is by boning him. It’s like some fanboy’s fan-fic wet dream.
That fanboy being Bruce Timm. Lets not forget he has been pushing the Barbara/Bruce fanfic ever since Batman Beyond.
Yep, in Return of the Joker, Barbara mentions that when Dick left to become Nightwing, she and Bruce engaged in an intense affair/relationship that died quickly due to Bruce’s obsession with the mantle of Batman.
For some peculiar reason, Rotten Tomatoes is counting this review as “fresh” even though it’s pretty clearly a negative review.
Thanks for letting me know. Fixed the mistake!
Man, it seems these days all the movies I look forward end up being negatively reviewed fuck ups. :( Oh well, at least it’s gonna be worth watching for Mark Hamill and Kevin Conroy.
Okay, you don’t like the prologue. I get that. But what about the latter two-thirds of the film that involve the actual adaptation? You summarize the premise of that portion but you don’t actually critique its execution. You just kinda gloss over it.
“The one redeeming element to “The Killing Joke” is the mesmerizing
performance by Mark Hamil, now considered the quintessential voice by
fans alike. That said, “The Killing Joke” is a terribly awful adaptation
that injects uncomfortable and unnecessary sexual themes for the sake
of gratuitous controversy. It’s pathetic how Warner has only seventy
minutes to adapt the Alan Moore story and “The Killing Joke” still ends
up feeling spread way too thin.”
“The Killing Joke” is surprisingly only seventy six minutes in length
and still manages to feel way too long. For an iconic story with such a
meaty premise, DC and Warner obviously have absolutely no idea how to
put it to screen, and manage to botch this adaptation big time.”
Actually the prologue while having no fall out, is very much ingrained
in to the bedrock of the narrative adding a lot of unnecessary sexual
undertones for the sake of controversy and edge. That
was pretty apparent. It cheapens the story.
I’ll have to read the Alan Moore graphic novel very soon to see how it compares.
Not wanting to go to into detail on things so far into the movie given the length is fair I guess. It’s just that stuff like the sexual themes are tied more to the prologue, and I’m more vying to know the quality of the execution for the Joker story. Then again, I don’t know much those themes come into play later down the line, so that’ll be for me to find out tomorrow.
Yeah I have to be vague for people that never read the book or whatnot. I don’t like giving away every single detail for people and ruining their experience.
Plus you have to remember the movie is 76 minutes, and the Joker story doesn’t take motion until 27 minutes in to the movie. I counted. So I wasn’t really able to pull out of a lot of really gripping insight. I’ll have to review the graphic novel eventually to give it a fair shake.
10 minutes of any of the games is far more enjoying than an hour of this piece of trash movie.