Batman: The Killing Joke Review *Mature Content

I was pleasantly surprised when I found out that DC Comics and Warner was going to release Batman: The Killing Joke because I never expected them to turn such a dark adult graphic novel into an animated movie. Originally, it was supposed to come as a straight to dvd release. So, I was really happy when I saw a small flier at my local movie theater saying that they would be showing the movie for two nights. My husband and I were super excited and we decided to get tickets (to see his review go here). After getting pumped and excited and carefully avoiding spoilers online we went excitedly to the movie theater only to be painfully disappointed. 

For those who don't know Batman: The Killing Joke in the original comic told the tragic backstory of the Joker. And, I encourage anyone who hasn't read this classic from Alan Moore (writer) and Brian Bolland (Illustrator) to go ahead and read it. But, getting right back into the review of the movie instead of starting the movie with the Joker, we get stuck with about 40 or so minutes of Batgirl and Batman fighting a really unremarkable villan. Which really ends up serving no real purpose. 

I later learned in an interview from Comic Con that this 40 minutes was suppose to create a backstory for Barbara Gordon (Batgirl) so that the viewer would feel more sympathy for her when she gets attacked by the Joker.

In the interview above at 2:33 Bruce Timm says ¨There's a lot of criticism that says, Barbra is just a plot device, she's your classic woman in a refrigerator, where she gets wounded. Strictly just to to you know piss off the male characters um so we took that opportunity to mitigate that by adding a lot more screen time to Batgirl and Barbara prior to the events of .. The Killing Joke¨. For me this is just insulting. I always saw Batgirl/ Barbara Gordon as a strong female character and Bruce Timm just managed to cheapen her and turn her into a needy wanty crybaby instead of the strong capable woman she was in the comics. 

And because I need to address the elephant in the room, for some reason the writers thought that it would be a great idea for Batgirl and Batman to have sex on a rooftop. I mean why the heck did they have to put Batman and Batgirl together. It's just too out of character for Batman. He's a teacher to her not a fucktoy. I mean really all they managed to do was take a massive shit on a classic. As a woman I thought that this entire part of the movie was insulting. Because obviously right a woman can't have an important man in her life without needing to fuck them. I mean this is blatant sexism. Who´s with me? 

It really seems they wanted to target dumb feminazis and they seemingly pulled some of the material straight from the crappy ghostbusters remake. With everything from period jokes to chatting with her stereotypical gay friend. Why did this beginning part have to happen it would have been so much more entertaining to see from the beginning what I and the audience was promised in the title. 

Then after the 40 minutes of the stupidity with Batgirl they finally get into what's actually in the comic and they do it justice it's literally the same panel for panel and the Joker is downright terrifying but I have to say on a scale from one to ten I'd have to give this one a five. I would say that if you haven't seen this yet don't rush out to see it in the movie theater and don't rush out to buy it when it comes out because really it's not worth your money. It would be a better to save the money to go out and buy the actual graphic novel. 

Well, that's my review for Batman: The Killing Joke. What do you think? Do you agree or disagree with me leave a comment and let me know. And be sure to follow us on Twitter (https://twitter.com/GreatAnimation), Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/Only-Animation-216984225133503/), and Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/withlovefromba/).