Now that that is out of the way I’m sure that some of you have already checked out of the review and started typing up your comment about how “my review doesn’t count because I haven’t read the graphic novel.” In my eyes I’m thankful I never read the graphic novel because I definitely think that reading said novel would have affected my viewing experience. There is always that chance where having an attachment to the source material can give you this pre-conceived bias for loving said material. For example I will outright admit that I have a slight bias towards the Harry Potter franchise because of how attached to the books I am. I can admit that a few films have some flaws but I’m not as critical towards them because I love that franchise. It seems as if the animated adaptation of ‘Batman: The Killing Joke’ has made a lot of fans extremely upset. I’ve seen the rare fan that adored the film because of how alike it was to the novel but it seems like a majority of people think the film is just mediocre. Upon announcement of this storyline being made into a feature length film I could not wait to get my eyes on this product. Not to mention that Mark Hamill was returning to voice the clown prince of crime and Kevin Conroy to voice the dark knight. Those two talents alone had me frothing at the mouth for release, and to my surprise this film is a total disappointment. If I could define this film in one word I would define it as lazy. The animation was inconsistent and the Joker looked like he belonged in Batman The Animated Series, an anime style Batman film, and a Warner Bros. animated film all at once. The look of the film just didn’t flow at all and a Bruce Timm style animated Batman film is usually the biggest takeaway from his projects. For a 76-minute motion picture the film moved at a drudgingly slow pace and besides the Joker flashback sequences I never felt liked I was involved with this film. What tends to happen when I watch an animated feature based off of a comic or novel I want to see more and more of these characters. Unfortunately I didn’t care about Batman for the first time in my life and it really disappoints me. This is the only time I ever felt that Batman wasn’t a character and more of a one-dimensional scowling figure. Maybe ‘The Killing Joke’ is more of a Joker story but considering that the film really tries to get you to care about Batman’s relationships early on it all fell flat. The controversial sex scene has been quite the topic on the Internet as of late and at first I sort of cringed at the idea but watching the scene in context it made sense. Did that scene have to be there? No. Did the scene serve its purpose successfully? No. Did it completely hurt the film and characters because of it? No. A lot of people are up in arms over it and I’m not quite sure why, for what they were trying to do with Batgirl in this film it made sense that she would instigate the scene. Hell, it isn’t even a scene; it is a quick moment and is blatantly implied shortly after. This moment doesn’t even achieve its goal of making Batman AND its audience care for Barbara in the long haul. Yes we get the iconic scene of her being paralyzed and it is as menacing as I’d imagine it to be, but when the film ends you’re just left to think…that’s it? I’ll touch more on that later but man the ending did not work for this film. Regardless of how I may feel about this film, ‘The Killing Joke’ does quite a few things right amongst the flurry of wrong. The action sequences are actually quite fun and when you see Batman knocking down people left and right it feels incredibly rewarding. Hamill and Conroy have returned to voice their respective roles and they do so wonderfully, although some of the dialogue comes off as they’re just reading and not acting the two do a magnificent job. To a lot of people Conroy is the quintessential Batman and Hamill is the quintessential Joker. The flashbacks to Joker’s origin story are handled extremely well and actually provide the film’s best moments. Early on I felt as if the origin story of one of the greatest villains would be a turn off, but to my liking I enjoyed seeing how the Joker came to be. I tend to lean towards knowing as little as possible about the Joker because it adds to that sense of awe of how screwed up this man really is. Time to touch back on that ending. Now, I understand that the film ends almost exactly like it’s graphic novel counterpart but the ending feels unearned and leaves me more pissed off than I should be. I don’t mind when films play out like their source material did but I don’t mind when it is done properly. When the film cuts to black it makes you feel like the film needs more to close out the story properly. To completely the relationship arc of Batman and Barbara, or Barbara and her father, it makes the film come across as incomplete. In a graphic novel this type of ending will work nine times out of 10, but in a feature length film liberties must be taken to tell the best story possible. It needs a beginning, middle, and end so that we can come away feeling like we’ve experienced a completed project. If ambiguous endings are the route a filmmaker wants to head then make it feel earned so we’re left with a feeling of satisfaction instead of disappointment. In conclusion, one of my most anticipated films of the year is an utter disappointment from beginning to end. For an animation studio that usually knocks it out of the park with their Batman films this is C-level material. It felt like a rush job and it came across as them wanting to bank off of the source material alone instead of trying to make a good film. ‘Batman The Killing Joke’ gets a 4.9/10