Tuesday Night Matinee: Batman: The Killing Joke

by themrmojorisin67

Director: Sam Liu

Starring: Kevin Conroy, Mark Hamill, Tara Strong, Ray Wise

Released: 2016

Trailer

 

As always, keep an open mind.

 

One of my earliest childhood memories was watching Batman: Mask of the Phantasm on video tape. I remember watching it so much as a kid, that by the time we retired it in favor of the newfangled DVD technology, the tape was nearly completely worn out.

Why do I mention this, other than the aforementioned film is also about Batman? I mention Mask of the Phantasm because it was the first time I ever saw and—most importantly—heard Mark Hamill as the Joker. Ever since the first day I watched that tape, Mark Hamill has been and always will be the true voice of the Joker.

So, naturally, when I heard that Hamill would be returning to voice the Joker once againin an animated adaptation of the most famous Joker story, The Killing Joke, I was thrilled. Adding to Hamill’s return, having Kevin Conroy return to voice Batman once again further fueled my anticipation. Finally, as the icing on the cake, the film would be a fairly (with only a few scenes added) faithful adaptation of the now legendary story: the Joker’s nefarious plot to not only cripple Barbara Gordon, but also drive Commissioner Gordon and Batman to his level of insanity.

But does this film deliver? Well, yes and no. In order to fairly analyze the film, one must analyze the film in two parts. Why? Because, essentially, the film consists of two different stories: one involving the story appearing in the film’s namesake comic book, and one involving Barbara Gordon’s past as Batgirl.

Before analyzing each part, this reviewer would like to compliment this film as a whole. For a film made to be released on home video, the sound design is fantastic. The gun shots and explosions add the necessary tension to each action scene, and sound great in a theater setting. But the great sound is not limited to just the percussive portions of the film. During the fight scenes, every punch and kick sounds painful and visceral. The action scenes, though the animation is a touch choppy, are well blocked and filmed. Combine the great sound with the great images, and you have some of the best 2D animated fight scenes I have seen in quite a while. While Mask of the Phantasm may be my favorite animated Batman film, the action scenes—while decent—certainly weren’t as stylized or exciting to watch as those in this film.

The Killing Joke portion of the story—the second half of the film—is easily the best part, as it is an incredibly faithful adaptation of the original comic. Some will argue that certain events or bits of dialogue don’t play out exactly as they do in the comic. I for one am a bit disappointed that the transitions between the past and present don’t occur as smoothly in the film, mostly because the comic’s script—written by the legendary Allan Moore—allows transitions to occur through juxtaposed images.

Yes, this difference is disappointing, but one must remember that this is an adaptation, not a direct translation, meaning that there will be occasional changes to fit the medium. What measures the quality of an adaptation is not so much how much of the story is kept as it was in the source material (though it is still important), but how it all is presented and incorporated.

This second half of film is effective in establishing an especially disturbing, creepy tone. Perhaps it’s because of the score which, from the composers’ own words, was modeled after the great scores of Bernard Hermann. Or, perhaps it’s the film’s effective use of the budget limits to create unsettling moments, such as the close-up on Joker’s head as he looks over his freshly-lit carnival with psychopathic glee. Or, perhaps it’s because of Hamill’s chilling performance as the Joker. Every line Hamill speaks crackles with life and a touch of murderous glee—this is a man who seems to have always been meant to play this character.

Hamill also does a fantastic job in the flashback portions as well, garnering sympathy from the audience in scenes that are far too short, mostly because the comic just glances over them rather than delving deeper into things like the relationship between pre-Joker and his wife. This is precisely where liberties could have been taken, expanding upon these flashbacks rather than tacking on scenes that are ultimately irrelevant to the story (we will get to that portion soon).

Perhaps the best part of this film is the song and dance portion, with Mark Hamill singing the creepy and unbelievably catchy, “I Go Looney,” whose lyrics are ripped straight from the pages of the source material. Scenes like this embody the film’s ability to balance between staying true to the source material and also supplementing it. It’s a shame that this second half is brought down by the first half of the film, the portion written almost specifically to pad out the run time.

Yes, before the excellent second half, we have the Batgirl portion of the film, which has garnered a lot of controversy for…a particular reason that this reviewer won’t disclose here. Oddly enough, my biggest issues with this part of the film do not involve the controversial scene in question, though it does come out of left field. It’s not even with the story itself—Batgirl and Batman hunting down a criminal named Paris Franz, who has an unhealthy obsession with Batgirl—which could honestly be a movie of its own. All in all, it’s this portion of the film’s sloppy handling of its limited animation budget and voice acting as well as its lack of cohesiveness with the second half that brings the film as a whole down.

While the second half hits it out of the park despite its animation limitations, the first half stumbles because of these same limitations.   For example, there are many scenes that become distracting because characters in the foreground seem to be staring out into space while one character is talking. This wouldn’t be a bad thing if these scenarios were relaxed, non-combat situations. But these often occur during scenes of high tension, where physical combat is imminent.

The voice acting is also not as great here. Tara Strong as Batgirl is especially disappointing, as a great deal of her dialogue is delivered in an unusually restrained manner that proves distracting. Strong does do a lot better with the character in the second act, however, so this lack of reasonable vocal expression in the first act is baffling to this reviewer. Conroy’s delivery as Batman in this first act is also similarly restrained and monotonic, as though he weren’t entirely comfortable with the lines he has been given. But who can blame him when a great deal of Batman’s lines in this half come across as pretentious teenage poetry about darkness, especially when compared to Moore’s more mature dialogue in the second act?

But those two issues aside, the biggest issue is the lack of cohesiveness between these two acts. It is incredibly clear that these portions of the story were conceived by two different writers, and almost feels like two completely different films crammed into one. This reviewer can see that the screenwriter, Brian Azzarello, is trying to not only craft a parallel between Batgirl’s potential “fall into the void” and the same fall Batman and Gordon potentially face, but also to give Barbara some character before she is attacked in the second act. And this character development would be fine if it amounted to anything in the long run.

By remaining faithful to the source material in the second act, the film ultimately negates the character development that came before. Instead of trying to make Barbara more than a pawn in the Joker’s plan to break Gordon and Batman, this character development just emphasizes rather than fixes the biggest flaw of both versions of The Killing Joke—Barbara is not a character, she is a catalyst. Despite all of her backstory and all that she has done both in this film and in the more expansive comics, she is relegated to nothing more than a victim and a plot device. And the fact that, despite its best efforts, this film maintains this aspect rather than subverting it, defeats the purpose of even having these additional scenes and makes this reviewer question whether or not the original story is really as deserving of the praise it gets. And this is the worst sin an adaptation can commit.

If one ignores the first act, The Killing Joke is an excellent adaptation of the original comic. But with this first act, the film is brought down a bit. Perhaps if there was a better bridge between these two stories, this could have been a better adaptation, at least in this reviewer’s eyes. Or, if portions of Alan Moore’s story were expanded upon more, rather than tacking on additional bits of story that dissipate once the main action involving the Joker begins. All in all, this film is not as bad as a good deal of critics are saying, but it certainly could have been better. As for this reviewer, this film was worth seeing in the theaters, but future watches of the film will include skipping the first act entirely and watching Mark Hamill’s magnificent return to his iconic character.

 

Now, this will be different than the final scores of other films in the past. Instead of just calculating the film in its entirety, this final score will also include the scores of each act of the film, as they are essentially two different films. There will also be a deduction in the final total, as the lack of cohesiveness between the two parts warrants a penalty.

 

Act One Final Score: 7/10

Act Two Final Score: 9/10

Final Score: 6/10      

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