Review: Batman: The Killing Joke (movie)

 (Ignore the quality of this picture.
I took it with my cell phone to send it to a friend)

Batman: The Killing Joke was a really great graphic novel/comic and I've looked forward to the movie adaptation of it for a long time. I was thrilled to hear it'd be the voices from Batman: The Animated Series, my favorite Batman, by the way. If you're an Amazon Prime member you can watch it for free. It's included with Prime. 

I liked little things, like the TO in STORAGE blinking off and on so the sign next to Batman read "Gotham's rage." It was a nice touch, and something akin to what a frame in a comic would do. It was subtle, but it was there. That's one of the things about animated movies that I like. There aren't any accidents. Everything is drawn and done on purpose so something like this... it's intentional. I appreciate those touches. 

Just one bad scene... I liked it. I really liked parts of it. I was good with the Batgirl part right up until the scene under the gargoyle. That felt forced, but it wasn't the scene. The ambiguity at the end wasn't the one I expected from the comic, or the one I wanted. I'd spent the whole movie wondering how they'd do it and then they did it by NOT doing it. Still, I liked it and will watch it again. Probably skipping the Batgirl bits completely.

The scenes at the Fun-house were just as I remembered them, almost shot for shot (in my memory) from the source material right up until the ending... the ending was different and not what I had expected or really wanted I guess. I still have the ending from the comic in my head as the best ending and if you haven't read the comic yet watch the movie first and THEN read the comic I think in this case. There's something great about a comic. Looking at the panels and seeing the details.