tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4217427319662074458.post2612897451368303873..comments2024-03-19T05:54:12.521-05:00Comments on F This Movie!: Review: Batman: The Killing JokePatrick Bromleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00771837625286775607noreply@blogger.comBlogger18125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4217427319662074458.post-15707617165968625642021-09-18T15:03:08.354-05:002021-09-18T15:03:08.354-05:00How will I download this movie
How will I download this movie<br />Festushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04783546273761595495noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4217427319662074458.post-22397586542683725492016-08-28T14:28:45.358-05:002016-08-28T14:28:45.358-05:00As for the Batgirl/Batman hookup, I was surprised ...As for the Batgirl/Batman hookup, I was surprised by it, but I didn’t have a problem with it. Although DC Comics essentially retired Barbara Gordon as Batgirl between “The Killing Joke” and the 2011 New 52 reboot, this Batgirl/Batman romantic/sexual relationship idea was explored in DC Comics in the 1994 “Zero Hour” event, during which an alternate (from mainstream) timeline was revealed to have involved Batman and Batgirl becoming romantically involved with each other. Perhaps not coincidentally, that timeline diverged from mainstream during the events of “The Killing Joke”, whereby Jim Gordon was killed by Joker, and Barbara Gordon was unharmed. Had Barbara Gordon not been paralyzed and retired as Batgirl in mainstream DC Comics continuity during that period, I’d bet that such a relationship would have been explored in mainstream continuity at least once over that period. Some people may object, but they shouldn’t be worried that this is “controlling Batman authority” beyond this movie. To some, it may be bad for the character in this movie, but this movie cannot ruin this character, which, by the way, is as traditionally Batgirl-ish as a lot of people would like, in the comics.<br /><br />Regarding misogyny in the Batgirl prologue of the movie, I didn’t see the movie that way. Paris was a misogynist, and it is Paris who delivers the “time of the month” line in the story. He speaks that line as a taunt to Batgirl while she is pummeling his face with her fists, beating the crap out of him. He’s also the main villain, and is explicitly called a sociopathic narcissist by Batman. Paris develops a superficial crush on Batgirl, of which she is aware. But she doesn’t succumb to it. She tries to use it against him, although against Batman’s advice. Barbara Gordon/Batgirl primarily interacts with three characters (all male) in the prologue story: Batman, Paris, and Reese (her friend from the library where she works). Of them, only Paris treats her or regards her at any time in a way that I feel is reflective of lack of a proper respect for women. Reese is depicted as a gay man, who happens to be very interested in workplace discussions with Barbara Gordon concerning her romantic/dating life, or lack thereof. But single men and women often have friends/family/co-workers who like to be all in their business like that, and I didn’t see that as related to Batgirl’s gender. Batman views Batgirl as sort of a junior partner, who’s not sufficiently disciplined, skilled, or experienced enough to have “junior” status lifted. But I didn’t see any indication that his opinion was formed in part by Batgirl’s gender. I would characterize the movie as showing misogyny through one character, but not being a misogynist movie in and of itself.<br /><br />Overall, I thought the movie was worth a look. I like Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill as voice actors for Batman and the Joker, respectively. However, I think others, such as Jason O’Mara for Batman/Bruce Wayne, have filled in just fine in those roles in other DC animated features. I agree that Ray Wise, who I like as a live actor, didn’t sound very good as Jim Gordon. He sounded too old and frail, even in consideration of what happens to Gordon in the movie. I would rather that Gordon sounded like a Peter Graves type, or something better than what the movie provides. After the Batgirl prologue, the original graphic novel material from “The Killing Joke” is faithfully adapted for the movie, with some minor changes that will only be caught by those with a strong panel recollection of the graphic novel. Despite my disappointment with the artistic quality of the animation, the animation is well-done and interesting to watch. However, I liked the musical number more on the printed page than in the movie, even though the graphic novel leaves the music to the reader’s imagination, and maybe because of that. Hamill performs it well, but it seems too polished for the situation.<br />Paul Rogersnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4217427319662074458.post-65512264510384418692016-08-28T14:27:37.279-05:002016-08-28T14:27:37.279-05:00As for the story in “The Killing Joke”, the most m...As for the story in “The Killing Joke”, the most memorable aspects for me were, Barbara Gordon (Batgirl) getting shot by Joker and paralyzed, the “possible” Joker origin story (involving a brief stint as The Red Hood), and the ambiguous ending. The Joker origin story seems to me to be more a “possible” version today than the “definitive” version I wanted to accept it as in 1988. And that’s fine. However, as depicted, the events seem to have taken place far too many years before the main story’s present day, as if filtered through recollection of an old “Alfred Hitchcock Presents” episode from the late 1950s. Were we to assume that Joker had been more or less the Joker for 25 to 30 years before the present day events of “The Killing Joke”? If so, what had he been doing for most of that time, before he first made his presence known in Gotham City? And, by the way, “present day” in the Batgirl prologue of the movie depicts technology, such as computers and smart phones, more in line with 2016 than 1988, so that makes Joker’s origin flashback seem all the more anachronistic in the movie. Maybe the depiction is the point – it couldn’t have happened exactly that way. And Joker’s plan after escape – I want to avoid as much in the way of spoilers as I can – is dicey. Did Joker really expect to “break” Jim Gordon that way, in any permanent sense? Traumatize, sure. But be rendered insane? And the point Joker says he’s trying to prove, while possibly valid, isn’t original or obscure, and doesn’t really amount to anything that has ramifications for the characters or their relationships with each other. This would be fine, if this was a plot driven story. But it’s really not. Very little happens. Regarding the ending, I don’t think the darker speculative interpretation happens. The police are nearing arrival, Gordon and Batman have spoken with each other, and I don’t think Batman has been driven over the edge in that particular way.<br /><br />Regarding the Batgirl prologue added before the beginning of the Killing Joke storyline, I think it makes for a fine Batgirl story, but it doesn’t work as an incorporation into the Killing Joke storyline. It’s unnecessary, and shifts too much focus away from the story as a Joker story first, with Batman, Jim Gordon, and Barbara Gordon as significant supporting characters. Readers of the original graphic novel were supposed to be stunned by the shooting and paralysis of Barbara Gordon, based merely on their general or more vivid familiarity with the character of Barbara Gordon as herself, Batgirl, Jim Gordon’s daughter, Batman’s crime-fighting ally, etc. This wasn’t Barbara Gordon’s story, and she wasn’t supposed to have an arc in it. Her injury and violation were supposed to have an effect on Jim Gordon, Batman, and the reader, also informing what the reader was to think of Joker in the immediate aftermath of the shooting. I think those familiar with the graphic novel will compartmentalize the Batgirl material as an unorthodox prologue to the “true” Killing Joke story, while those unfamiliar with the graphic novel will be somewhat thrown by the abrupt exit of Barbara Gordon/Batgirl from the story. <br />Paul Rogersnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4217427319662074458.post-53464733184264909252016-08-28T14:26:09.142-05:002016-08-28T14:26:09.142-05:00Before I watched the movie, I decided to revisit a...Before I watched the movie, I decided to revisit and reread the graphic novel for the first time since 1988. A few things stood out. First, the “The Killing Joke” is only 44 story pages in length (additional material outside of the story pushes the printing up to 65 pages). It’s relatively short for a graphic novel main story. By comparison, “The Dark Knight Returns” original 4 issue, prestige format, limited series from 1986 was 184 story pages in total. A strict animated adaptation of “The Killing Joke”, with no significant additions, wouldn’t be near feature length, even with end credits. And there isn’t really anywhere in the midst of the original story material where events or sequences could have been dragged out without making it appear that the movie was stalling, and doing so poorly. So I understand why the movie producers decided to add SOMETHING lengthy before the beginning of the original Killing Joke material to pad the movie to feature length (the Batgirl prologue is actually nearly 28 minutes long). However, I agree with most viewers that what was added doesn’t really work well artistically for the finished product (I’ll get back to this later). Second, the Brian Bolland artwork from the graphic novel still stands out for its high quality of style and detail. By comparison, the movie animation artwork is not bad. It seems about par for the course for these DC animated movies. It’s just that the graphic novel artwork was so good, that the movie animation artwork seems noticeably inferior to it.<br /><br />Third, the original story is DECENT, not great. I’m not even sure it’s especially good. I was amazed by it back in 1988. But, I don’t think it holds up after 28 years as a masterpiece today. I think its enduring reputation is built in large part on its original reception with 28 years of compound interest, on who wrote it (Alan Moore of “The Watchmen”, “V for Vendetta”, “Swamp Thing”, etc., though he was recruited for the project by Bolland and doesn’t think highly of his own work here), the excellent Brian Bolland artwork (which does hold up), and the era in which the story was originally published. Despite the fact that Batman comics had been relatively dark and free of camp since the early 1970s, most kids, teenagers, and young adults in the late 1980s were more likely to have formed their impressions of Batman (and the extended Bat-verse) from the live-action Adam West TV series and Hanna-Barbera Super Friends cartoons than from contemporary comics. However, Frank Miller’s “The Dark Knight Returns” series of 1986, “The Killing Joke”, Frank Miller’s “Batman: Year One” storyline from 1987, the “Death in the Family” (death of Jason Todd “Robin”) storyline from 1988-89 (where there was a hotline phone number for fans to call and vote whether Robin lives or dies – they chose “dies”), and the lead-up to and theatrical run of the “Batman” 1989 movie (which boosted Batman comic readership) were at the forefront of the massive Batman pop-culture boom and rebranding shift which began in the late 1980s and continued through the 1990s with “Batman: The Animated Series”, successive animated series, and the comics plugging along in the background. In 1988 and 1989, if there were 25 kids in a school classroom, 2 of them were wearing Bat-Symbol t-shirts. But seven more live-action Batman movies, hundreds of hours of TV and direct-to-home video animation, 28 more years of Batman-related comics, most of it consistent with the Bat-verse in which “The Killing Joke” exists (including a surgical cure for Barbara Gordon’s paralysis and a return to active status as Batgirl, per the 2011 DC Comics New 52 reboot), and the amplification of all things “geek” on the internet over 20-plus years, have diminished the lasting impact of the Killing Joke story.<br />Paul Rogersnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4217427319662074458.post-70539406559917237152016-08-12T23:42:47.118-05:002016-08-12T23:42:47.118-05:00Other than the odd and (in my opinion) unnecessary...Other than the odd and (in my opinion) unnecessary/poorly conceived additions to Batgirl's story (which ultimately don't factor in to the main event), one of the weirder additions was the mention of Joker's sexual appetites. The original novel shows Batman asking various persons on the street for info, but this adaptation felt it necessary to have prostitutes comment on the Joker and his expedient search for sex. I think they mention they usually know when he's broken out of the asylum before the cops do because they're practically his first stop.<br /><br />While I don't necessarily oppose the choice to add this in (other versions of the Joker have been shown to be hyper-sexual), mixing it into this well-known story felt more like justification for the R-rating than anything necessary to the plot or to the character.Eliot Lopezhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03035429709400894870noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4217427319662074458.post-15134235091416016842016-08-11T08:34:47.487-05:002016-08-11T08:34:47.487-05:00I think the title is deliberately left to one'...I think the title is deliberately left to one's own interpretation and plays on multiple levels. I believe it references both the themes of similarity between Batman and Joker as well as the crux at the end of the story. <br /><br />And what I appreciate is that it doesn't matter exactly what happens at the end. While I think the movie definitely takes a side, I also think it's more about that MOMENT in their cyclical struggle and what it says about them going forward. It's a phenomenal character study. <br /><br /><br />Heath Hollandhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03802874033845631338noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4217427319662074458.post-78944713755057313362016-08-10T21:54:48.846-05:002016-08-10T21:54:48.846-05:00Hey, if there's one thing I'm good at, it&...Hey, if there's one thing I'm good at, it's making things confusing! Dancing around spoilers didn't help either.<br /><br />No point really getting into the debate - after doing a bit of reading on it I'm still not totally convinced one way or the other but why do you think it's called "The Killing Joke"?Solhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03114869401584310369noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4217427319662074458.post-44276212168538805612016-08-10T08:27:43.453-05:002016-08-10T08:27:43.453-05:00This is getting confusing! It's so hard to tal...This is getting confusing! It's so hard to talk about this without potential spoilers (even though this story is almost 30 years old).<br /><br />Spoilers<br />Spoilers<br />Spoilers<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />In the comic, I don't necessarily think Batman does "it." I think that it is less about that moment and more about analyzing the characters and their motivations. It's intentionally open-ended so you can think whatever you want. But in this movie, I think he ansolutely did do "it." That's the killing joke. Batman's final laughter after Joker falls silent, to me, confirms everything Joker has been saying about him throughout the story. That they're the same. That Batman is a hypocrite. That they're two sides of the same coin, driven forever by the events of one bad day, both crazy but manifested in different ways. I think this ending works best for this movie, but Alan Moore's ending works best in print. This is just my take; of course. I thought it was much bolder than the printed version, but I guess they still don't spoon-feed it to us, so I like that it's still up for debate. Heath Hollandhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03802874033845631338noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4217427319662074458.post-69064771709484898142016-08-10T07:12:54.425-05:002016-08-10T07:12:54.425-05:00i was thinking the same, cranston in year one was ...i was thinking the same, cranston in year one was great. the guy who did gordon in the dark knight return was great.<br /><br />only ray wise disappointed me as a voice actor in any of thse animated featureKuniderhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05872530831159876322noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4217427319662074458.post-38340167417589547082016-08-10T07:00:20.721-05:002016-08-10T07:00:20.721-05:00Oh...I getcha now...for some reason I thought you ...Oh...I getcha now...for some reason I thought you were saying that he definitely DID [redacted] in the movie - I was so wrapped up in how the movie was going to handle that moment that I didn't notice that the ambiguity wasn't there and he simply DIDN'T.<br /><br />Great link - I think Moore is so right about all that and, though I was buying into Morrison's opinion pretty hard, I much prefer Moore's.Solhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03114869401584310369noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4217427319662074458.post-80423868597500202592016-08-09T19:15:35.102-05:002016-08-09T19:15:35.102-05:00I definitely saw that after the credits. I like th...I definitely saw that after the credits. I like that they're trying to give Barbara more of an arc, but I'm not sure how much of it works. I wish they'd showed Barabara in a more positive light leading up to the story proper and then it would have felt a little more triumphant to me. Heath Hollandhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03802874033845631338noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4217427319662074458.post-68555238002888937702016-08-09T19:11:42.875-05:002016-08-09T19:11:42.875-05:00Yeah, it's a little bit more of a liberal choi...Yeah, it's a little bit more of a liberal choice on the filmmaker's part because they take it farther than the panels in Alan Moore's story do. In fact, from what I understand, there's no ambiguity to his script at all and the story simply ends without implication.<br /><br />Speaking of Alan Moore, I'd be remiss if I didn't post <a href="https://www.inverse.com/article/14967-alan-moore-now-believes-the-killing-joke-was-melodramatic-not-interesting" rel="nofollow">this</a> , because I think he's right. Heath Hollandhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03802874033845631338noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4217427319662074458.post-82967259952667514302016-08-09T19:06:16.091-05:002016-08-09T19:06:16.091-05:00I noticed it wasn't great. I was mostly thinki...I noticed it wasn't great. I was mostly thinking that it was nowhere near as good as Bob Hastings' original animated series performances (he died in 2014) or Bryan Cranston's in <i>Year One</i>.Heath Hollandhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03802874033845631338noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4217427319662074458.post-18297956804297355742016-08-09T16:36:55.053-05:002016-08-09T16:36:55.053-05:00Yeah he was truly awful.Yeah he was truly awful.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15718142675350475085noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4217427319662074458.post-40050165838567875022016-08-09T16:35:15.225-05:002016-08-09T16:35:15.225-05:00Yeah he was truly awful.Yeah he was truly awful.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15718142675350475085noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4217427319662074458.post-24382873362488125282016-08-09T15:41:36.526-05:002016-08-09T15:41:36.526-05:00Nobody is talking about the very bad ray wise perf...Nobody is talking about the very bad ray wise performance. I always loved him in whatever work of him i saw, but this time was so bad it made me cringeKuniderhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05872530831159876322noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4217427319662074458.post-28823550366482286912016-08-09T14:20:02.912-05:002016-08-09T14:20:02.912-05:00I was slightly disappointed with this mostly becau...I was slightly disappointed with this mostly because of the Barbara stuff you mention but it does make her stuff with the Joker hit harder, especially I would imagine for people who aren't as familiar with the character.<br /><br />I noticed Conroy's voice was off a bit too. Hamill was amazing though. All in all I liked it but didn't quite love it - I didn't notice it was rated R but that makes sense!<br /><br />So I found the ending of the movie just as ambiguous as the book and I haven't read any kind of official explanation...I'd ask you to tell me but so we don't spoil it for anyone else I'll just look it up myself...okay, yeah, that's kind of what I figured. Especially the last panel where that beam of light has disappeared - that relates to the Joker's joke right?Solhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03114869401584310369noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4217427319662074458.post-32215505612130875182016-08-09T13:10:23.256-05:002016-08-09T13:10:23.256-05:00I only just saw this last night with my adult niec...I only just saw this last night with my adult niece, who is a staunch feminist. We were both fairly okay with the new material with one very notable exception: the sex scene. It's unnecessary, and while we both agreed that Barbra could easily be enthralled by her mentor, there was NO FREAKING WAY that Batman would go along with it.<br /><br />I too loved Mark Hamill's performance as the Joker. My niece pointed out that this is a very dark story, and Hamill makes the Joker truly terrifying in a way I haven't seen since Heath Ledger.<br /><br />Heath, did you watch past the end credits? There's a nice little bit with Barbra (and her new identity as Oracle) that I nearly missed - I would have turned the thing off if I hadn't been hunting menus for the special features. It shows that like her Dad, Barbra hasn't been defeated by her traumatic experience.Steve K.https://www.blogger.com/profile/02141959251034133806noreply@blogger.com