What better way to get back into reviewing movies than with one I've been waiting on for a while now. Of course the movie hadn't even been released yet and it had already stirred up controversy over the changes made to it and the graphic content so I figure why not weigh in. Although most of you probably know I'm a little bit biased....
Let's get this out there right now. I'm a huge Batman fan. I don't know as I'd go so far as to say obsessed but I know my wife would. I've got most of the movies in my collection both live action and animated. I have numerous games, toys, and other products from the license. I'll keep this as fair a review as I can but you've been warned.
Point number two. Regarding the comic this movie is based on I feel it is one of the cornerstone stories of the Batman mythos. Is it brutal, dark and overly violent? Yes. But these things are used well and in such a way as to add depth and character to the already impressive narrative that is Batman's world. This story and it's adoption into canon is the single defining moment that I feel removes Barbara Gordon from being another generic Bat-sidekick and makes her into the character people love today. Does it have it's problems, from Barbara's overall portrayal to the way some of the story is handled, sure. But it's still one of the best Batman stories out there and certainly one of the most iconic Joker stories.
Now on to the movie. I called this a dyslexic review because it feels like you're watching two movies with this one and they couldn't be more different.
First let's address the elephant in the room. Or maybe more appropriately in this case the elephant fucking in the room. (I really wanted to find a funny image for this but let's just say that you don't want to go too far down that rabbit hole of a Google image search.)
Batgirl and Batman's sex scene. That's right if you hadn't already heard they have sex in the movie. Before you go reaching for the pause button on your remote and the box of tissues there isn't anything overtly graphic depicted in the movie. There's a shirt coming off and then cut to black but you know what's going on. Far more graphic has been the reaction on the interwebs. Nerds everywhere have been sounding the rage horns at this addition to the story, people are pissed that Batgirl is just a plot device and a stereotypical female portrayal in a movie, and overall you'd think someone had killed all their respective pets.
Just so everyone's aware the first 30 minutes or so of the movie where this takes place isn't in the comic and you can certainly tell. The comic is pretty short and the entire opening of the film was added to help pad the movie's run time and supposedly give both Batman and the audience more reason to care about what happens to Barbara later in the film. I agree with the first part as it is a short graphic novel but I think the second is horseshit. Most anyone watching this movie is going to be a fan of the characters and have at least some investment in the Barbara character no matter how much screen time she has. Adding more story around her in the beginning to pad the movie would've been fine without the angsty-girl-pining-for-her-mentor story line they decided to throw in here. I personally don't have as much of an issue with them having sex in general and there are plenty of articles out there already about why it's ok based on the history of the characters' portrayal with each other so I'll leave that to you to decide. But the need for that specific handling of Batgirl in relation to Batman is just bogus. They could easily have tossed in any kind of filler story that gave us more Batgirl without the soap opera. The point is the specific fluff they decided to go with is diminishing to the character.
So decisions about how to handle the extra filler aside the other huge issue with this first part is that it is terrible. The plot and dialogue are so bad that try as they might the actors can't help but sound like trashy daytime soap opera speakers. They have an obsessed crime boss who becomes infatuated with Batgirl and gets super rape-y throughout. (Although the quick scene of the hookers leaving his boat and the redhead commenting about how he made her wear a mask which looked like Batgirl's was pretty funny. I imagine there's a lot of that going on in Gotham that you don't hear about, the prostitute cosplay as the various heroes and villains.) Meanwhile this is played against her pining for Batman and confiding in her holy-shit-we-have-a-gay-best-friend-in-our-movie! stereotype. And even the potential depth of her sleeping with Batman and it creating tension between them is ruined when she's portrayed as an immature highschooler who tries to breakup with him first cause it was totally her idea and why can't they just be best friends again?!
And then cut to the next movie. It seriously is that immediate, there's no bleed over into the Killing Joke narrative and no real tie in which to be clear I'm not complaining about. It's just that obvious how forcibly tacked on the opening sequence is. The first part ends with her voice over and fade to black then it comes in on Batman investigating a homicide at the start of the comic's story.
The actual portion of the movie that is Batman: The Killing Joke is phenomenal. Without spoiling too much it involves the Joker kidnapping Jim Gordon to "prove a point" in his feud with Batman while also interspersing one of the most canonical origin stories of the Joker to-date. The movie is a truly faithful adaptation of the comic, if you've read the comic you know exactly what happens and if you haven't read it you'll know what everyone who's read it does by the end. A lot of the credit for the plot is thus rightfully thrown to Alan Moore of Watchmen fame. Similar to that one this story is all about the psychology and depth present within the characters over the violence between them. There's still some good action in this second part for sure but there is a lot more dialogue and exposition than you might expect from a comic movie and it's handled well.
Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill reprise their respective roles and you can tell they both brought their passion to this project. The interactions between them are impressive and Hamill in particular really steals the show. His completely non-Joker performance during the origin story flashbacks was amazing, you never got a hint of Joker in him until that final moment when he just becomes him. The final scenes between Batman and Joker at the end are so well done and it truly brings to life Moore's excellent writing. These two men were born to play these roles in this film.
You end up with two separate movies even though they're on one disc and they couldn't be more different. I know that upon repeat viewings (which I know there will be for me) I'll be skipping the first section entirely which is actually easy to do because they give you a nice split to find so that's good. This film is an essential buy for any Batman fan and for those that aren't, just ignore the first half of the film and you'll understand why this story is held up so often as one of the best of the genre.
As a quick post script I loved the quick homage to the various incarnations of the Joker they put into the film including Nicholson and Ledger. It's a quick moment in the Batcave but it's full of history and really adds to this concept of the Joker as a force of nature rather than a man. "Sometimes I remember it one way, sometimes another ... If I'm going to have a past, I prefer it to be multiple choice!"
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