Batman: The Killing Joke
Okay, let’s get this out of the way. Batman: The Killing Joke is one of the greatest comic books in the history of the everything, and if you’re expecting a faithful adaptation to this masterclass of a book… I’m sorry to disappoint but… You know what? Just go and watch Under the Red Hood, The Dark Knight Returns, The Long Halloween, about 99% of these animated comic adaptations are amazing.
However, if you are going to watch this shit-show of a movie, just skip to when Barbara is shot. Everything up to this point in the film is in the range of mediocre to god awful.
Now, to get to the only true reason to watch this film, Barbara is shot and the rest of the film is within the range of great to absolute peak. One of the greatest endings in comic history is fairly justified by the film. The incredibly dark tone of the book is conveyed with excellence thanks to the legendary voice acting performances from Mark Hamill, Tara Strong, Kevin Conroy and Ray Wise.
However, you cannot talk about this movie without talking about the singular lowest, most utterly disgraceful and indescribably disgusting moment in the history of Batman. Actually, scratch that, in the history of cinema. Words cannot describe the outrage that watching this film as an innocent Batman fan caused me. To do something like this is truly a crime, or, should I say, someone. Of course, I am talking about Batman and Batgirl. Just for that one scene, this movie is an atrocity.