Movie Review → The Killing Joke

First things first: the movie ended up being a resounding disappointment. And I'm not just talking about the horrible treatment of Barbara Gordon, which we'll get to. Everything from the animation to the storyline to the character interactions were mediocre at the best of times. Sure, there were a few good jokes and a couple of high-tension scenes, but for the most part, the movie was either boring or offensive.

Barbara Gordon

I have to talk about Barbara first because I'm not going to be able to focus on the rest of my critique until I've said my peace here. I'm sure there's nothing I can say about Barbara's place in this story that hasn't already been said far more eloquently by far smarter individuals, but I'll try. The most obvious issue with Barbara's plot is that it really has nothing to do with her. The entire first act of the movie is basically a poor attempt to add extra tension and emotional impact when the Joker ultimately rapes and paralyzes her. Not for the sake of the story, though. And certainly not for the sake of furthering Barbara's character. For the sake of Batman. Because apparently without their lukewarm "attraction" and Barbara proving herself incompetent by getting baited by Paris - who is never mentioned again in the film, by the way - Batman would have no need to go after the Joker?

Ultimately, this is just another example of sexual violence against women being used as a means of furthering a man's pain. The assault against her was nothing more than a jab at Batman and a torture device for her father. All we even see about Barbara's reaction is her concern for Gordon and her recovery. And while I appreciate them making wheelchair-bound Barbara active and even delving back into the world of crime fighting, we never see her struggle with anything the Joker did to her. Which means it didn't matter how she handled it or what she went through to get back into a good place. Because the only reactions that mattered to the story were Batman and Gordon's.

The Joker's Backstory

Honestly, they could have taken the backstory entirely out and it would have changed nothing about this movie. Despite the claims by Mark Hamill's pre-movie interview, the backstory we get does not endear the Joker to the viewer. Let's start with the Joker's pregnant wife. Like Barbara, her only purpose in the story is to act as the fulcrum for a man's pain. Namely, to give the Joker something to lose. And let's be serious for a minute here. Was she this pregnant when the Joker decided to quit his probably decent-paying job to try and become a comedian? Something we're told he's terrible at? That's not an endearing effort to follow your dreams, that's selfish and irresponsible. A lot of people work jobs they hate to make ends meet. Why couldn't he just keep working as an engineer and practice his stand up sets at night and on the weekend like most people pursuing comedy do?

The rest of my issue with the Joker's backstory stems from a twofer of lackluster animation and voice acting. The Joker ultimately turns to a couple of unimportant gangsters to make money, planning to help them with a robbery instead of, you know, going and getting another engineering job. We eventually find his pregnant wife (Jeannie, apparently. I had to Google that) died in a "million to one odds" accident sometime off screen while he was meeting with the thugs. But when the Joker explains this to the gangsters - and the audience - he never, at any point, looks or sounds genuinely grieved by that information. Sure, he gives a few "Oh, Jeannie, why?"s, and he holds his head in his hands, but nothing about this scene is emotionally gripping. Certainly not in the way it needs to be in order to set up the Joker's breakdown later.

It's supposed to be a combination of his failures, his grief, and the physical change forced on him by a fall in a chemical bath that cause him to lose his mind and become the character we know as the Joker. But the movie does such a terrible job of inciting any of these emotions that they'd have been better off to just leave the entire story a mystery.

Character Reactions

And that basically kicks off my last gripe with this movie. The character reactions make no damn sense. We have Barbara/Batgirl continuously allowing herself to be baited and bested by an inconsequential thug like Paris. And when she's not falling trap to his overt sexism, she's being forced into it by the writers who have crafted her into an "emotional woman" who quits fighting crime entirely when Batman doesn't want a relationship with her. Oh, until the Joker rapes and paralyzes her and Batman "avenges" her. Then she's into it again.

Next, we have Gordon. Now, I can understand how the Joker was blatantly played by the thugs he turned to in his backstory - he was an engineer and then a crappy comedian. He was wildly naive and therefore easily manipulated. But Gordon playing into the incredibly obvious "think you're denouncing the Joker and find out you're denouncing Batman" ploy was a hard pill to swallow. On top of that, the movie does a pretty horrible job of explaining its pacing. The way it plays out, it looks like Gordon takes two trips through the fun house tunnel. We see nothing from the first trip, so was it just a naked ride? The second time he goes through he's bombarded with pictures of Barbara after the Joker raped her, but his reaction is one of surprise. Like this is the first time he's been exposed to them. And that's apparently enough for him to become basically comatose - oh, until Batman shows up and he's let out of his cage. Then he's back to being stern "do it by the books" Gordon. Because the story needed him to be shoved out of the picture for a while but also needed him to be okay in order to prove the Joker wrong.

And Batman and the Joker? Look, I kinda liked the idea of Batman going out of his way to try and talk things through with the Joker. And I really did like the Joker's moment of "no, it's too late for that" when Batman offers to help rehabilitate him. But at the end of the day, their interaction just isn't interesting enough. The movie's first and second halves are completely disjointed, and by the time we finally get to that all-important scene between Batman and the Joker...who cares? The movie went out of it's way to try and make what the Joker did to Batman's friends as horrible as possible (which both worked and didn't, oddly enough), so for the penultimate moment to be Batman laughing at a stupid joke? By that point, the joke was really on the audience, and Batman was laughing at us.

Needless to say, I wouldn't recommend this movie to anyone. Even my friend, the one who gave me the ticket and was a huge fan of 'The Killing Joke' as a graphic novel, was disappointed by the movie. So it doesn't cater enough to fans of the original controversial material, and it sure as hell doesn't cater to the casual watcher like myself. Do yourselves a favor and skip this one. There are way better movies out now anyway

Might I recommend Ghostbusters instead?