Jesper Brun For once I read the source material before seeing the movie adaption. It left me with a feeling of disappointment I normally don't get when watching WB animated movies and especially the ones with Batman. The graphic novel was amazing in its cruel and non-compromising nature thanks to how it deals with the most famous and twisted villain of the Batman universe, the Joker, and how he came to be. Therefore I had high expectations. Well, we still get great performances from both Mark Hamill and Kevin Conroy, but here is my biggest problem, they literally retell the story with nothing added to it. Aside from the completely unnecessary backstory of Barbara Gordon which is tedious to sit through, it could just have been a reading done by the voice actors. The animation was lazy, and it looked awful when there was once in a while thrown in some 3D. I don't know, maybe I'm being too harsh on it, because aside from the backstory-thing, it was a faithful retelling. It just seemed bland, and since it is an adaption of an intense and disturbing graphic novel I just expected more than the rough drafts of potentially the greatest Batman movie ever.

Austin Cross High points of the movie:The animation and graphics are unique and very interesting. There were certain parts during the movie, especially with the close-ups of the Joker, that really highlight and accentuate eyes and facial features. Everything else is animated sleekly and everything looks almost realistic but with a bit of an animated twist to it.I thought the backstory with the Joker was very interesting. I haven't read any of the comics or graphic novels, so my knowledge of Batman and the Joker is very limited. It was good to see that Joker, whatever his real name is, was a compassionate human being before his accident. I also found it compelling that Batman was there when the Joker made his transition from good to evil.Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill return to provide their voices for their respective roles of Batman and the Joker. It was very refreshing to hear Conroy and Hamill return after watching so many adaptations with other voice actors providing their voices for the two iconic characters.Low points:The movie is very unbalanced. From what I have read from other reviewers, the graphic novel really wasn't long enough to be turned into a feature-length film, so Brian Azzarello, the screenplay writer, wrote in an extra twenty minutes at the beginning. While the extra material in the film is not entirely bad, one can definitely comprehend the differences even if they haven't read the graphic novel.The unnecessary sex scene. Now, it cuts away before it really gets shown, but I felt that it was extremely unnecessary. Again, this wasn't in the original from what I researched, but that's not the reason why it bothered me. It bothered because it was very uncharacteristic of Batman to do it.Overall:Not a bad movie. It's definitely worth your time. If you have read the graphic novel, your opinion of the movie can go one of three ways. One, you hate it because it's a bit different. Two, you take it for what it is and accept the changes. Three, you love it. I am somewhere in the middle. I give this movie a seven out of ten stars.

kemosabe80 great movie...don't believe any of the negative reviews on here...all the one's crying about this movie don't have any idea what a good movie is. This movie has all you could ask for, a great story line, great animation and a Batman that we all know and love and once again to the one's crying go and find something to complain about.

Anssi Vartiainen Batman: The Killing Joke fails both its source material as well as a general movie. It doesn't understand what made the original story so good. It doesn't understand the character of Barbara Gordon a.k.a. Bat girl. Its technical aspects leave a lot to be desired. And it doesn't even know how pacing works.But first, let's go over the upsides. It is genuinely pleasing to hear both Mark Hamill as well as Kevin Conroy reprise their roles as Joker and Batman, respectively. Tara Strong as Barbara is also something I will never complain about. The story is not half bad when it is actually about The Killing Joke, especially about Joker's supposed past. And even the animation, cheap though as it looks, can be forgiven when you remember that this was made direct to video on a shoestring budget.Then the problems. They needed to pad out the story. This I can somewhat understand because the original story isn't that long. Making that padding about Barbara is also understandable because the original story has her in a large part and she's the least known out of the principal characters. But did they really have to give her a gay best friend? Did they really have to make the entire first half of the film revolve around her teenage angst because Bruce doesn't luv luv her? I mean, here I thought superhero stories could be about man's struggle with his inner demons reflected on the horrors of the real world. About symbolic battle between shades of light and dark. About discrimination, racism, oppression, difficulties of morality in a world where nothing is truly black or white. But no, apparently superhero stories are just sitcoms where people dress funny.Furthermore, The Killing Joke, the original comic, was such a big thing because it was one of the first stories to really explore the possibility of Joker having a past. Plus it challenged the status quo. Things changed because of it, characters evolved. And this film simply cannot deliver that. Joker's backstory has already been suggested millions of times, there is no status quo to be broken and even the shock value of Joker doing such brutal things that they seem out of character even for him doesn't have much impact because we've seen worse from him. In a movie called The Dark Knight. One of the greatest movies ever made. Perhaps you've heard of it.To add insult to injury, the movie doesn't even earn its R rating. It's a marketing ploy. I've seen movies from the 80s rated PG-13 that have more gore, violence and sexual content than this has.And yet this film is not the worst. Not even the worst animated Batman film. The voice acting is strong, the original story is good, borderline great, and the animation has some good moments. Even its flaws are merely annoying. Not something I'd recommend, but it's watchable.