Batman: The Killing Joke

Kameňák is one of the most famous, most fundamental and, after all, the best Batman stories. It is the pure essence of what Batman/Jokers is about. Like any good "joke", it's short, striking and damn impressive. And therefore completely unsuitable for full-length footage. Which the creators somewhat clumsily handled so that the introductory half is about something completely different, and no matter how hard the creators try to fit it to Kameňák itself, this effort has zero result. It is decent and not that bad, but completely useless padding which is too lengthy and nothing more. Scenes from the second half, which are taken one to one (including picture framing), work, but paradoxically this is also detrimental, as it is not so much an adaptation as an illustration of the original. But what stands out is the great voicover (Hamill confirms that he is still the best voiceover artist) and worse portrayed. It is therefore something between a cat and a dog, which does not give the original a good name (rather the opposite), but it is only and only thanks to the high quality of the script that it will stand up to the result. (27.07.2016)

Specially adapted for kids, but some extremely rough moments mean that in the end there was no point (I won’t let my daughter watch it before her 18th birthday). The Killing Joke is a story about how Batman breaks his only rule, not that he laughs at the joke. The animated Batman: The Dark Knight Returns shows that this can be done better. Much, much better. (15.11.2020)

Eine Adaption der Comic-Geschichte von Alan Moore. Ich hatte Vorbehalte, womit die Macher die Geschichte, die ja vor allem ob ihrer Kürze und Prägnanz stark ist, in die Länge ziehen. Die gute Nachricht ist, dass sie es nicht einmal versucht haben. Die etwas schlechtere Nachricht ist, dass man, bevor die eigentliche Geschichte erzählt wird, ungefähr eine halbe Stunde lang eine völlig andere Geschichte verfolgen muss, was sich sicherlich mit der Notwendigkeit rechtfertigen lässt, den genrefremden Zuschauern die Figur des Batgirls/der Barbara vorstellen zu müssen, aber die Mafia-Verstrickungen und Actionszenen hätten nicht sein müssen. Aber ich habe mich nicht gelangweilt, an die Animation habe ich mich nach einer Weile gewöhnt … Ja, und Mark Hamill ist als Joker einfach perfekt. (15.11.2020)

This is one of the legendary comic book Batmans, but what they made out of it in the film adaptation is just a simple action movie about how one idiot went too far. It doesn't have a hint of the magic that the comic has, nor a hint of what Alan Moore brought to the script. The animation is fine, but that is somehow expected. (29.07.2016)