Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Mark H. is back as the Joker and Kevin C. is Batman.

I've had the book for quite some time and I am not feeling this, but the same was true of The Dark Knight Returns. It seems the more familiar I am with the source material the less I like the animated version.

Definitely looking forward to this. Mark Hamill and Conroy are back? Yes please.

I can't wait to see what they do to haunt us all. This is THE Batman movie 99% of fans have been waiting for. This is the story that will leave goosebumps on all who watch it.

Can not wait for this one! Currently, The Dark Knight Returns II stands as my favourite animated Batman movie (Flashpoint Paradox edges it in terms of DC animation in general) but I can see this deposing it. Conroy and Hamill, Batgirl getting more time in the spotlight, top notch animation but classic stylings...it's a recipe for awesome!

Sub-par trailer to what I'm thinking will be one of my top 5 DC animated features upon release.

It's not an official trailer, but a poorly re-uploaded one, plus they fethed with the audio.

That said, looking forward to this one a lot, especially with Hamill and Conroy involved.

The Killing Joke will also be in theaters for one night on July 25th. Going to definitely go see that.

So just got back from the theater and watching TKJ. It's........okay.

Outside of the additional prologue that took up 2/5th of the 75 minute run time and really felt out of place, the movie is pretty accurate to the comic in terms of dialogue. How some of that dialogue is delivered detracts from the feeling the comic has though - the Joker's final monologue is delivered while Batman is punching things and then when he fight's the Joker. The resulting noise, sounds, and visual distraction made hearing the actual lines difficult: I took the girlfriend to see the movie, and as someone who hasn't read the comic, she heard only fragments of the final monologue.

The prologue section wasn't bad, but it really didn't hold up well right next to the Killing Joke material.

But really the biggest problem I felt with the movie was the animation style. After the film, my girlfriend read the comic for the first time and we each felt that the comic was far better and much more unsettling due to the difference in the art style. Bolland was able to give the Joker a lot of emotional depth with his art, giving Joker a great range of malice, dejection, whimsy, and malevolence in an unmoving medium. The simple, B:TAS similar animation style really took away the visual emotions, and the character depth along with it. I really wish they could have done something a little closer to the source material.

It was good. Under the Red Hood is still the undisputed king of Batman animated movies. I have yet to find one to top it. Not even Mask of the Phantasm.

One thing they did differently is Moore has gone on record to say Joker DIDNT rape Barbara. They heavily implied in the movie that he did. There are a few other items that are different, but my friends felt that particular point was creepy, and messed up. I don't think it deserved an R rating. Not really. I'd put it on par with the violence and language of Flashpoint Paradox. Hell, Wonder Woman straight out murders children in that one.

I like it, but I'm honestly not sure what's up with half one and half two. It's like someone wanted to make a Batgirl movie, but then someone else came along threw the first guy out of the office and declared to the staff "we're making The Killing Joke" halfway through the project.

Both sections had good bits, but it felt like someone mashed together two separate ideas for two different movies.

They had to establish Babs are a character, rather than just a plot device to get the ball rolling. They were establishing pathos.

I thought it worked quite well, and I enjoyed it through and through.

 timetowaste85 wrote:
It was good. Under the Red Hood is still the undisputed king of Batman animated movies. I have yet to find one to top it. Not even Mask of the Phantasm.

One thing they did differently is Moore has gone on record to say Joker DIDNT rape Barbara. They heavily implied in the movie that he did. There are a few other items that are different, but my friends felt that particular point was creepy, and messed up. I don't think it deserved an R rating. Not really. I'd put it on par with the violence and language of Flashpoint Paradox. Hell, Wonder Woman straight out murders children in that one.

ooooo that's fighting talk lol, mask of the phantasm was better mainly due to the time it was made, up till then, movies like that were not taken seriously, cartoons for kids and all that (excluding japanime crap, and excellence like akira).

They decided to expand on Barbara's character and did so by taking the two stupidest avenues available to them.

I saw the topic title and honestly thought 'Wow, someone made a movie about Killing Joke? Cool!"



Then saw it was a Batman cartoon...

 CptJake wrote:
I saw the topic title and honestly thought 'Wow, someone made a movie about Killing Joke? Cool!"

Spoiler:

[youtube]Extremities Dirt & Various[/youtube]

Then saw it was a Batman cartoon...

In fairness, The Killing Joke is probably one of the most influential comic books to come out, in regards to comics and the characters in them, as well as for a number of aspects in other media.

 RivenSkull wrote:

 CptJake wrote:
I saw the topic title and honestly thought 'Wow, someone made a movie about Killing Joke? Cool!"

Spoiler:

[youtube]Extremities Dirt & Various[/youtube]

Then saw it was a Batman cartoon...

In fairness, The Killing Joke is probably one of the most influential comic books to come out, in regards to comics and the characters in them, as well as for a number of aspects in other media.

I don't doubt it, and I'm sure it is great both in book and movie form. Just not my thing. The only graphic novels I've made it through were The Watchmen (a long time ago) and the Walking Dead compendiums, but in general I just don't read/get into comics. I genuinely hope it lives up to the expectations you guys have and that you enjoy the heck out of it. If it is ever on NetFlix I may try it out.

I was curious if it was a documentary or a concert film or something when I thought it was about the band.

 CptJake wrote:
I'm sure it is great both in book and movie form.

Well you are half right.

So I saw it. My reaction was a shrug followed by "Eh... it's okay"
Didn't like the Batgirl bits. Just felt... forced, out of place, unneeded. Rest of it was... fine. Not bad, certainly no-where near as good as Under the Red Hood.

@Formosa; sorry, might be fighting words, but they're also truthful words. UtRH made the critics happier than Phantasm did.

@Thraka; glad to see somebody else on here who also holds UtRH as the comparison for other Batman films.

And yes, to be quite frank, I do hold UtRH as the best animated Batman film, and on par with TDK, if not even superior to that.

Phantasm is probably my favorite but probably because I saw it in the theater (I was one of the three!), but UtRH was one of the best DC animated films, and easily the best Batman animated film.

Of the Batman ones, Red Hood is the clear winner for me, followed by TDKR part 2 and the recent but fantastic Bad Blood (unless we're counting Assault on Arkham as a Batman one, though really that's a Suicide Squad movie featuring Batman)

Quite honestly, I didn't enjoy Phantasm that much, but that could be because at the time I'd only watched newer stuff, so by comparison it seemed a bit slow. Flashpoint remains my favourite out of all DC's animated output though, I'd probably say my top 5 are Flashpoint, UTRH, TDKR2, Justice League: War and Superman Unbound.

Back to Killing Joke, though, I have been rather put off by the reviews I've been seeing. Batgirl is one of my favourite Batfamily characters, and it sounds like she's been completely mishandled here; I hear the actual adaptation bit is superb, but I don't want to sit through 25 minutes of a character I'm a big fan of being ruined.... At this point, I'm likely to just watch the actual Killing Joke parts and leave the rest.

I don't read comics generally speaking (gets far too confusing). I'm looking forward to seeing this though. I follow GRRM's mantra of "The books will be the books and the show will be the show, that's why it's called an adaptation. Viewers will like one more than the other."

UtRH is one I can watch over and over again for sure. John DiMaggio's Joker is brilliant.

He's no Hammill.

 Ahtman wrote:
Phantasm is probably my favorite but probably because I saw it in the theater (I was one of the three!), but UtRH was one of the best DC animated films, and easily the best Batman animated film.

You were one of the other three to see mask of the phantasm?!?

I also think under the red Hood was just...... Good gravy that was a good movie

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
He's no Hammill.

Perfectly true. But, Mark Hammill won't be around forever.

 angelofvengeance wrote:

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
He's no Hammill.

Perfectly true. But, Mark Hammill won't be around forever.

Jesus man it's 2016. Don't tempt fate!




Automatically Appended Next Post:
Under the Red Hood definitely stands out easily as one of the best films DC has ever put out (certainly better than that dribble Snyder's been shoveling I had to be said dangit!)

Having rewatched the film, I do look a little more favorably on the first half, but it still feels out of place. In theme, and tone it just doesn't line up with the second half, and it's weird picking up a film about the iconic Joker comic to not see a lick of Joker for a half hour plus.

I think I also agree with RivenSkull. The original artwork by Brian Bolland was incredible, and most importantly, it took a certain surrealist liberty with lighting. I never really noticed it until I watched the film, then looked through my copy, but the way the colors play in the comic are incredible, and the very straight forward (frankly standard to bland) art of the film really lessens the impact of it all.

It is a good film, and I do like it (better than Batman Bad Blood), but Under the Red Hood was better. Heck, Batman Beyond Return of the Joker was better as a Joker film.

I have to say I liked the batgirl story line. It does feel a little shoehorned in, but what it does ad feels valuable. First off without those parts the movie would be rather short, which isn't too bad I suppose.

The beginning piece I think really helps the uninitiated viewer understand the nature of batman and joker. At first we see batgirl turn away from batman's interrogation methods, obviously being uncomfortable with his brutal treatment. We then see batgirl and a gangster become obsessed with each other, similar to batman and joker. As things escalate to their conclusion we see batgirl applying the same brutality as batman did earlier, much to her own horror.

For the last scene:

Like Gordon, Barabara shows how a sane person deals with their "one bad day", by recuperating from their traumatic experiencing and moving on. Meanwhile, character like batman and joker are defined by their trauma and descend into madness in their ongoing struggle.

Watched this a couple of nights ago.
The Batgirl prequel section was a bit weird and felt very tacked-on, but wasn't as awful as I was expecting it to be.
Between that and the ending (also a bit weird IMO), it stops it being as good as I think it could've been, but it's still a decent film.

With all the praise it's been getting in this thread, I'm going to have to rewatch Under the Red Hood, I don't remember it being quite that good.

Apart from annoying the Archmage of Northampton I really can't see why DC dug up this of all things, it's the best part of 30 years old and wasn't very good to begin with, I guess Arkham was just too weird and would have needed some meddling (like DKR) to fit the current DC ethos.