Batman: The Killing Joke · 5:46am Jul 31st, 2016
The past week has been different. On Monday when I left my house for work out of nowhere a giant black wasp flew overhead and stung me in the back of the neck. My initial reaction was to essentially say, "Son of a bitch. Really?" I got a welt for a couple hours that went away. No trip to the hospital or anything like that. Just another day of me finishing out a shift before calling it a day.
On Wednesday the air had become heavy with rain. It had been wet earlier in the day. Even if you had been inside all day the sounds of the various frogs and toads were loud enough to let you know that it was a nice night for them. A frog was sitting under the lamp at my front door just kind of hanging out. I greeted it and then shooed it into the tall grass before going in. I figured it was safer there. Cats and what not like to roam the neighborhood and it would be a shame to see the frog, who seemed content, be chewed up. There were better bugs in the grass anyway.
On Friday I left the house for work when I saw a baby rabbit dead on the driveway. It hadn't been hit by the car or anything but, had run afoul of one of those wandering dogs or cats in the neighborhood. It wasn't bloody. It looked like it had been shaken and had it's neck or back broken with how not gory the scene was. I went to work. It would still be there when I got back and sure enough it was one eye staring up at nothing it's teeth showing in a weird little smile.
I picked it up with a plastic bag and disposed of it along with some other refuse. I figured that was it. It wasn't. Each night since I disposed of the baby a bigger rabbit has taken to sitting in front of my door and watching it. As ridiculous as it sounds I offered it my condolences but, it being a rabbit just sat there. Tonight I approached the rabbit and while most rabbits hop away fast this one moved rather slow for a bunny. It moved just enough to avoid me but, not at a rapid speed and stayed on my lawn watching me.
I don't really know what to make of it. I don't speak rabbit. Maybe it's sad. I don't know. All I know for certain is that time crumbles everything and that eventually the older rabbit will move on. The greatest joys and sorrows all pass away and are scattered throughout time. It makes me wonder if in the end even one rabbit will look for me when I'm gone.
Speaking of things that came and went, I went to a fathom event on Monday with some friends. It was for Batman: The Killing Joke. Based off of a one shot comic written by Alan Moore in 1988, it garnered a lot of praise and criticism at the time. Filmmakers like Tim Burton found it influential while some feminists felt it was entirely too violent toward Barbara Gordon.
Personally, I've never been a huge fan of Alan Moore. I've read a few of the books he's done and seen the various movie treatments and often times I just find myself asking why should I care about any of this? The Watchmen is a perfect example in which I read it and found myself only interested in three characters, Rorschach, Osmandis and The Comedian. The rest of the characters, the side story about the guy on the boat made of his dead crew, the film shoot, etc. did nothing for me. They were just bystanders who were meant to represent the general population, including the general population. If the vast majority of their antics had been cut out none of it would have mattered. And that's sort of how I've felt about most of Moore's work, much ado about nothing.
So, when it came to this movie I was on the fence about it and when I saw it I left the theater thinking pretty much what I thought I'd think of it. Ultimately it was okay, parts of it were fun and the story was one that I can shrug and walk away from and not care if I see it again. Yep, that's it.
The visuals are well done. The voice acting for the most part is top notch. Mark Hamill is one of the best Jokers in the game. Tim Conroy as Batman still works, though I remembered his voice being a bit deeper in the past. Tara Strong delivered most of her lines as Barbara just fine, though there were a couple of moments that felt flat. Maybe it was the writing.
The writing is where it gets shaky. It's ultimately a Joker back story but, being a one shot there wasn't quite so much material to play with. If anything, the movie needed some breathing room to allow for some of the emotional stuff to really sink in, especially for Barbara and Batman. It would have been more noteworthy if Gordon had to go through a bit more than he did because honestly, while humiliating and hard on him, it all just feels like a series of events and an ending you kind of see coming and is shrouded in ambiguity but ultimately it feels hollow.
Is it worth watching? It's okay in that, Netflix maybe Red box sort of way. Otherwise if you miss it you won't be kicking yourself either.
Stats: 10-12ish dead bodies (honestly I wasn't keeping count but that's my estimate), 1 rooftop horizontal batusi scene, gratuitous circus freaks, gratuitous naked Jim Gordon, gun fu, explosion fu, laughing fu, joke fu, photo fu.
Shoutouts: Mark Hamill as the Joker for doing what he does and throwing in a fairly entertaining song and dance number to boot.
Tim Conroy as Batman for doing what he does to the best of his ability.
Ray Wise as Jim Gordon who wants the Joker brought in "By the book!"
Maury Sterling as Paris for honestly delivering the second best character in the movie. It would have been interesting if they had to chase both of them at the same time. Ah well.
Tara Strong as Barbara Gordon/Batgirl Solid job narrating and emotes convincingly when in the hospital.
Interesting.
Doggone it, that was a limited release thing?! I loves me some Conroy and Hamill, and if Strong is along for the ride, so much the better.
I hear you about Moore, though. Many moons ago I borrowed the Watchmen comic from a friend, and I tried to get into it, honestly I did. Ultimately it was just too pretentious and blah for me.
I always meant to check out Killing Joke though, and this seems like the way to do it...
4127323 It's certainly the least expensive way, especially when it comes up for rental.
4132532 I finally saw the movie and I do agree with you about Paris I couldn't help but feel they should have left him out. They had this interesting character that wasn't in the book, but they really didn't do anything with him. I felt he was mostly just filler. Interesting filler but filler none the less.
4147733 Well, sadly that's exactly what he was along with a lot of other stuff too. The Killing Joke was short and they needed to pad it out so they did. Even so, I don't even think with that padding it was enough to get it to a proper run time without the Mark Hamill stuff at the beginning of the fathom event and the, "How we did music," at the end.