Well, Alan Moore finally has a seriously legitimate beef when it comes to DC adapting his work.  Moore’s 1988 original graphic novel, The Killing Joke, is widely regarded as one of the three best Batman stories of all-time.  It has been incredibly influential in the development of the involved characters in the comics, influenced Tim Burton and Chris Nolan’s Batman films (Heath Ledger was given a copy of The Killing Joke when he signed on, and the interrogation scene in The Dark Knight has a lot of parallels with the graphic novel’s final showdown), and along with Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns and Batman: Year One, ushered in the modern grim and gritty Batman that has been the standard take since.  When DC announced that its 24th animated feature would be its first R-Rated film, and would tackle The Killing Joke, fans initially got very excited.  Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill would return to voice the iconic roles.  The first trailer seemed to pull directly from the graphic novel, and got fans even more excited.  Then, around Comic-Con, details started leaking about exactly how DC was padding the 48-page OGN into a 78 minute film.  Thus began the slow reveal of the worst animated project DC has ever released.  It fails the source material, it inflames concerns over aspects of the graphic novel, the script by Brian Azzarello is dull and poorly written when not cribbing for Moore, in short, this is an utter disaster. Continue reading Movie Review: The Killing Joke (2016) *DC is in Flames* →