"the film doesn't tone down the violence and well discussed sadistic tone of The Joker throughout the story"

Batman: The Killing Joke ...or Batgirl Begins. Okay, so let's break this down. The Killing Joke is an adaptation of one of the most well know and respected Batman stories. Starting out as a one shot quasi-canon graphic novel in 1988 and was written by graphic novel legend Alan Moore. The source material was, at the time of writing a lot of darker than previous stories, it could be argued that it serves as a definitive origin story for Barbara Gordon's Oracle as well as helping to usher in a darker tone to the caped crusader, coming earlier in the same year as the seminal "Death in the family" arch.

The film differs slightly to the source material by introducing the Barbara Gordon/Batgirl character to the DC animated universe, providing background as to why she is important to the story. This adaptation has chosen to put emphasis on the supposed sexual tension between Batman and Batgirl which wasn't present in the graphic novel but it can be argued that it helps to build up the story. It also alludes to and later confirms that these characters have a sexual relationship (at least one time). Whilst in my own opinion this neither adds nor distracts to the overall tone of the film, hardcore comic book fans will likely not take kindly to this.

It's also worth noting that the film doesn't tone down the violence and well discussed sadistic tone of The Joker throughout the story.  (pre-warning: mild spoilers if you are not familiar with the events of the story); when the graphic novel was initially released it was heavily criticised by feminists for the extreme treatment of Barbara Gordon, it is of course extremely shocking and what is also implied but never stated is far worse. However, I feel they made the right decision but keeping it in the adaptation, yes this kind of violence towards women is never acceptable in any decade, however, this kind of violence does happen and where the event is a catalyst to the story, I don't feel it should have been cut.

The motivation of The Joker is to prove that all it takes is one bad day to drive a good person over the edge, the events of the story just take this to the Nth degree.  The film is rated 15 in the UK and R in the US for obvious reasons.

It’s worth noting the film also provides one possible origin story for The Joker, however this is later semi-retconned by the character himself when he says "If I’m going to have a past then I prefer it to be multiple choice", this ties in well the recent events in the comic books and the fact that so many writers have had their versions and influence on how The Joker is written that there perhaps is no definitive history for him. We are however very lucky to have The Joker and Batman voiced by the definitive voices, Mark Hamill and Kevin Conroy respectively. (Side note: included with the film is a short documentary piece with Mark discussing how it came to be that he got the role and how he made it his own which was very interesting).

We are however very lucky to have The Joker and Batman voiced by the definitive voices, Mark Hamill and Kevin Conroy respectively. (Side note: included with the film is a short documentary piece with Mark discussing how it came to be that he got the role and how he made it his own which was very interesting).

On the whole I have to admit that I very much enjoyed the film, but it wasn't groundbreaking, I would however recommend that any avid DC or Batman fan watches it when the get the chance, if you aren't familiar with the subject matter, however it may be a little bit of a shock to the system. All in all, I'll happily give this a solid 3.5 out of 5 and its a great addition to the DC animated Universe.