This animated retelling, and in some ways rebooting, of the
classic comic and unofficial Joker origin story,
wins and loses as the same time. In actuality, this is unintentionally two
films, with the first part solely focused on Barbara Gordon/Batgirl and her
relationship with both Bruce/Batman and a new criminal madman with the single
worst villain name in all of the genre's rich history. The idea, I suppose, is to adequately
introduce Barbara to the mainstream while paralleling her burgeoning interconnection
to her newest adversary with that of the Caped Crusader and his infamous arch-nemesis; the Clown Prince of Gotham. That fraction of the movie is done well,
with solid storytelling, performances, and animation. The second half, however, which is designed
to be the most compelling, and true to its source material, disappoints in
every way imaginable. Burdened with
sloppy, haphazard editing, a disjointed script, near Scooby Doo style
animation, and shockingly stale performance by the iconic Mark Hamill as the
legendary homicidal trickster; the most crucial part of this long awaited DC
homage fails miserably, right up to its underwhelming ending. Hamill's pre-Joker portrayal lacks any and
all emotion, and his normally outstanding
interpretation of this seminal villain is
absent, replaced by a stagnate and
utterly frustrating shadow of past incarnations. Conroy still owns the Dark Knight, but it's not enough to carry this cartoonish
calamity. 1 out of 5 Kernels; the only
joke was on the audience who waited far
too long for a big screen version of such an
important and controversial tale only to be wholly dissatisfied.
No comments:
Post a Comment