I came away not wanting to watch it again. It's definitely not up to par with Mask of the Phantasm or Under the Red Hood. It's not even as good as Subzero or The Dark Knight Returns. However, The Killing Joke is a faithful adaptation of the comic book if you ignore the extra bit of story at the beginning, which honestly was not bad. It sets up the relationship between Barbara and Bruce as they hunt down Paris Franz. So I have no complaints there. This is a highly regarded classic story of the Batman/Joker relationship.

But even as Alan Moore, the guy who wrote the story says, "I don't think it's a very good book. It's not saying anything very interesting." And he's right. The Killing Joke has nothing really to say. And that's part of the problem when you do a faithful adaptation of a story with nothing interesting to say. Your story doesn't have anything interesting. No characters in the story have an arc. They just are. If the movie makers had done something to give Barbara, Bruce, or even Joker an arc, we might have had a better story on our hands. But no effort was made.

The artwork in this is shoddy. It feels rushed. There is little detail. The directing isn't great either. Many scenes feel choppy. And the voice work isn't great either. Tara Strong stands out as the best of the bunch here, but Maury Sterling also brings life to Paris Franz. It shocked me that Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill really didn't shine in their roles. I think they may be getting too old to pull off the vocal range. Either that or they kind of checked it in. Hamill is now 64. Conroy is 60. I just didn't think either one brought much emotion or power to any particular moment. However, this may go back to the script. Especially Batman, who comes across as very one-note.

As someone who was excited to see this adaptation, I came away disappointed. WB animation has got to focus more on fleshing out characters. I can forgive the tepid animation and artwork, but audiences need characters who grow and change. Nothing really happened in the movie. It just felt like a long episode of Batman: The Animated Series, but not even a memorable one.

It's R rated for violence. There are a couple of guys who get shot in the head. That's about the worst of it. PG-13 language. If you're not a moderate Batman fan, I would say this is probably not worth your time.