Filled with rated-R level violence and disturbing content, this is not your Saturday morning or weekday afternoon Batman story.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Feb 16, 2024

Fans of both the novel and “Batman: The Animated Series” will certainly appreciate what the movie eventually becomes. But getting to that point makes for a puzzling ride.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Aug 19, 2022

While the first half feels like an extended prologue included as runtime padding, what follows isn't much better, as it deviates from the source material, and worse, emphasizes what was unwieldy about the text.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Apr 11, 2022

... scriptwriter Brian Azzarello wrote a half-hour prologue that explored Batgirls retirement from crime fighting. Give the production high marks to the adaptation proper but the addition is problematic at best and misguided at best.

| Mar 12, 2022

The final product is nothing more than a middle of the line DC animated film that was concentrating more on controversy than giving a film that fans not only wanted, but deserved.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Feb 18, 2022

On the whole, The Killing Joke feels like it was cobbled together out of different pieces of varying quality and, as such, it doesn't work as well as it might.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Jan 21, 2021

It really felt like 2 episodes of the animated series crammed together with nothing particularly cinematic to set the animation apart.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Feb 6, 2019

Writers didn't know what to do with Barbara back in 1988, and they don't know now.

| Jan 10, 2019

Talking about this film, this story, is rough. It's rough because it commands a lot of questions on multiple levels of the creative process.

| Jan 8, 2019

Just take my advice and begin where the comic does, or the joke's on you.

| Original Score: 5.5/10 | Oct 25, 2018

A faithful retelling of the classic graphic novel, albeit with some odd decisions regarding Batman and Batgirl's relationship.

| May 17, 2018

Why would you watch the K-Mart version, when you can just read it as it was meant to be?

| Jan 23, 2018

For anyone who's not a die-hard fan when it comes to these DC animated films, no one could blame them for taking a pass.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Sep 19, 2017

A reason to see this movie is that it shows exactly how to not write a heroine. It shows how to fail at empowering her.

| Aug 1, 2017

It just turns the story into "The Sorrows of Young Barbara," first sexualized by Franz, then rebuffed by Batman, and finally brutalized by the Joker.

| Original Score: D | May 17, 2017

The film only has life when the Joker is onscreen and that's for only half the film.

| Original Score: C+ | Apr 21, 2017

A film that stays halfway between the apology and good intentions, failing to pay homage to the graphic novel and its controversial story. [Full review in Spanish]

| Apr 19, 2017

Instead of what was promised, we must struggle through...a bad 90's romantic comedy masquerading as a comic book movie.

| Original Score: 4/10 | Jan 4, 2017

.. the animated film plays like two separate stories - because they are... knowing how far the Joker has gone this time makes Hamill's portrayal sound more chilling than ever.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Dec 13, 2016

Odd deviations from the source material aside, the inordinately talented folks at DC Animation deliver another great film.

| Dec 8, 2016