Batman: The Killing Joke - The Book Cut

Fantastic improvement from original release. This keeps the tighter pace of the comic book, and the emotional impact is all the greater for it. The added rain effect is obviously added, but other than that, no real problems at all.

I didn't mind the idea of the added Barbara story, but the execution ended up holding the original release back. This is a superior viewing alternative.

The biggest compliment that I can give this edit is that it's the closest one can get to watching the graphic novel in motion, like the comic book panels come to life. Having seen the original film, I'm glad the Batman x Batgirl sex scene was cut out and left to fanfiction where it belongs, though I do miss the original film's fight scenes and with so much cut out it feels rather short.

Overall, I quite enjoyed it and recommend it to any Batman fan and anyone who'd prefer a more accurate graphic novel edit of "The Killing Joke."

Absolutely seamless (outside of nitpicking). This should have been an extra on the Blu-ray release. I've read The Killing Joke years ago and watched The Killing Joke last year. I'd recommend people watch this version before they watch the official release as there is no distracting Batgirl love story sub-plot.

A few issues/recommendations though:
1. The compression could be improved.
2. I think Gordon's trial in front of the carnies should be included. It's not in the original book, but it adds a glimpse of Gordon's mental state, makes a statement on the similarities between Batman and the Joker, and opens the question of what Gordon's sense of justice is after experiencing his tragedy (which is later resolved).
3. I HIGHLY recommend removing the added "Perhaps, you'll kill me, perhaps I'll kill you" voice-over when Batman arrives at the carnival as this fan-edit is now a short film and the audience doesn't need to be reminded this was said only 20 minutes before. I also found the audio editing of this voice-over to be distracting.
4. It would be nice if there was a way to edit the ending to show Batman ambiguously killing the Joker as many fans interpret this as the true ending from the comic. It could possibly be done by doing a messy fade to black towards the center and a sound effect of a neck cracking as the two are laughing.

As a die-hard Comic-fan. Seeing the non-edited Killing Joke, felt all wrong. There was so much stuff added which ruined the whole thing.

The Book Cut fixes a lot overall. It cuts out unnecessary fillers. Which results in a faster pacing, better narrative and overall more enjoyment.
It also adds a nice atmosphere with the very well done rain.

If you want to see The Killing Joke, watch this version it stays very very close to the Masterpiece that is the original.

I'm an unwashed heathen - I haven't read The Killing Joke. But going in to the animated adaptation mostly blind, the additions were painfully obvious. Excising the additional material makes for a much better overall experience. No Batgirl filler, no literal kangaroo court, no overly prolonged discussion of urine, no gratuitous Batman Returns-esque brawling with circus folk (with one exception - more on that shortly). The pacing is much improved, the transitions between the flashbacks and the main story feel much tighter. It's a complete improvement over the original release, and I really can't see myself going back to it ever again. However, I do think there remain a few areas for improvement.

Picture quality is mostly good, but there are some obvious compression artifacts, as well as aliasing on some diagonal lines. This is most obvious during the opening logos. Clocking in at 3.14GB, the editor could have gone with less intensive compression and still wound up with a FAT32 file below the 4GB cutoff. The audio quality is a nice and clear stereo mix. I imagine the original 5.1 mix could have been salvaged with the changes in place, but there's nothing wrong with this 2.0 version. It's a dialogue heavy piece as it is, not an action adventure.

Visual editing is almost perfect - cuts were pretty much seamless. The repetition of the doors during the montage looked a little too obvious. Perhaps some cropping or tinting could have spiced things up a bit. The added rain effect is a nice touch, but there's an obvious gap on the left side of the screen that feels very unnatural to me. Zooming in on the effect that's composited over the footage to fill the frame with rain would probably work a lot better.

Audio editing is, again, very well done. Deleted lines don't feel missing, rearranged voiceover fits naturally. Both music and sound effects during the new montage feel quite choppy and take me out of what was otherwise an engrossing, seamless experience. The squeaking of the train brakes just draw attention to themselves. Replacing that with a new sound effect, or perhaps muting it entirely would have gone a long way to alleviate the situation.

Again, I haven't read the source material, but one moment that I was positive couldn't have been in the book is still present in this cut. While climbing out of the spike pit trap, Batman tosses one of the Joker's hired hands down in his place, complete with an impalement sound effect. Was that really in the book? Batman's going out of his way to spare the Joker's life (or is he? Ambiguous ending and all.) - but has no qualms about sending his henchmen to their deaths? If that is indeed true to Alan Moore's vision, I can't fault the editor for retaining that scene. It just strikes me as contrary to the whole point of the story.


Either way, it's a complete improvement over the original release. Recommended.