Batman & Harley Quinn: Review (SPOILERS)

For anyone who is a big fan of Batman, Bruce Timm is perhaps one of the most influential creative minds behind the character. Both him and Paul Dini were the head writers on the Animated Series from the 90's. A show that is the starting platform for many Batman fans and still has a lasting impression on the Batman mythos. The show introduced everyone to Mark Hamill's take on The Joker, which many consider being the definitive voice of The Joker, it drastically changed Mr. Freeze's origins from being a daft, D-List character into arguably Batman's most sympathetic villains in the Emmy-Winning episode Heart Of Ice (1992). And, most importantly, the animated series is the birthplace of Harley Quinn. Whilst originally meant to be a simple sidekick to The Joker, Harley Quinn took on a life of her own. Today she is arguably the most popular female comic book character in the medium. And now Bruce Timm has returned to the continuity of the Animated show and has created a new movie centering around Batman and Harley. But with Bruce Timm's last animated movie Batman: The Killing Joke being a serious disappointment it's hard to tell if he still has the magic touch he did 20 years ago.

First Thoughts

This is not a good film. In fact, I would say that this film is an insult to the 90's animated show's legacy. This film feels more like a Batman parody film than anything else. With lazy writing, bad jokes and scenes which would make audiences feel a bit uncomfortable watching. It doesn't take itself seriously in the slightest which, whilst not a bad thing at times, is really annoying because it sacrifices emotion for cheap laughs. I don't know what's happened to Bruce Timm but he definitely seems to have lost whatever it was that got him to write so well 20 years ago.

Harley Quinn/Melissa Rouch

When it comes to voicing Harley Quinn it's easy to think that Melissa Rouch (The Big Bang Theory) would be a perfect choice. But really it's more of a mixed bag. Whilst she does get better in the second half of the film and starts to resemble a more traditional Harley. But when she's first introduced it's a whole different character. Gone is the playful, joyous Harley. Replaced by a bitter, angry version of the character, which is difficult to enjoy. There's also one scene which really got me and felt was very inappropriate, which was her sexual advances on Nightwing (Loren Lester). In the scene, Harley has Nightwing tied to a bed, when she notices that he's become aroused after seeing her get changed. She then turns off the lights and crawls on top of him, even though he's said no repeatedly at this point. This was very difficult to watch and also felt quite out of character for Harley. Sure, in the comics she's been known to sleep around, and so has Nightwing. But for a character who is a victim of domestic abuse to act in this way and not have it be addressed at all through the rest of the film was really off. However, Rouch's acting improved in the second half of the film as she became more like the traditional Harley. 

Batman/Kevin Conroy

In my review for Batman: The Killing Joke I mentioned that it sounded like Kevin Conroy (Batman: The Animated Series) wasn't really enjoying voicing Batman anymore. Sounding more like he's just reading lines off of a script in a raspy voice. And, whilst he felt he had improved on that in Injustice 2 (2017) the issues from The Killing Joke unfortunately returned. Conroy once again just goes through the motions with this film. It mainly feels like he's only there for nostalgic reasons, which is really upsetting to see. I do hope that he'll give a better performance in his next animated film. Hopefully with a better story to back him up.

Poison Ivy/Paget Brewster

Paget Brewster (American Dad, Criminal Minds) is no stranger to DC Animated films, having voiced Lois Lane in Justice League: Gods and Monsters (2015), and now she's voicing Poison Ivy, and she does a pretty decent job of it. It's not an amazing performance, but Brewster hits all the right notes and plays the character quite well. In fact, it's the scenes with Harley and Ivy that were the highlight of the film, as their friendship is such a big part of one another's characters. Although, I was quite disappointed by the fact that Harley never picked up that Ivy's partnership with the Floronic Man (Kevin Michael Richardson) shared a resemblance to her relationship with The Joker. This was a huge missed opportunity for an emotional moment between the two, which was thrown away for a more comical version of getting Ivy to abandon her plans of genocide.

Animation/Art Style

This is perhaps the biggest redeeming quality of the film. This is classic DC animation, and it looks great. A lot better than more recent DC animated film like Justice League: Dark (2016) where the characters are quite poorly drawn. And this is where Bruce Timm excels because he is a fantastic artist. And now it's like watching the old animated shows like Batman: The Animated series and Justice League (2001) in HD. I was very happy with the animation in this film.

Bruce Timm/Writing

It's really unfortunate to see how low the quality of Bruce Timm's writing has severely dropped. To the point where he's disgracing the legacy that he himself played a hand in making. I would argue that this film is written more as Fan-Fiction rather than an official story about these characters. It's even gotten me to think that maybe Paul Dini was the primary creative influence on the 90's animated show. Bruce has done some good work in the past. I'd argue that his last good animated project was Justice League: Gods and Monsters which was a very well done else-world version of the DC Trinity (Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman). Hopefully, Bruce Timm will be able to get out of his hole that he's dug for himself and get back to making far better work than this.

Conclusion

This is a poor film. The writing is bad, to the point where the film feels more like Fan-Fiction. The only redeeming qualities of this film are Rouch's performance as Harley, in the second half of the film, and the animation and art style that is a callback to classic animated DC TV.