AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |
Back to Blog
Todd Phillips directs in a tone similar to Christopher Nolan's Bat-films, but in a different, darker key. There are any number of adjectives one could conjure to describe Joker: disturbing, grotesque, difficult, shocking. This is where Joker leaves the comic book source material behind, becoming a dark psychological thriller in the mold of its two main inspirations, Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver and The King of Comedy. Like the Joker of Alan Moore's The Killing Joke, Oscar-winner Joaquin Phoenix's Arthur Fleck is a failed comedian who becomes a criminal. Like Gotham, Joker exists in a pre-Batman Gotham City. Leto’s brief cameo as the Joker at the very end of Snyder’s extended Justice League director’s cut marked a compelling, too-brief return to that character, making an argument for continuing that version of the Batman universe in some form.ĭirector Todd Phillips' solo Joker film proved to be divisive and surprising, delivering an Elseworlds-style alternate-universe take on the character. That Joker is muscular, heavily tattooed, and more of a ruthless, serial-killing crime boss than the super villain mastermind we’ve come to expect. This interpretation seems to draw inspiration from Frank Miller’s infamous All-Star Batman & Robin, the Boy Wonder comics, which ran from 2005 to 2008. This Joker is less of anarchic demon than a pure, psychopathic mass murderer. Still, despite Ayers’ heavy-handed and tonally inconsistent approach to the Bat-verse established by Zack Snyder in Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice, there is actually plenty to admire about Leto’s Mister J. Leto’s Joker veered so far from Ledger’s take on the character, it left some audiences seething. Heath Ledger’s brilliant performance as the Joker in The Dark Knight was eight years old by then, yet remained burned into the minds of just about everyone. There are plenty of fans who likely want to forget about Jared Leto’s performance in David Ayer’s much-maligned 2016 Suicide Squad altogether. The show’s notion that the Joker is something akin to a viral psychological attitude works, in no small part due to Monaghan’s unhinged performance(s). While the show could not include any overt Joker character due to corporate mandates, show runner Bruno Heller managed to include several clever Joker references and character touches, from the famous scarred smile to a character falling in a vat of acid. Presenting its own origin stories for classic Batman characters like Catwoman, The Riddler, Poison Ivy, the Penguin, and Bane, Gotham also introduced multiple potential Jokers, culminating in Cameron Monaghan’s committed performances as deranged twin brothers Jerome and Jeremiah Velasko. It mutated into something very different over time, going gleefully off the rails. Gotham began as a fairly gritty procedural series following incorruptible cop Jim Gordon ( Ben McKenzie) and his grizzled partner Harvey Bullock ( Donal Logue) as they navigate the increasingly-insane streets of a pre-Batman Gotham City.
0 Comments
Read More
Leave a Reply. |