Warning: The following contains major spoilers for The Batman. If you haven’t seen the movie yet and don’t want anything spoiled, then I would advise to click off this piece and watch the movie first before reading through what I’m about to say.
So, there’s was a new Batman movie come out and it was pretty darn awesome. Not quite the flawless masterpiece that some have claimed it to be but no doubt it’s been an absolute win for fans of the character along with mainstream audience as well as being a sure box office hit for the folks at Warner Brothers. From the looks of it, it seems that WB is strictly committed to having a Batman shared universe of it’s own to distance itself from the other shared universe that they have with all of the other DC characters. This most likely has to do with the fact that Ben Affleck is looking to step away from the role of the caped crusader after what will most likely be a brief appearance in the upcoming Flash movie and getting Michael Keaton back in the bat suit one more time to get people actually interested in said Flash movie along with his version of Batman acting as a mentor figure to Leslie Grace’s Batgirl so she can carry the Batman person for the foreseeable future of the DC Extended Universe. Because of that, it seems like Robert Pattinson’s incarnation of the character mostly seems to exist for two specific reasons. 1.) To give the mainstream audience a new version of Batman that can stand well as it’s own thing for at least the next 5 to 10 years and 2.) so that Warner Bros has some sort of escape plan if this new strategy for the DCEU doesn’t work at all and they can then just fall back on their most profitable superhero to make up for any potential losses.
While The Batman does tend to work well on it’s own as a self-contained story that largely hints at a darker, grimmer Gotham City than we have seen in the past, it did include introductions of certain characters and plot points that will no doubt have some sort of pay-off in either the upcoming sequels or spin-off HBO Max series that Warner Bros has planned. There are two specific ones that stands out more than the rest. The first one is with Colin Farrell’s Penguin who despite not serving that much of a purpose to the overall story, still does make for a delightful presence and is a character that definitely has room to be explored on later on down the road with this universe. The other one, however comes from no other than a character who was credited as “Unseen Arkham Prisoner, A.K.A. the Joker. That’s right! Mr. J is at it right again and this time he is played by Barry Keoghan (who you might remember from Dunkirk and just recently with the (underrated) Eternals).
Joker’s appearance take place right at the tail end of the movie with the final scene that consists of Paul Rino’s The Riddler. This part takes place in Arkham Asylum after The Riddler had recently turned himself in hoping it would get him closer to Batman and convince that they are on the same page with what they are trying to do with Gotham. Despite Batman refusing to have alliance with him, The Riddler’s master plan was successful with him being able to flood the whole corrupted city and have it be in an even worse place than it already was at the very beginning of the picture. It’s then that he talks and befriends an inmate in the Asylum who has a cell right next to him. That specific inmate has now been identified and confirmed by director Matt Reeves to be the Joker. Similar to the Batman, it’s not quite the Joker that the world has been grown accustom too or has made the impact that he desperately wants onto Gotham City but there’s no doubt that this is the real deal.
Matt Reeves has gone on record claiming that he had an extended scene with Keoghan’s Joker that was ultimately cut from the film due to either pacing problems or taking too much focus away from the main tro of characters. However, it was just yesterday that Reeves himself shared on social media that exact five minute long scene that was cut. What happens during the scene is Batman going to confront the supposed Joker to try to get the insight as to what exactly Riddler’s overarching plan is suppose to be and what his overall endgame is.
Here’s the actual scene uploaded straight from YouTube.
The scene itself is…..fine I guess. I do quite dig the way they make the Joker look absolutely unappealing to look at and Barry Keoghan has a more believable laugh and presence as the clown prince of crime than say Jared Leto. However, I do agree with the decision to remove this scene from the movie. Not just because it would feel rather awkward to have Batman interact with an inmate asylum that is kinda sorta on the verge of becoming the Joker who we not have meet for the previous two hours of the film but because, I think we have had just enough of the Joker as a whole.
If you read my original review for this movie, I pointed out that a minor problem I had was a tease near the end of a certain character that honestly made my eyes roll when I first saw it in theaters. It was the laziest sequel bait tease imaginable and did kinda render the movie as not quite as self-contain that the people behind the scenes were clearly aiming for. At least the sequel tease in Batman Begins was at the very last scene of the movie where Batman has accepted his role as a crime fighting vigilante and has taken his first steps into fitting into that exact persona. Not only that, it has made me a bit less excited for the upcoming sequels that will no doubt have Joker play some sort of role whether it’s big or small because why else would you have a specific tease for him in this exact movie. Personally, I’m now finding the Joker to be rather exposed and lately, quite redundant.
I understand the Joker is Batman’s greatest enemy (don’t let Will Arnett hear that) and it always has been that the overall main conflict surrounding the Batman/Bruce Wayne persona is with those two different point of views and ideologies always clashing with one another. However, there are still plenty of other Batman villains that you can focus on that can too present a great conflict for Batman from both a physical and psychological point. We have a rose gallery of Batman baddies that have still yet to appear on the big screen. Mad Hatter, Clayface, Hugo Strange, Solomon Grundy, Hush, the Court of Owls, Man-bat, Professor Pyg, Deathstroke*, Cooperhead, Killermoth. Heck, even certain villains that have already been the antagonists in animated movie such as Red Hood and Phantasm could still have potential stories of their own and a fresh new take on those certain characters that can make for engaging stuff. Can we just for once focus on those kind of villains instead of just constantly finding a way to include Joker in everything? For once, can we not just seem like we must always include the Joker into nearly everything Batman because that seems to be the only way to get people to actually care about anything surrounding Batman?
Since 2016, we have now gotten three different Jokers in live-action. Three Joker actors in the span of just six years. Jared Leto in Suicide Squad and ZS’s Justice League, Joaquin Phoenix in his own standalone Joker movie, and now Barry Keoghan in The Batman. Heck, if you also count some of the animated flicks (at least the ones that were *technically* released in theaters), we also had Mark Hamill’s iconic Joker reprised in Killing Joke, Jeff Bergman also reprising the clown prince of crime for Return of the Caped Crusader, and Zack Galifianakis’s funny, subversive take on Mr. J in Lego Batman. That’s literally six different Jokers in just six years. Some have been better than others without a doubt, but really? Am I the only that believes that we have gotten quite overboard with this character?
Plus, I kinda get the feeling that we basically have done all we possibly could with the Joker up to this point in terms of feature length films. We’ve had the campy and over-the-top Jokers with Jeff Bergman and Zack Galifianakis, the more brutal and realistic Joker with Heath Ledger, the more human like Joker with an actual origin story with Jack Nicholson and Joaquin Phoenix, the abusive, manipulative and more “sexy” Joker with Jared Leto, and of course, the one that is the most iconic and truly represents the tug-and-pull war that has confronted Batman on multiple occasions with Mark Hamill. Other than showing a Joker that is still in the early phase of becoming the Joker that will forever haunt Gotham and Batman internally, what else is there to explore with this character that isn’t a retread from any one of these versions? As of this moment, there’s not much I can think off.
We know everything that the Joker is suppose to represent to Batman. He’s someone that sees himself as a force of nature along with his own sick, twisted version of “necessary evil” to be able to have the exact kind of impact onto Gotham that Batman is trying to go for as well. He uses violence and evil tactics to expose hypocrisy with what goes on today with crime, corruption, citizenship, social groups, police forces, political agendas, and however the government. He’s someone that believes his only true purpose in life is to take Batman head on for all internity and won’t stop until either one of them breaks first or either one of them are dead. He’s someone that deep downs see Batman as an equal and can’t imagine a world without him. Those are all criterias of the Joker fit to a t that has been explored on upon in at least one of each feature film that is presented with him. We have pretty much have done every interesting thing we could possibly do with this character.
You might get the impression that I hate the Joker and I’m sounding like a noob for complaining about there being too much of the Joker. Regardless how I feel about his overexposure, Joker is and always will be a fascinating character who will always go down as one of the greatest villains in any form of fiction. But, that doesn’t mean you have to give literally every single little bit and attention of detail to this particular character just because he’s without a doubt the most popular comic book villain of all time.
Heck, I would be even more open to see more Harley Quinn than the Joker in the future. At least that’s a character that so far has only one definite version of her on the big screen. She’s someone that is compelling and interesting enough to be able to explore the multiple different sides to her that still have yet to be touched upon in feature films. Whether it’s her as the submissive girlfriend, a strong independent woman, or even the fun, funny and batshit crazy version of her, she still is a woman that can carry a movie and becoming her own unique character without the need to come across as simply female Joker. Plus, we can always use more Margot Robbie in our lives, just saying?
I’m not gonna pretend I even had the slimmest idea of what Matt Reeves and company have planned for their Joker for this incarnation of Batman. There’s a big chance that I’m possibly overacting to their being another new Joker that has been confirmed with this new Batman movie. If they keep the focus on newer, distinct villains such as the Hush or the Court of Owls or even Penguin and Riddler while keeping this Joker to the wayside, then that’s all well and good. If they plan on trying to build hype and anticipation around this Joker by including extended cameos in the next few films or shows kinda like the way Marvel Cinematic Universe did with Thanos, then I might actually find that intriguing. Just please put new villains or old ones you already have established to the forefront just long enough until audience members are finally hungry for another round of with J-Bird.
To once again paraphrase an other well-known super villain, when everyone is Joker, no one will be.
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