The Joker

I recently managed to see “The Joker”, the film with Joaquim Phoenix, representing the most recent take on the popular Batman villain.  I did not feel compelled to see it in the movie theater when it came out, and took my time tracking it down on DVD, eventually finding it in a Redbox kiosk as Netflix listed it as “eternal wait”.  Apparently everyone wants to see this film. 

Before getting into my (fairly brief) review, I’ll profile the other major depictions, limiting myself to the Batman TV series and the movies.  To say I don’t have the patience to watch animated versions or comic book versions in the limited span of my life I have left would be understatement.   I’ll also ignore the 1920s guy who started the whole thing and who I can’t even be bothered to look up on the Interweb.

Batman TV series (1966-68).  Actor: Caesar Romero.  The first one, as far as I’m concerned.  Colorful and charismatic.  I watched some of these as a kid but never saw fit to watch the entire series from start to finish – and I’m not going to start now.  Did he define the role?  I’d say he certainly gave it a start. 

Batman (1989). Actor: Jack Nicholson.   Michael Keaton played Batman.  Nicholson delved into the role with the same enthusiasm and panache as Romero did.   “This town needs an enema,” he professes to his henchman, not to the public at large.  Nicholson balanced menace with annoying and got it just about right, but left me satisfied with the ending.

The Dark Knight (2008).  Actor: Heath Ledger.  Christian Bale played Batman.  This seems to be everyone’s favorite.  I found him immensely annoying, especially this inexplicable power to instantaneously rig Gotham City in its entirety for explosives.  I also didn’t find him nearly as clever as he thought he was, even down to wearing a white nurse’s uniform.  Ledger’s OD on drugs spared us from a sequel.   

Suicide Squad (2016). Actor: Jared Leto.  This seems to be the least favorite, and I found Leto made him just as annoying as the other versions, no more so.  The movie is stolen by Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie) anyway.  I liked the rest of the cast.   Batman himself is absent, but Ben Affleck does show up as Bruce Wayne. 

Joker (2019).  Played by Joaquim Phoenix.  Oddly, they set this when Bruce Wayne is just a boy, so Batman is absent from this version.   The twist here is that instead of being criminally insane, but intelligent, the Joker is just a mentally deficient nobody who snaps and kills someone he perceived was making fun of him.  Whoopee, that’s it.  So we’re supposed to believe that his makeup and costume give him enough wit and intelligence to take on Batman on an equal level?  Please.  Count me among the apparent minority who aren’t impressed with this version.   

Harley Quinn.  Actually, having just seen “Birds of Prey”, the standalone Harley Quinn film, a word about her is in order.  Of course I did NOT read any of the comics with her in original format, so my sole exposure to her is “Suicide Squad” and this one.  Apparently Joker broke up with her, so she spends the entire film doing something that doesn’t involve him.   It involves an annoying Asian girl who swallows a diamond, a few other women – oddly, Ali Wong is here as a D.A. and does not get all superheroine-y – and faces off against Roman Sionis (Ewan McGregor), the latter sinking his teeth into an unusual role and enjoying every minute of it.  Rosie Perez also does well here. 

To be honest, I find Harley Quinn only marginally less annoying than the Joker, the difference being that as a female at least she has some remote sexual attractiveness which the male characters, by their nature, lack.   But over several characters, the Joker himself is ultimately an eccentric, highly annoying asshole overly impressed with his own wit.  Bravo (slow, sarcastic applause).  

The Dark Knight Rises

As I started this whole blog business with the first of these three movies (Batman Begins, 2005), and reviewed the second one (The Dark Knight, 2008), with Heath Ledger as the Joker, so I might as well follow up with this one.  My attitude toward the films could be described as “grudging respect” rather than any great enthusiasm.

 After succumbing to public contempt, taking the blame so that Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart) could be remembered as an illustrious prosecutor and not Two-Face, Bruce Wayne, aka Batman (Christian Bale) remains in seclusion and self-pity, stumbling around on a cane and growing a beatnik type of beard. 

 A new villain, Bane (Thomas Hardy) emerges from the woodwork and manages to not merely take over Wayne Enterprises – through a shadowy series of stock deals assisted by WE’s poor stock performance all these years that Wayne let the company deteriorate without his public efforts to prop it up by appearing at cocktail parties and dancing with the female lead character – but also (wait for it, people!) rigs half of Manhattan (sorry, Gotham City) with explosives AND converts a WE fusion reactor into a nuclear bomb.   He blows the bridges surrounding Manhattan, presumably including the GW Bridge.

 Commisioner Gordon (Gary Oldman) is back, just as bad-ass as a man his age can be, assisted by Officer Blake (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), who seems to be the next generation in good cops coming online.  Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman), Alfred (My Cocaine) are back as well.  Miranda Tate (Marion Cotillard) and “Catwoman”/Selina Kyle (Anne Hathaway) compete for Wayneman’s affections. 

 Since this wraps up a trilogy, let’s make sure Nolan has included ALL his necessary ingredients:

*          Super-bad-ass bad guy who talks trash well – Bane.  He even has his voice mechanically altered.  Of course the bad guy is very smart but also ruthless, carelessly wasting incompetent minions without the slightest hesitation or problem.

*          Lucius Fox and his array of impressive hardware – with something new each time

*          Alfred and his surplus of hoary wisdom and melancholy, anchoring Wayne in morals and tradition, reminding him of his legacy and responsibilities, and giving him much-needed advice and moral support

*          Wayne captured and crushed in pain and pity for much of the movie, trapped in a pit, but of course he works his way out again (spoiler alert!)

*          Lots of explosions in the right places – including the bottom dropping out of “Giants Stadium” – it’s funny that the Gotham City football team looks like the Steelers and not the Giants or Tebows

*          Wildcard character of dubious morals but eye candy – “Catwoman”.  I say she’s about even with Michelle Pfeiffer and Halle Berry.  Hurry up and get Sofia Vergara into the role.

*          Half the good characters remain good, the other half turn out to be bad, and likewise many bad characters (e.g. Bane) remain evil while some of the naughtier ones switch sides as well

 Warning.  The film clocks in a 2 hours and 45 minutes, and is not a non-stop action orgy like “The Avengers”.  In fact, much of the film is talking, talking, talking, etc. made worse by Batman’s confusion that he’s wearing a poncho and smoking a cigar.   I won’t call it boring, but neither will it say that the plot keeps your interest at midnight without resorting to Sour Patch kids or something like that to keep you awake.  Worth seeing?  You bet.  Best movie ever?  Hardly.  I’ll have catch it again on DVD to pick up on all the half-whispered lines I couldn’t hear in the movie theater.  But for the rest of you:  ENJOY.

Dark Knight

After a few false starts I finally ended up seeing this film, on the heels Heath Ledger’s posthumous Oscar for his role as the Joker.  Since my review of “Batman Begins” started off my list of blogs, it’s fitting that I should follow it up with a review of this film as well.  Bottom line?  I didn’t like it.

 First off, the makeup wearing off the Joker’s face later in the movie indicated that he didn’t have any biological issues.  Contrast this with the original comic, in which The Joker was originally a villain named Red Hood, who wore a specially designed red mask over his head, similar to Mysterio.  He fell in a tank of chemicals, which turned his skin white, his lips blood red, and his hair green – and completely warped his mind.  Like The Invisible Man, there was a link between his physiological changes and his psychological ones.  But here?  Just makeup and fancy clothes.  Come on.

 Second, I didn’t like his attitude.  Too much cutesy dialogue.  Jack Nicholson was more impressive in the role way back when.  “This town needs an enema.”  I’ll concede, though, that this fairly subjective on my part.  Nicholson was content to make the Joker into a flamboyant, though evil, clown.  While the Mafia goons refer to Ledger’s Joker as “the clown”, his portrayal was considerably darker, almost twisting him into a pervert.  Moreover his clothes were a bit too much… GQ.  Is this a villain or a fashion mannequin?  Come on. 

 Third, I hated this odd business whereby somehow the Joker seems to be able to rig the entire damn city (looks like Chicago to me) with explosives, including two whole ferries and an entire network of hospitals.  “Excuse me, can I borrow both ferries?  I need to install a full array of gas drums in the bottoms and rig them up.”  I suppose that’s his super power: magically capable of installing vast amounts of explosives wherever he wants, no questions asked (particularly implausible post 9/11).  And this business of “hostages dressed as villains with guns duct taped in their hands” had been done before, but I can’t recall the film.  Nor did I care for this ongoing deal where the Joker forced people into impossible choices: save Rachel or Dent, and the ferry passengers – ordinary people on one, convicts on the other – likewise have to choose to blow up the other ferry before they themselves are blown up.  The real immoral person here was the Joker.  F**k these stupid games.

 

 Fourth, Batman as the Ultimate Asshole.  Sure, we need Batman to be the fall guy so that Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart) can die as a hero, not as Two-Face – and the city’s faith in its top prosecutor maintained (good for morale, I guess).   So Batman, who is essentially good (as is Bruce Wayne) allows himself to be crucified as a villain to satisfy a more important public goal which is still in Batman’s ultimate nature to support: public order and the overall well-being of the people of Gotham. 

 Sounds much like… “The Watchmen”.  The similarities are there: The Comedian = the Joker?  The Owl (nocturnal flying animal – rich guy with lots of gadgets) = Batman?  Ozymandias = Bruce Wayne?  Most importantly, for this issue: Dr Manhattan has to be the fall guy for Ozymandias to keep the US & USSR from blowing each other up. 

 “The Watchmen” was very faithfully derived from the graphic novel of the same name, originally published from 1986-87 and written by Alan Moore, best known for “V For Vendetta”.  “Dark Knight” is loosely based on the Batman comics “The Long Halloween”, from 1996-97.  The latter does not have this business about Harvey Dent’s identity being saved, and Batman’s reputation unfairly tarnished, to spare the city, so it’s the movie version which rips off “The Watchmen”, not the original comic.  The comic’s main focus wasn’t even on the Joker, who was a minor character, but on the Holiday killer, whose identity was hinted at but never conclusively established.

 Finally, BOTH movies owe royalties to Clint Eastwood: Bale’s inexplicable grumble as Batman (where’s the poncho and cigar stub?) and Rorshach’s similar growl.

 My “Batman Begins” blog had some scathing criticism for the last two Batman movies before “Batman Begins”.  In a sense, though, they were more in tune with the philosophy of the Batman TV series from the late 60s, with Adam West as Batman; the first two (with Joker, Penguin & Catwoman) were more aligned with “Batman Begins”.  So we have two competing schools of Batman: the Camp School, and the Dark School.  Obviously both can be done well – or poorly.  The Camp School runs the risk of being stupid, while the Dark School ends up as simply pretentious.  Which do I prefer?  I don’t know, but I know I don’t like bad movies.  In terms of this dark, urban distopia theme, I prefer the “Robocop” movies.  So I guess my preference has to be for the camp element; unfortunately no one seems to be able to reconcile the two.  Now THAT would be remarkable.