I'd previously written that Nolan handled him perfectly, he arrived on the scene and "had no fingerprints, no ID, nothing but 'knives and lint.'" He arose from nothing, and in the end literally vanished. But here, we get motivations and familial links- which can only serve to humanize him, making him more relatable and understandable, which in turn takes away the true wild card aspect of his being.
I'm of the same position I was when first seeing Jared Leto's Joker from Suicide Squad for the first time- we have to wait to see it in action. Granted, after seeing Leto in action I had to write:
"I think they went a little too far into a Tony "Scarface" Montana look. I mean, while he is the Clown Prince of Crime, they entirely left out the clown part. When he makes Griggs kiss his hand I was totally expecting a water spout to splash out of the ring in the face, or have a flower on his coat do it, but it never happened. Ayer completely left that aspect out. They made him all bling and no sting."Hopefully this team has learned the lesson of failure from Ayers and Leto. In the mean time, I'll keep my fingers crossed that Joaquin Phoenix along with writer/director Todd Phillips and co-writer Scott Silver have done something much more in line with the iconic and beloved arch-rival to the legendary Batman himself.
Seriously, this looks to either be a masterpiece, or something very, very terrible. It's a risky film that DC is taking a massive chance with.
The Joker waltzes into theaters October 4th.
