The Joker Thread - Part 1

[Captain Tired]

Also just a reminder that Nolan’s realistic take on Batman featured an ancient cult of ninjas who secretly influence the course of history and a man getting half his body burned off, after which he refuses pain medication, and is then able to walk around, speak, drink whisky and carve a bloody trail of vengeance.

I should think it obvious that people are usually talking about groundedness in terms of relativism, style and execution. If you want to play this game, then obviously no adaptation of Batman can be realistic, as Batman is an inherently unrealistic character. But relative to every other popular take on the character, Nolan's is by far the most realistic.

 

[Eddie Dean]

If you want to play this game, then obviously no adaptation of Batman can be realistic, as Batman is an inherently unrealistic character.

 

[Captain Tired]

Aaaand back on ignore.

 

[CondimentKing]

I feel like with Joker's look and the Drops, that could be considered kind of "out there", but the scale (virgin Nolan's action thriller espionage and terrorism vs. chad Reeves' smaller-scale hunting down serial killers and gangs) will be relatively realistic.

Andy now that you mention it, this is such a big reason of why I'm hyped for this movie. Like, I love the Nolan movies but I prefer the simple Batman stories so much to the big over the top blockbuster vibes. Hopefully we can avoid the "giant bomb is going to blow up Gotham" plot in this entire series altogether.

 

[Eddie Dean]

Aaaand back on ignore.

Please no.

 

[Captain Tired]

I remember sitting in the cinema for TDKR and thinking, 'Wow, really? The big finale to Nolan's epic trilogy is literally just a bomb?'

I've since grown to like TDKR, but that was a let-down.

 

[WatchProtect]

This movie so far gives me 3 major vibes. Bermejo's Batman, Batman: Ego and Long Halloween. If you look at Damned, Noel, Arkham Asylum, they all are obviously Realistic filters, but they're still fantastical I see this film series following the same rules.

 

[Eddie Dean]

Some days you just can't rid of a bomb.

 

[CondimentKing]

As long as they don’t give us Joker’s real name or talk about his childhood, I’m good.

Forgot to respond to this. Big agree on this. I really dislike whenever movies or books explore Joker's backstory, it's just so unnecessary and imo almost always detrimental to the character. I hope he just shows up out of nowhere. That's the one thing that should be similar to TDK imo (for me anyways). I love when he's a force of nature (and that final scene with him and Bale in TDK solidified that for me). I still want something new obviously, but I think that's a key part of my fave versions of the character. Nearly every other Batman character has a crazy origin story and past, so I love when Joker breaks that mold

 

[Captain Tired]

Basically, yeah. TDKR is just that scene from the '66 movie, but unironic.

 

[CondimentKing]

This movie so far gives me 3 major vibes. Bermejo's Batman, Batman: Ego and Long Halloween. If you look at Damned, Noel, Arkham Asylum, they all are obviously Realistic filters, but they're still fantastical I see this film series following the same rules.

That's all the stuff I love the most! The art styles are just so good and I love how the new movie captures the same gothic and unnatural vibe

 

[metaphysician]

Eh, nah. If he was given a meaty, serious screenplay to work with he'd be very classic post-Crisis Lex.

Then again, we're completely incapable of moving away from Hackman/Spacey Luthor on screen. For all Snyder/Terrio's incoherent attempts to convey post-Crisis Luthor's conflict with Superman their Lex was still clearly riffing off your vintage silly Luthor. It's funny, people say they're sick of Luthor on screen but as a huge fan of the character it feels like we've never actually had modern Luthor in a movie - it's as if we jumped from Caesar Romero straight to Jared Leto.

It baffles me all the more because we've had Charismatic Arrogant Corporate Genius Tech User as a huge part of the pop culture for the past ten years, just on the hero side. You would think "Tony Stark, Only Evil" would be such an obvious gimme for a villain, and yet, almost no effort.

 

[Eddie Dean]

It baffles me all the more because we've had Charismatic Arrogant Corporate Genius Tech User as a huge part of the pop culture for the past ten years, just on the hero side. You would think "Tony Stark, Only Evil" would be such an obvious gimme for a villain, and yet, almost no effort.

This is literally the richest man in the world right now.

 

[CondimentKing]

Every time I see Bezos do something it's almost hard to believe he's a real person. what a classic picture

 

[Eddie Dean]

 

[CondimentKing]

 

[AndyTrevino]

This movie so far gives me 3 major vibes. Bermejo's Batman, Batman: Ego and Long Halloween. If you look at Damned, Noel, Arkham Asylum, they all are obviously Realistic filters, but they're still fantastical I see this film series following the same rules.

I want a Joker that's straight out of Endgame visually

 

[Eddie Dean]

There were a lot of characters in Endgame, but I don’t remember Joker. Did he help fight Thanos?

 

[AndyTrevino]

There were a lot of characters in Endgame, but I don’t remember Joker. Did he help fight Thanos?

He did, but you probably missed him because he was lost in the portal crowd.

 

[CondimentKing]

Eddie, I like how Bezos waving in his gigantic mech suit matches your "hellllooooo" signature. Truly mesmerizing.

 

[metaphysician]

Joker doesn't have access to Batsy's fancy stuff tho

Silly question: why not? There are entirely versions of the Joker that have just as big a resource base as the Batman, for various reasons, and possess just as good of technical skills/assets. The iconic Timm/Dini one being foremost among them, who used everything from robot minions to nuclear weapons.

There really is no reason that the next movie Joker couldn't have just as many tools and gadgets as Batman, and for the same reason: he's an obsessive genius polymath.

 

[CondimentKing]

If done well, a genius Joker who tinkers with stuff could be really unique and differentiate it from other live action versions. I don't know if I want to see too much stuff outside of Bruce's POV though, too many scenes of just Joker doing things might go against Reeves' focus

 

[Captain Tired]

Yeah, Nicholson and Ledger both showed shades of that genius level Joker, but thus far it's been mostly untapped in live-action.

 

[AndyTrevino]

Silly question: why not? There are entirely versions of the Joker that have just as big a resource base as the Batman, for various reasons, and possess just as good of technical skills/assets. The iconic Timm/Dini one being foremost among them, who used everything from robot minions to nuclear weapons.

There really is no reason that the next movie Joker couldn't have just as many tools and gadgets as Batman, and for the same reason: he's an obsessive genius polymath.

I just think this universe is a bit too realistic for something like that. But just having him tinker with some stuff is perfectly fine and something I'd really like to see.

 

[AndyTrevino]

Yeah, Nicholson and Ledger both showed shades of that genius level Joker, but thus far it's been mostly untapped in live-action.

If the Drops really are Joker's thing, then we might see the chemist make a return