Renowned animation producer Bruce Timm takes the Dark Knight back to the 1970s for a supernatural-laden martial arts extravaganza in Batman: Soul Of The Dragon, the next entry in the popular series of the DC Universe Movies.
Produced by Warner Bros. Animation and DC, the feature-length animated film will be released by Warner Bros. Home Entertainment on Digital starting January 12, 2021, and on 4K Ultra HD Combo Pack and Blu-ray on January 26, 2021. The film is rated R for some violence.
Set in the midst of the swinging 1970s, this Elseworlds adventure finds Bruce Wayne training under a master sensei. It is here that Bruce, along with other elite students, is forged in the fire of the martial arts discipline. The lifelong bonds they form will be put to the test when a deadly menace arises from their past. It will take the combined efforts of Batman, world-renowned martial artists Richard Dragon, Ben Turner, and Lady Shiva and their mentor O-Sensei to battle the monsters of this world and beyond!
The ensemble cast features a core group of actors playing martial arts students-turned-heroes in David Giuntoli (Grimm, A Million Little Things) as Bruce Wayne/Batman, Mark Dacascos (John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum, Iron Chef America, Hawaii Five-0) as Richard Dragon, Kelly Hu (Arrow, X2: X-Men United) as Lady Shiva and Michael Jai White (Spawn, reprising his role from Arrow) as Ben Turner/Bronze Tiger.
Their mentor O-Sensei is voiced by James Hong (Big Trouble in Little China, Blade Runner). Josh Keaton (Voltron: Legendary Defender; Green Lantern: The Animated Series) is featured as Jeffrey Burr, and additional voices are provided by veteran Voice Over actors Grey Griffin, Chris Cox, Erica Luttrell, Robin Atkin Downes, Patrick Seitz, Jamie Chung, and Eric Bauza.
Sam Liu (Reign of the Supermen, Batman: The Killing Joke) is Producer and Director of Batman: Soul Of The Dragon, utilizing a script by Jeremy Adams (Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion's Revenge). Michael Uslan is Executive Producer. Bruce Timm (Batman: The Animated Series, Superman: Red Son) and Sam Register are Executive Producers.
#ign #batman
This looks and feels like it's going to be a wild ride, especially since Bruce Timm is on board. For anyone who has seen his Phantom Stranger featurette that was included with Batman: Death in the Family, then you can tell that he wanted to do more with stuff in this time period. Don't get me wrong either as I see that as GOOD thing.
Titans follows the young superheroes of the eponymous team as they combat evil and other perils. Disbanded when the story begins, the series sees the team return when the original and new members reform the Titans. The Titans fight crime throughout various locations, with their base of operations in San Francisco.
In the first season, Rachel comes to Dick for protection from dangerous forces pursuing her, which leads to them meeting and teaming up with Kory and Gar. The heroes eventually learn that Rachel is being targeted by her demon father Trigon, who seeks to enslave the world. The season also depicts Dick's efforts to distance himself from his mentor and his Robin persona, while Kory struggles with a bout of amnesia that leaves her unaware of her true identity.
The second season focuses on the official reformation of the Titans as Dick leads a new team composed of Rachel, Gar, and Jason. The Titans' return, however, leads to the reemergence of feared assassin Deathstroke, whose prior conflict with the original team caused their disbanding. As Deathstroke attempts to eliminate the heroes, the original Titans are forced to face him again, while other threats emerge from the malevolent Cadmus Laboratories and Kory's younger sister Blackfire.
Rachel Nichols as Angela Azarath: Rachel's biological mother, secretly in allegiance with Trigon. Seamus Dever as Trigon: An interdimensional demon with the power to destroy worlds and Rachel's father.[27] Dever also portrays Frank Finney, a Gotham City police captain, along with an ice cream truck driver and a drug supplier in the illusions created by Trigon. Iain Glen as Bruce Wayne / Batman (season 2): A billionaire who moonlights as a feared vigilante in Gotham City and Dick's former mentor. The character was previously portrayed by stunt doubles Alain Moussi and Maxim Savarias in the first season. Michael Mosley as Dr. Arthur Light (season 2): A former physicist who turned criminal after gaining the ability to control light energy. Chella Man as Jericho (season 2): Deathstroke's mute son and Rose's half-brother, who has the power to possess other people's bodies through eye contact. Raoul Bhaneja as Walter Hawn (season 2): The vice president of special projects at Cadmus Laboratories. Natalie Gumede as Mercy Graves (season 2): The personal security specialist to Lex Luthor, assigned to oversee Cadmus Laboratories. Demore Barnes as William Wintergreen (season 2): Deathstroke's handler and friend. Mayko Nguyen as Adeline (season 2): Jericho's mother and Deathstroke's ex-wife.
Guest
Introduced in season 2
Drew Van Acker as Garth / Aqualad: A member of the original Titans from Atlantis possessing hydrokinetic and enhanced physical abilities. Robbie Jones as Faddei: A royal guard from Tamaran and former romantic interest of Kory. Ann Magnuson as Jillian: An Amazon monitoring Donna. Genevieve Angelson as Eve Watson: A scientist at Cadmus Laboratories who created Conner. Damaris Lewis as Blackfire: A Tamaranean royal and Kory's sister. Evan Jones as Len Armstrong: A prison guard at the Kane County Correctional Facility.
Orel De La Mota as Rafi: A Kane County inmate who illegally entered the United States after he fled Corto Maltese.
Julian Works as Luis: An undocumented immigrant from Corto Maltese detained in Kane County with Rafi and Santos. Rey Gallegos as Santos: Rafi and Luis's cellmate and fellow Corto Maltese undocumented immigrant.
McKinley Freeman as the psychiatrist: A psychiatrist who encounters Kory in Las Vegas. Currie Graham as Stuart: The creator of Dick's costume, posing as a shoemaker. Peter MacNeill as Lionel Luthor: A retired scientist and Lex Luthor's father.
Curtis Lum as Benny: A contact of Dick. Elizabeth Whitmere as Ellis' sister: The sister of Hank and Dawn's farmhand.
Drew Scheid as Faux Hawk: A teenager who poses as Hawk.
Patrick Garrow as cage announcer: The announcer for Hank's cage fights.
Hanneke Talbot as Selinda Flinders / Shimmer: A metahuman criminal with the ability to alter compounds and elements.
Sarah Deakins as Martha Kent: Superman's adoptive mother. Olunike Adeliyi as Mati Matisse: A burlesque dancer formerly in a relationship with Wintergreen.
Sydney Kuhne as Dani: A runaway fleeing from an abusive household. Ishan Morris as Caleb: Dani's abusive father.
Episode Summaries
(** SPOILERS!! **)
1 "Trigon"
Hank, Dawn, and Jason arrive at Angela's house, joining Donna and Kory in attempting to stop Trigon, but they all succumb to Trigon's powers. Trigon breaks Rachel's will by having the heroes seemingly beat Gar to death. With Rachel under his control, Trigon begins to destroy all life around him, starting with Angela. However, Gar survives and uses his friendship with Rachel to free her from Trigon. In turn, Rachel saves Dick before defeating her father and freeing the rest. Afterwards, the heroes go their separate ways, with Dick accompanied by Jason, Rachel, and Gar. Dick meets with Bruce to reconcile and reestablish the Titans at Titans Tower, their original San Francisco base. Bruce agrees to have Dick lead a new team under the condition that Jason joins. Meanwhile, Deathstroke comes out of retirement when he learns that the Titans have resurfaced.
2 "Rose"
Three months after Trigon's defeat, Dick continues to train his team in San Francisco where Rachel's powers begin to act strangely. Dick rescues a female metahuman on the run and attempts to recruit her into the Titans, despite her resistance to receiving help. Jason and Gar identify the young woman as Rose Wilson, Deathstroke's daughter. Hank and Dawn have retired to Wyoming, but tensions ensue when Hank discovers that Dawn is continuing to operate as Dove. In Chicago, Kory and Donna fight crime together and capture rogue metahuman Shimmer. Dawn, Hank, and Donna are forced to reunite with Dick when Dr. Arthur Light escapes from prison and begins targeting the Titans. Kory encounters fellow Tamaranean Faddei, who takes her captive.
3 "Ghosts"
Donna, Hank, and Dawn meet Dick at the Titans Tower, who notifies them that Deathstroke is in the city and pursuing Rose. Rose reveals to Dick that she is attempting to assassinate Deathstroke because he killed her brother Jericho. Working together against the Titans, Deathstroke tells Dr. Light of his plan to lure the heroes to them by separating the weaker members from the group. After Dr. Light escapes from the original team, Jason convinces Gar to search for him on their own. Jason defeats Dr. Light, but is ambushed by Deathstroke. Meanwhile, Faddei informs Kory that her sister Blackfire has ordered her return to Tamaran to become queen. A call from Rachel about losing control of her powers, however, prompts Kory to trap Faddei in her ship and travel back to her friends.
4 "Aqualad"
Five years before the present day, an assignment sends Deathstroke to San Francisco where Jericho and his mother Adeline are hiding. Assisted by new member Garth, the original Titans capture Dr. Light. Garth and Donna harbor romantic feelings for each other, but Donna has resisted Garth's advances because the Amazons require that she return to Themyscira. After the two ultimately have a sexual encounter, Garth learns from Dick that Donna will be leaving immediately. When Garth appears before Donna at an airport to persuade her to stay, he is shot by Deathstroke. The surviving members of the team identify Deathstroke as Garth's killer and dedicate themselves to hunting him down. A week later, Jericho is befriended by Dick, unaware that Dick seeks revenge against his father.
5 "Deathstroke"
Following Jason's abduction, Deathstroke kills Dr. Light and informs the heroes that he will release Jason in exchange for Rose. The original Titans explain their situation to Kory after she arrives, as Gar, Rachel, and Rose eavesdrop on the conversation. Rose attempts to escape when she learns that the team is considering surrendering her and is nearly killed by Rachel's unstable powers. After Dick tells his teammates that they will ambush Deathstroke under the guise of making the exchange, he secretly meets with Deathstroke in a skyscraper to offer his life for Jason's. Unmoved, Deathstroke reveals that he has bound Jason to a scaffold rigged with explosives. Kory intervenes, but she and Dick are unable to stop Deathstroke from activating the explosives, sending Jason falling from the skyscraper.
6 "Conner"
In Metropolis, Subject 13 escapes from Cadmus Laboratories with Krypto, calling himself "Conner" after the nametag on a uniform he takes. Memories bring Conner to Lionel Luthor's Kansas home before Mercy Graves' team, accompanied by Dr. Eve Watson, attacks him. Defeating the team, Conner confronts Eve, who reveals that she created him from the DNA of Superman and Lex Luthor. Eve takes Conner to the original Cadmus facility in San Francisco to help him better understand himself and the traits that he shares with his DNA hosts. Urging him to flee, Eve also warns Conner not to draw attention to himself by using his powers, but Conner disregards her warning when he sees Jason falling. Upon saving Jason, Conner is shot with kryptonite bullets as Graves' team recaptures Krypto.
7 "Bruce Wayne"
Dick leaves Titans Tower to search for Deathstroke while a hallucination of Bruce torments him over guilt that he feels. In Dick's absence, the team find items planted around the Tower that remind them of painful memories. Jason is accused by the other Titans of being responsible, until Dick's search uncovers that Deathstroke has infiltrated the Tower. With Jason contemplating suicide over the recent events, Dick admits to him that he is at fault for what has transpired because he killed Jericho. Eve arrives at the Tower after freeing Krypto, where she finds Conner dying from kryptonite poisoning. When Eve informs Kory that Conner can only be healed by solar radiation, Kory uses her powers to save him.
8 "Jericho"
In 2014, the Titans use their friendship with Jericho to obtain information on Deathstroke. Against Dawn's advice to leave him out of their battle, Dick recruits Jericho into the team upon discovering the powers that he possesses. Jericho agrees to join when Dick tells him the truth about his father and the heroes' search for him. Deathstroke learns of the Titans' contact with Jericho and after completing his hit on Jillian, severely injures Donna as a warning to stay away from his son. Dick responds by confronting Deathstroke amid a private meeting between him and Jericho, prompting a fight that ends in Deathstroke's favor. Before Deathstroke can kill Dick, however, Jericho jumps in front of his father's blade and is stabbed instead. Afterwards, the Titans disband.
9 "Atonement"
After Dick reveals the truth about Jericho's death to his team, all of the Titans except Gar leave Titans Tower. Jason and Rose depart together and Kory reunites with Faddei, while Rachel accompanies Donna before escaping to be on her own. Gar takes Conner out in public, which ends disastrously when Conner attacks a group of police officers. Dick encounters Deathstroke, who declares that their fight is over so long as Dick remains isolated from his friends and he will eliminate the Titans if they reform. Heeding Deathstroke's warning, Dick allows himself to be arrested. Believing that their presence together harms others, Hank breaks up with Dawn. Faddei informs Kory that they are being hunted by Blackfire, who became queen after murdering their parents. Kory is forced to kill Faddei when Blackfire takes over his body and vows to pursue her sister.
10 "Fallen"
Incarcerated at the Kane County Correctional Facility, Dick helps undocumented immigrants Rafi and Luis escape prison before they can be deported to Corto Maltese. Rachel joins a group of runaways led by Dani after she uses her powers to save Dani from her abusive father Caleb, unaware that she also caused his death. Conner is found at Titans Tower by Mercy, who convinces him to return to Cadmus by assuring him they can fix his personality shifts. Mercy takes an interest in Gar when he is brought to Cadmus with Conner and Krypto. Searching for Rachel, Donna uncovers the aftermath of Cadmus' assault on the Tower.
11 "E.L._.O."
While in isolation, Dick realizes that Jericho is still alive inside of Deathstroke's body. Kory, Rachel, Donna, and Dawn are lured to the Elko Diner by Bruce in an effort to reunite the team. Learning of Dick's incarceration, Rachel and Kory head off to rescue him, while Donna and Dawn leave to search for Gar. When they raid the prison, Rachel and Kory find Dick missing from his cell and a message about Jericho being alive. Rose, growing close to Jason, informs Deathstroke that she is done helping him manipulate the Titans. Mercy has Gar subjected to an experiment that causes him to involuntarily turn violent upon command.
12 "Faux Hawk"
Gar is unwillingly used by Cadmus to violently unleash his powers in public, which Mercy plans to culminate with an attack on a carnival. Donna and Dawn plan to stop Cadmus when they learn about Gar's and Conner's brainwashing. Unable to find Dick, Kory and Rachel return to San Francisco to also rescue Gar, while Kory's powers begin to diminish. Rose admits to Jason that she had been helping Deathstroke, causing Jason to leave her. With the Titans reuniting, Deathstroke prepares to eliminate them and contacts Rose to join him. After Adeline informs Dick of Deathstroke's plans and asks him to save Jericho, Dick obtains a new costume. In Wyoming, Hank struggles with drug addiction while working as a cage fighter.
13 "Nightwing"
Rose helps Dick fight Deathstroke and kills him, while Jericho jumps into her body. Advertising him as a supersoldier to potential bidders, Mercy has the brainwashed Conner defeat Gar at the carnival before sending him after the Titans when they intervene. The team frees Gar and Conner from their brainwashing and defeats Cadmus, but Donna is killed when she prevents a damaged transmission tower from landing on civilians. In the aftermath, Rachel leaves for Themyscira with Donna's body in an attempt to resurrect her, while Jason departs by himself, and Dick, Kory, Gar, Hank, Dawn, Rose, and Conner form a new Titans team. Elsewhere, Blackfire arrives on Earth by taking over the body of an unsuspecting woman.
The Verdict:
While gathering my thoughts on the second season of this show, I went back and re-read what I felt about Season One to see if I felt the same thing here as I did with Season Two. Unlike most people who were covering the show online week to week, I did what I did with the first season and binge-watched it within a few days over the days I had off from work around the holidays.
Action & Visuals
The cosplay looking costumes was one of the highlights that I critiqued the initial season of this show for in my review of the first season, but I'm delighted to see that DC Universe went to back to the drawing board on a lot of the costumes. Dove's costume was a favorite of mine back in Season One, but it really stands out in this season when it's in one of the more well-lit scenes.
One of the main reasons that I loved the "Aqualad" episode so much was that all of the OG Titans looked pretty bad ass in their costumes during that episode. That was only the icing on the cake when the accompanying action was solid too.
Whoever is doing their fight choreography for this show needs to go over to the CW and give the bulk of the Arrowverse shows some pointers.
Trigon makes his appearance in the premiere episode of Season Two.
Trigon on the other hand? I'm pretty split on his look in this series. The CGI could have been a LOT worse coming from DC, with The Flash on CW's iteration of Bloodwork immediately coming to mind.
That being said, we still got some pretty darn good action sequences in this season, which was something that never was a negative in the first season. I'm just glad that things didn't take a nose dive in quality among all of the creative changes in the narrative direction for this season.
Narrative
The cliffhanger that they ended the first season with Dick Grayson being corrupted by Trigon and his looming threat didn't last much more than the first episode into Season Two. The rumors ended up being true with DC Universe getting cold feet and ending the first season initially where it was supposed to end at that point as Raven (with her "new" powers gifted to her by her father) defeats him with ease after breaking free from his influence and brought the team back to a sense of normalcy.
At this point, I really thought that this show was going to go in the direction that Young Justice has gone in their third season (also on the DC Universe streaming platform) with Nightwing acting as a mentor of sorts to a group of younger heroes in training while getting his old band back together to join them with Hawk, Dove, Donna Troy, and the newcomer Kory (Starfire).
Instead, we're saddled with a subplot that sees Dick reliving his angst and inner turmoil from his past relationship with Bruce Wayne (who actually appears in this season) that feels like a complete rehash of what Dick was dealing with in Season One. The only difference here is that Dick's inner turmoil derives from his own decision to manipulate a young metahuman named Jericho to get closer to his father, Deathstroke, that killed the original Titans' ally, Aqualad. Deathstroke was on assignment to assassinate Donna Troy's friend, but Aqualad got in the way and was gunned down instead. The original Titans vowed to avenge their friend's demise by taking down Deathstroke. Instead, Deathstroke proved to be a much more capable opponent than anything that they could handle and they were forced to disband after Jericho died saving Dick's life while he was the costumed hero Robin. Dick lied to his team that Jericho was already dead when he confronted Deathstroke on his own and kept it a secret all of these years.
I didn't understand why that was such a big deal to keep a secret. The OG Titans already knew that Dick (with their encouragement actually, especially with his then-girlfriend Dove saying "Be like Batman") was just using Jericho to get closer to Deathstroke and even came clean to the kid about their intentions. It was Jericho's choice to sacrifice himself to save Dick, even though they had all agreed to let Jericho confront his father on his own terms, but Dick followed him to the church anyway. Whether he told them the truth or not, the team still disbanded after what happened to Jericho. I could understand all of the secrecy if the OG Titans were still working together as a team collectively but they all went their separate directions and pretty much gave up on the costumed life for the most part up to this point. They only came back into the fold to help deal with whatever was going on with Rachel (Raven) back in Season One.
When the Titans start working together to first takedown Trigon and then Dr. Light shortly thereafter, it gets the ire of Deathstroke, who threatens to tear their "family" apart once again. This time, he has has a sleeper agent within their ranks as his daughter, Rose. I thought this was FAR too easy to see coming as anyone who knew who she was from the comics or got wind of the casting news when it leaked online that they were going with spin of this infamous story from the comic book lore.
I thought the on-screen chemistry between Rose Wilson (Chelsea Zhang) and Jason Todd (Curran Walters) was really well done from the scenes that they shared together, even though I don't like Curran Walters nor Jason Todd in the least. That kid just comes across as he should be in one of those Kick-Ass movies rather this show, especially when you look at him in costume. Chelsea Zhang, on the other hand, excels in most of the scenes she's in with the majority of the cast. There was one point where Jason was getting so much shit from his older mentors on the Titans to the point where that he was ready to jump off of the roof of the Titans Tower building that they were all living in. I understood that they were shooting for the audience to feel sorry for the kid, but I was sitting there going, "Go ahead and put the kid out of his misery. Maybe he'll come back with a better personality when he's revived as Red Hood." I honestly didn't give a damn about Jason Todd here since Season One. I know that I'm weird in that regard as he's a much more "likeable" Robin than Dick has been since the start of this show, but can't say that I ever was a fan of the character - pre-Red Hood anyway.
In a nice throwback to the comics, the Titans TV seres launched a poll after Episode 3 to allow fans to vote on Jason Todd's fate to see whether he lives or dies, despite already filming these episodes in succession. It's not like they were going to allow fan votes to sway the outcome of how the events of this season were going to unfold, but it was a nice little throwback regardless, even though that this is the second season in a row where they "teased" Jason Todd's demise for fun.
The way they handled the narrative with between the original Titans and Deathstroke throughout the course of this season was pretty muddled up, but we finally got the payoff to Dick's journey that should have been the climax to Season One with him putting his past behind him and becoming Nightwing.
I haven't seen enough of the Arrowverse version of Slade to have a concrete opinion on him compared to this one, but in terms of costumes, I'm digging the Titans iteration more here.
Speaking of Deathstroke/Slade Wilson, I didn't mind how he was used in this season. He quickly assumes the role of the main antagonist for this season, even though he's overshadowed by Cadmus' own machinations in the season finale, but exists as a constant threat to this team of young heroes in every scene that he appears in. I don't buy for a second that he's dead either. He will probably be back down the road in some capacity, especially since Jericho found the means to survive his own demise. Don't forget that Rose (who has the same powers as her father) survived being mangled by Rachel's powers in their brief skirmish too and healed back to normal without any repercussions.
My best friend gave me the season of Arrow where Deathstroke appears in that series on DVD, but I haven't had the chance to watch that in any capacity to compare that iteration with this one. I will just say that I was completely fine with how his character was handled here. Simply put, you don't fuck with a man's family and expect to get away with it. Slade Wilson had the Titans draw his children into the crossfire on two separate occasions and still came up short in their encounters with him. It wasn't until Rose (under her Ravager persona) teamed up with Dick (under his new Nightwing moniker and costume), that they were able to defeat him.
Dick's new costume looks like it was pulled straight out of the Batman: Arkham video games and that's a GOOD thing.
The season finale/payoff to finally see Dick Grayson put his past behind him and embrace this new costumed identity as Nightwing was well worth the wait, but goddamn was it frustrating that we had to endure an extended rehash of Dick's journey from Season One (along with Rachel's too with her struggles with her powers) to get there. Mind you, there were leaked set photos from the Season One finale that Dick was going to be Nightwing at that point before the various reshoots and rewrites that resulted in a lot of the Titans' backstories getting a soft reboot in this season.
I hate to saddle this show with claims that it was utter shit to start to finish like a lot of other reviews blasting it over the internet, but much like with Season One, I didn't think it was that bad. There's actually three episodes of note that I thought were really well-done.
"Aqualad" (Season 2, Episode 4)
The more that I think about it, the more I have to agree that this was the best episode of the entire season. Gone is the rough around the edges approach to the modern day format of Dick's Titans team of super-powered people and instead, we're treated to a look back in the past to a clever reboot of sorts to the original iteration of this team, consisting of Robin (Dick Grayson), Hawk (Hank Hill), Dove (Dawn Granger), Wonder Girl (Donna Troy), and Aqualad (Garth of Atlantis). This episode takes the complete "villain of the week" formula from the CW's Arrowverse, pitting this team against Dr. Light. I can't say that I was too crazy about Dr. Light's costume looking like he's going for some techno-steampunk hybrid version of Gladiator, but it worked for the most part. It wasn't that the team-based action sequences (something the CW Arrowverse really struggles with in their various team-up episodes and crossovers) in this episode clicked that made this episode shine. That was only a small contribution to the overall "reboot" of sorts to the Titans' origins here. The writers showed their ability to write multiple characters well in this episode too with the various revisions to the established cast. For example, Dawn and Dick were openly dating at this point instead of being insisted that it happened behind Hank's back as suggested in the first season. Donna Troy's insistence to not get attached with her return to Themyscira around the corner was tested as she struggled to keep her feelings about Garth under the surface. She thought that she could have a one night fling with him and leave all of that behind, but when push came to shove, she couldn't leave him (her heart in more ways than one) behind. Her world came crashing down when Garth is gunned down in front of her by Deathstroke, who was aiming for her Amazonian confidant, Jillian, instead.
Even out of context, this episode is just so damn good. If you don't watch anything else from Titans in Season 2, go out of your way to watch this episode. It's a perfect example of what this show could be going forward following the fact that this season got all of the messy tape of dealing with Dick dealing with his past out of the way.
"Conner" (Season 2, Episode 6)
This entire episode is a departure from the rest of the Titans team that we have come to know to date as it follows Subject 13 as he wakes up out of one of Cadmus Laboratories' facilities and breaks out with his dog that he appropriately names, Krypto. The episode serves as his origin story since this was pretty much a continuation of the brief teaser that we were given at the end of Season One that added in the revelation that Conner Kent is the genetic clone hybrid made from both Superman and Lex Luthor's DNA. When this season started, I figured he wouldn't have anything to do with the conflict with Trigon as Kryptonians are traditionally weak versus magical threats, so he wouldn't have been an asset to bring in at that point. I wasn't too particularly fond of the Cadmus scientist, Eve Watson (played by Genevieve Angelson), who was acting like his "mother" at first, but by the end of that episode I was sold on their relationship.
Ultimately, this episode stood out because it was such a departure from what we were used to with following the other heroes in this show up to this point and served as an excellent "hiatus" of sorts from what was going on in the current narrative with their ongoing conflict with Deathstroke.
"Jericho" (Season 2, Episode 8)
This episode serves as a continuation of the flashback started back in "Aqualad" with the OG Titans befriending a young mute metahuman named Jericho. Dick and the other Titans are really going out of their way to hang out with the kid and welcome him into their circle, but it's quickly revealed that they have an ulterior motive - Jericho is Deathstroke's son. Following the death of Garth, Dawn haunted Dick with the words, "Be like Batman" - something that he hasn't let go of doing. I know a lot of people tend to harp on Dick's retreading the familiar territory of his stress of having to live up to Batman's high expectations from Season One in this season too, but I saw that mental wound being ripped open again from what happened to him in the dreamscape following what happened to the Titans after their run-in with Trigon at the start of this season, thus forcing Dick to relive that mistake again in this season until he could properly put those feelings to rest instead of just burying them in the back of his mind. In this episode, we see the start of Dick going down that dark path to "be like Batman" as how Dawn put it, as he sought the means to get close to Deathstroke by any means possible, even if it meant manipulating and using his own son to do - as long as it resulted in a victory for the Titans and revenge for their fallen ally.
This episode shines in multiple regards as we don't simply see how vulnerable and desperate the OG Titans are following the death of Garth in this flashback, but we see that Slade Wilson doesn't deny that he's monster for what he has done as an assassin; he just wants to be a good father to his son. The only thing he ever wanted was that his son saw that side of him, only to destroy the child-like fondness that his son had over his father prior to the Titans exposing the truth of Deathstroke's "work" to Jericho. This is a complete 180 from the ruthless antagonist that we have come to know Slade as up to this point.
(Laughs) That being said, it's even more crazy to me that this is the same actor that played Manny Lopez (George's estranged father) in George Lopez Show. I doubt I can go back and watch those episodes and not see Slade Wilson as George's dad now.
Characters
I'm not knocking on the cast this time around. I thought the returning and recurring cast members seemed much more comfortable in these roles this time around instead of the "growing pains" of sorts that they had in the first season. Their confidence shined through in a wealth of these scenes, especially with some of the newcomers who joined in Season 2.
The Bat Family (Bruce Wayne, Dick Grayson, Jason Todd / Robin)
Like previously mentioned, Dick retreads a lot of the familiar territory that we saw back in Season One, coping from his inner angst and guilt to lash out with violent tendencies. The same actions that saw Jericho lose his life due to his actions. There was one moment where I thought Dick was going to mature past that "angry teen" phase that he was ridden in for both seasons where he was the responsible adult leading this new generation of Titans, only to regress back into the same character that we saw back in the first season of this show. It was admittedly very frustrating to see him not return back to this by the end of the season, but at least we got some closure to his inner turmoil that saw him stop blaming Bruce Wayne for his personal darkness. Things seemed to look up in the closing moments of the season though as he's back in a position of leadership for the Titans going forward with a clear head and renewed purpose.
What the actual fuck... Seriously though, Bruce Wayne's "ghost" in Dick's head was worth a few laughs at times.
Having Bruce Wayne show up for the vast majority of this season as a hallucination was a massive disservice to that character, even though he did lend a hand to the Titans during the season finale. Hell, even that great pep talk from Bruce that saw him rally Dawn, Donna, Kory, and Rachel together to save Dick, Conner, and Gar wasn't even real. That ended up being a fabrication of Rachel's powers, subconsciously manipulating them to reunite after their falling out.
It didn't hit me until near the end of the season that Bruce is played by the same actor who played the doctor in the Paul W.S. Anderson-helmed Resident Evil movies. Couldn't we cast someone as Bruce who wasn't already balding his hair out? (Laughs) I'm just sayin'.
I have already expressed my distaste for Jason Todd / Robin in this series, but I'll give Curran Walters credit where it's due. The kid made the character work for him, even though it came off as a whiny bitch at times. His highlights for this season shine best when he is sharing screen time with Rose (Chelsea Zhang). I thought it was rather odd that he didn't have any major scenes with Bruce in this season either to say that he was recommended for Dick's new Titans' team by Bruce in the first place. The more I think about it, the more I think that the costumed life as a whole, especially those who surround themselves around Jason have a negative impact on his development as a character and as a hero. Dick thought he had it bad as Batman's sidekick, but imagine what Jason is going through? He has to deliver to somehow perform to Batman's high expectations as well as be deemed worthy of living up to the mantle that Dick wore before him as Robin, along with proving himself amongside so many established heroes among the likes of Hawk, Dove, and Wonder Girl. All of that pressure coming in from all sides is enough to make anyone crack. I can't blame him for getting to the point of having to be literally talked out of jumping off the roof of the Titans Tower.
Kory Anders (Starfire)
Her character arc in this season seemed all over the place with the stops and starts. I'm going to assume that she's going to get a little more depth in the third season with the arrival of her sister Blackfire arriving on Earth.
I did appreciate that she maintained the role of a "big sister" to Rachel to compliment the "big brother" role that Dick played in both seasons to her. Those were the moments that really shone bright for her in this season when she stood as the metaphorical "guiding light" to the other Titans' darkness.
It felt like the writers didn't realize that they wrote an almost identical path for Donna Troy and Kory in this season at one point. Both of them were women who were estranged from their homeland, only to be taking to costumed crime-fighting to "distract" themselves from their true callings. On second thought, that might have been on purpose, given their buddy cop pairing together for a few episodes.
It felt like they wrote her diminishing powers as a cop out to write off anyone other Donna Troy could save those innocent bystanders during the season finale while Superboy was in no condition to help following his battle with the Titans and waking up from Cadmus' control.
Hawk and Dove (Hank Hall and Dawn Granger)
I said it back during my review on Season One and I'll repeat it here, I think Dawn and Dick make a better couple than Hank and Dawn. I get it that Hawk and Dawn have the common ground from their shared experiences and trauma, but that doesn't tie them to the hip. Hank wanted to give up and just quit at least three different times now and almost seems to be dragged back into the fight kicking and screaming. Plus if I'm honest, his frat boy/macho bullshit is getting stale at this point. Dick is a dick at times from his past experiences from being Batman's sidekick, but he's not a flat out douchebag like Hank is. I can't think of any redeeming qualities of that guy at all.
That episode "Faux Hawk" seemed completely out of place in this season - at least the part where Hank was working as a cage fighter. It seemed as if the writers wanted to have Dove move on and be her own heroine but went "OH SHIT WE FORGOT TO SHOW WHAT HAPPENED TO HANK!" after the fact when they started moving the other chess pieces to have the Titans reuniting for the season finale to confront both Deathstroke and Cadmus. To say that the guy sold his costume while on some drug addicted binge is just sad. Hank needs help and that's something that I felt was swept underneath the rug far too fast to wrap this season up in the final two episodes.
Dawn isn't without her own set of flaws too. Where as Hank is content with neglecting their costumed vigilante exploits in favor of his drug-addiction, Dawn is addicted to being a heroine - almost to the point of being a martyr. I felt that she could be punishing herself for pushing Dick down the path that he went with pursuing and manipulating Jericho and getting the ire of Deathstroke to come down on the Titans. I just know that her relationship with Hank is anything but good for the both of them.
Donna Troy / Wonder Girl
If I didn't love this character enough during her introduction at the tail end of Season One, I found a way to love her even more in this season, especially after being treated to more of her backstory following the "Aqualad" episode. Garth / Aqualad appears in a single episode and proves to be the heart and soul of this team, explaining why we found all of the founding Titans in such a dark place in the first season (or still are following those events). Garth's death explains why she was distant to coming back to the costumed life when Dick first contacted her for help back in Season One and why she reluctant to take it up again, despite being an advocate for justice. The heroic irony of her path in this season is that she's been running from her destiny all of this time, only to meet her demise embracing it in the season finale. The closing moments of the season saw Rachel accompanying the Amazons to take her body to Themysirca, but I selfishly hope they don't revive her in the third season (something her actress already teased for Season Three) as it would cheapen Donna's sacrifice here.
Instead, they have left the door wide open to have Cassandra Sandsmark be the new Wonder Girl in the future. Fans of Young Justice should be familiar with that iteration of the character that debuted in Season Two of that animated series.
Rachel (Raven)
Following the defeat of Trigon, it felt like the situation with the changes to Rachel's powers was being vastly ignored by the other Titans in favor to what was going on with Deathstroke over the course of this season. We never got to find out what happened to that piece of dark magic that splintered off of her and brought that gargoyle to life that killed her friend's abusive father. That was one hell of a plot hole that was left out to the wild. That being said, I found myself always intrigued with what was going on with the evolution of her powers. I would like to assume that will continue being a focal point going forward, especially in the upcoming third season.
It's a rather silly at times that Rachel has like full mastery over these powers at the most convenient times of the plot. I swear, her powers are more of a plot device than the Sword of Omens in Thundercats ever was in this show at times.
Gar (Garfield Logan / Beast Boy)
Just like in the first season, Gar was easily forgettable in this season. He got a lot of screen time following the team disbanding following Dick's "truth bomb", but ultimately didn't do anything of note in this season outside of becoming another one of Cadmus' pawns. I have to wonder if anyone removed whatever Cadmus inserted into his brain following the events of the season finale. He was just sitting around at the dinner table like nothing happened by that point. I know it was Rachel who "woke" him up, but
Superboy / Subject 13
I loved that they went with the New 52 iteration of Superboy with his ties to both Lex Luthor and Superman as a clone of the two. To say that he (along with Krypto the Superdog) was teased all the way back in the finale of Season One and had to wait until six solid episodes into the second was a bit poorly planned though. His introduction episode, appropriately named "Conner", was pretty much everything I had hoped for his origins into this continuity, even though I wasn't too crazy at first about his surrogate mother (Eve Watson) who turned her back on Cadmus' goals and ambitions in favor of allowing Conner to escape and establish his own identity. Conner is much like how the scientists at Cadmus described him as "child-like, with a sense of wonder and curiosity about where he belongs in this world." For his role in this season, there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. Further explorations about his origins and establishing his own identity from his "fathers" can come in due time.
The Wilson Family (Rose, Jericho, Slade / Deathstroke)
From the moment that she was brought into Titans Tower, I pegged Rose to be this iteration of Titans' "Terra" from the popular mythos (both comics and animated media). It seemed like that was where they were going with her casually flirting with Gar before settling for Jason Todd as he was easily the most vulnerable out of the new generation of Titans. In the back of my head, I couldn't ignore the fact that she was Slade's daughter and I already knew that she had a history in the comics continuity of being aligned with her father before going off on her own devices. I was glad that they didn't make her character arc this season that predictable, but it was pretty silly - or rather fucking careless - that the Titans allowed her to be on her own so much in their home, especially when they were supposed to be keeping tabs on her.
Seeing Jericho's story play out here is interesting as I was positive that's what the next string of Teen Titans-related DC animated films (those within the same canon and continuity as Justice League: WAR) were going to be about, especially following the tease at the end of Teen Titans: The Judas Contract. Jericho was the focus of about two different episodes in this season but despite from the little screen time that he shared with the rest of this cast of characters, I definitely left an impact on this show as a whole. Jericho brightened the mood of this show that was so accustomed to being as dark and brooding as the DC Extended Universe with a much lighter tone. Where Garth was the OG Titans' heart and soul of that team, Jericho came in shortly thereafter as their mortal compass. You could easily say that Jericho served as Deathstroke's "conscience" as well. He was something that buried deep within him (literally) that was crying out for him to do the right thing, only to be ignored time and time again as Deathstroke completed his contracts, causing Jericho to be an unwilling witness to his father's vile and heinous acts. I thought it was pretty odd that Rose would be so open to allow Jericho to jump into her mind and body without question following Deathstroke's demise, especially we didn't see any of their history together from the flashbacks this season.
Slade's relationship with his children seems to stem from the overarching theme from this series as a whole, the struggles of dealing with having to live a double life to protect those you care about. Slade thought he was protecting his family from his work by keeping it a secret when that merely made them even bigger targets when Garth was caught in the crossfire during one of his assassination contracts. You would think that Slade would have learned his lesson after the accident that resulted in Jericho becoming mute due to the severe injuries suffered to his throat. I thought it was pretty baffling that Slade wasn't aware of Jericho's presence in his own body all of that time. I couldn't imagine how fucked up it could have been for him in the years that followed as an unwilling passenger to Deathstroke's various assassination contracts.
Mercy Graves & Cadmus Laboratories
I don't know what they were going for with Mercy Graves in this continuity. I'm always intrigued to see her pop up in new mediums following Superman: The Animated Series with Lisa Edelstein's voice behind the character. Wasn't too surprising to see her in a lesbian couple, given her comic book counterpart was regarded as having Amazonian origins in that continuity. I didn't see what was the point of showing her as a wife and mother to two disrespectful children when it didn't contribute anything to the villainous persona that this season was craving out for her. It just came off rather odd given everything else she would do later involving her machinations with Cadmus. I suppose that one could convey that as a tad bit of depth in terms of characterization, showing that she has two sides of the same coin that can be described as her life that she deals with, much like the costumed heroes of the Titans and Deathstroke too.
They tried with Mercy here, but she's definitely not the villain that people are talking about after this season made air. Without a shadow of a doubt, Deathstroke is the talk of the town in this season while Mercy was regulated as a minor inconvenience in the Superboy/Cadmus subplot. It's a darn shame too as I thought Natalie Gumede looked stunning in the role and put her own unique take on the character for her live-action television debut.
Watch It or Don't Bother?
Annoying in the sense that this season recycles Dick's journey and Rachel's complications with her powers from Season One, only to muddle up what is ultimately a better season than the first. Most critics are blinded by that fact and can't see what is good here beneath the surface.
I feel like I'm having deja vu here as I wrap up this review. Much like my thoughts on Season One, there's a lot of potential for greatness going forward. Hell, we even saw evidence of that in three of the episodes that I mentioned, along with some of the episodes scattered throughout the season. I'm going to do a rare "Give it a fair chance" about this season. Who knows, you might see something you like and makes you want to come back for more. I'm definitely sticking with this for Season Three.
Phillips conceived Joker in 2016 and wrote the script with Silver throughout 2017. The two were inspired by 1970s character studies and the films of Martin Scorsese, who was initially attached to the project as a producer. The graphic novel Batman: The Killing Joke (1988) was the basis for the premise, but Phillips and Silver otherwise did not look to specific comics for inspiration. Phoenix became attached in February 2018 and was cast that July, while the majority of the cast signed on by August. Principal photography took place in New York City, Jersey City, and Newark, from September to December 2018. Joker is the first live-action theatrical Batman film to receive an R-rating from the Motion Picture Association of America, due to its violent and disturbing content.
Cast
No lie I busted out laughing when I realized that was Sam from GLOW (Marc Maron) in this.
Additionally, Brett Cullen plays Thomas Wayne, a billionaire philanthropist running for mayor of Gotham. Unlike in the comics, Thomas plays a role in the Joker's origins and is less sympathetic than traditional incarnations. Alec Baldwin was initially cast in the role but dropped out due to scheduling conflicts. Douglas Hodge plays Alfred Pennyworth, the butler and caretaker of the Wayne family, and Dante Pereira-Olson plays Bruce Wayne, Thomas's son, who becomes the Joker's archenemy Batman as an adult.
In 1981, party clown and aspiring stand-up comedian Arthur Fleck lives with his mother, Penny, in Gotham City. Gotham is rife with crime and unemployment, leaving segments of the population disenfranchised and impoverished. Arthur suffers from a disorder that causes him to laugh at inappropriate times, and depends on social services for medication. After a gang attacks him in an alley, Arthur's co-worker, Randall, gives him a gun. Arthur invites his neighbor, single mother Sophie, to his stand-up comedy show, and they begin dating.
While entertaining at a children's hospital, Arthur's gun falls out of his pocket. Randall lies that Arthur bought the gun himself and Arthur is fired. On the subway, still in his clown makeup, Arthur is beaten by three drunken Wayne Enterprises businessmen; he shoots two in self-defense and executes the third. The murders are condemned by billionaire mayoral candidate Thomas Wayne, who labels those envious of more successful people as "clowns". Demonstrations against Gotham's rich begin, with protesters donning clown masks in Arthur's image. Funding cuts shutter the social service program, leaving Arthur without medication.
Arthur's comedy show goes poorly; he laughs uncontrollably and has difficulty delivering his jokes. Talk show host Murray Franklin mocks Arthur by showing clips from the routine on his show. Arthur intercepts a letter written by Penny to Thomas, alleging that he is Thomas's illegitimate son, and berates his mother for hiding the truth. At Wayne Manor, Arthur talks to Thomas's young son, Bruce, but flees after a scuffle with butler Alfred Pennyworth. Following a visit from two Gotham City Police Department detectives investigating Arthur's involvement in the train murders, Penny suffers a stroke and is hospitalized.
At a public event, Arthur confronts Thomas, who tells him that Penny is delusional and not his biological mother. In denial, Arthur visits Arkham State Hospital and steals Penny's case file; the file says Penny adopted Arthur as a baby and allowed her abusive boyfriend to harm them both. Penny alleged that Thomas used his influence to fabricate the adoption and commit her to the asylum to hide their affair. Distraught, Arthur goes to the hospital and kills Penny. He returns home and enters Sophie's apartment unannounced. Frightened, Sophie tells him to leave; their previous encounters were Arthur's delusions.
Arthur is invited to appear on Murray's show due to the unexpected popularity of his comedy routine's clips. As he prepares, Arthur is visited by Randall and fellow ex-colleague Gary. Arthur murders Randall but leaves Gary unharmed for treating him well in the past. En route to the studio, Arthur is pursued by the two detectives onto a train filled with clown protesters. One detective accidentally shoots a protester and incites a riot, allowing Arthur to escape.
Before the show goes live, Arthur requests that Murray introduce him as Joker, a reference to Murray's previous mockery. Arthur walks out to applause, but tells morbid jokes, admits he killed the men on the train, and rants about how society abandons the disenfranchised. Arthur shoots Murray and is arrested as riots break out across Gotham. One robber corners the Wayne family in an alley and murders Thomas and his wife Martha, sparing Bruce. Rioters in an ambulance crash into the police car carrying Arthur and free him. He dances to the cheers of the crowd.
At Arkham, Arthur laughs to himself and tells his psychiatrist she would not understand the joke. He runs from orderlies, leaving a trail of bloodied footprints.
The Verdict:
Let's get this out of the way right now. If you're going into this hoping for some hint or clever nod to connect the dots between this film and the existing DC Extended Universe's films to date, then you're going to be disappointed. This film is to be taken as it's own entity, separate from what we have seen in DC Comics' live-action endeavors to date. I thought that was a very wise decision as it gives this film some liberties that would not have been able to do otherwise.
I honestly went into this film thinking it was a super villain origin story looking to make an iconic villain into a hero - much like Venom did (or rather attempted to do) for Sony around this time year. I was surprised to find that this film is more of a conversation on mental health and psychosis than it is the origins for both Joker and Batman. Bruce Wayne, along with Thomas and Martha Wayne, are in this film but this isn't a Batman origin story in the least. We get to see how Bruce's parents die in the film's closing moments but this film isn't setting up this Joker and Batman to cross paths in any shape or form. In a bizarre, yet crazy way, I found this ending to have a clever nod to the recent comics' mythos where it was revealed that there wasn't just one definitive Joker but three active in DC Comics' history. If DC Comics wanted to, they could follow this film up with the revelation that Joaquin Phoenix's Joker inspired a wealth of "imitators" with Jared Leto's Joker among these "imposers", allowing Phoenix to reprise the role if wanted by actually making it canon to their cinematic universe. As it stands, I'm completely fine with this film being it's own stand-alone feature.
I think this film is going to be highly regarded as the superhero genre's equivalent of Momento and Fight Club where filmgoers are going to revisit the film again and again to see what they missed the first time around in terms of analyzing Arthur's loss of sanity over the course of the film. The film opens with him seeing his social worker for his prescription of medicine that he depends on, but over the course of the film he's unable to refill on this medication and slowly becomes unhinged by the ongoing stresses in his life along with the unfavorable social reception of his disorder that causes him to laugh at inappropriate times.
I'm not going to paint the picture of Joker being "heroic" in this film, but this film does a damn good job of making you sympathize with the guy to an extent. That doesn't justify the negativity surrounding the film around the time of its release with theaters in fear of possible gun violence and forced to bring in additional security as a result. It's a fucking movie, people. Stop glamorizing a damn serial killer and psychopath. It's bad enough that people glamorize the comic book and animated portrayals of Harley Quinn and The Joker's relationship to disturbing degrees, let's not go that route here. One would think that would be the message to be gained from this film by the time the credits rolled but I guess that was lost on a few people...
Sorry, I'm getting a little ahead of myself here. Back on the topic of Arthur's degrading sanity. It's not helped that he's being fed disillusions from his delusional mother, Penny, who is oddly optimistic that Thomas Wayne is going to answer one of her many letters and save them from their state of poverty. Penny's letters contribute to Arthur's stress and inner turmoil too when he reads one before sending it in the mail and finds out that he's Thomas Wayne's illegitimate son from an affair that was covered up between Penny and himself. I know what you're thinking - that would make Bruce Wayne and Arthur Fleck half-brothers in this continuity, but let's not jump the shark on that. I was caught a little off-guard by this revelation, but when it was revealed later on that Penny suffers from her own bouts of psychosis. Arthur was actually adopted by Penny as a baby and allowed her abusive boyfriend to abuse her and the infant. The whole "affair" with Thomas Wayne was all in her head as a big delusion, but by the time that Arthur found out the truth, he had already confronted Thomas about the alleged "affair" with Penny, only to make a fool out of himself.
Every time I see these early depictions of Thomas Wayne of being a bad-ass I always picture this and go, "Why the fuck he didn't do this in that alleyway that fateful night?"
This is a story about one man's pain and daily struggle to just be accepted as who and what he is by not himself but by society as a whole. Instead of reaching some mortal high ground or acceptance from his friends and peers, Arthur is frowned upon and ridiculed by society at every opportunity, even when he constantly tries to do the right thing.
Arthur gets beaten up by a group of teenagers who stole his sign while working a gig outside a store as a clown to (hopefully) bring in more customers only to get the same sign smashed over his face before beating him handily.
He found himself at the wrong end of a beating on his train ride home from work where he opted to step in between three Gotham socialites harassing a young woman who were offended by his inappropriate laughing at the situation. Arthur shot them dead in self-defense, but once again, Gotham City's society had the last laugh, turning the situation into a tragedy for three scum-balls who got what they deserved. Much like the two examples cited above, Arthur's life doesn't give him any breaks. Arthur's life seems to slight him at every possible opportunity to turn the positives of his life into a negative. Simply put, he just can't catch a break.
I think a lot of people went into this film thinking that Zazie Beetz' Sophie was going to be the precursor to Harley Quinn in the traditional Joker narratives but she wasn't. The writers geared this story in a manner that made one think that she was his love interest when she wasn't at all. It was all part of the delusions manufactured in his mind due to his deteriorating psyche from his lack of medication. In a lot of ways that it's very sad when this revelation comes to fruition as Sophie is only person who is there to support him in his efforts as a struggling amateur comedian and even there as a shoulder to cry on when his "mother" Penny is hospitalized. When the truth comes out about Penny's delusions and the truth about his own background, it shatters the glass in this happy, content world that Arthur has made for himself as a coping mechanism. His relationship with Sophie isn't real at all and just another manufactured illusion by his deteriorating psyche. It's not as extreme as the dissociated personality disorder that the main character in Fight Club deals with, but disturbing nonetheless.
When you realize that nothing "good" in this man's life is real, it's hard not to empathize with him and in a sense, I hate that as a viewer - even more so knowing this character's comic book history. At the same time, I understand that this is it's own continuity and the director wants you to feel this way - conflicted. Society has turned it's back on a person who wanted nothing but to be accepted for who he is and wanted to put smiles on people's faces. Instead, Arthur Fleck finds himself beaten senseless - figuratively and physically - by society constantly casting him aside for not conforming to their accepted social norms. It's only natural that one will reach their breaking point - that point of no return where you stop turning the other cheek once you have had enough of everyone's bullshit around you and fight back. Not everyone is going to eat shit and like it as how the saying goes. Arthur reached that point during Murray Franklin's television show when he shot him dead in cold blood. Arthur was sick of being the butt end of the joke that his life was taking him down and refused to be that punchline (figuratively and literally in that sense) and made one of his own, shooting Murray on live television. In sick twisted way, Arthur's actions end up inspiring a cult-like following. Much like Arthur Fleck, the people of Gotham are fed up with the high and mighty sitting on their high horses of authority on the top of the social hierarchy in Gotham City and set off a riot within the streets.
I'll admit though that the one specific eerie sense of brilliance of this film that blew me away was the final scene with Arthur (now The Joker) meeting with his psychiatrist once more. She asks him what's so funny, shortly following this continuity's recreation of the infamous death of Thomas and Martha Wayne that set Bruce Wayne down the road to become Batman - the titular hero who would serve as his greatest rival and he would be his arch-enemy. There is no way that Arthur couldn't have seen that event play out in person since he was unconscious when it happened, but in a twisted way, he contributed in creating the chaos that the Wayne family found themselves swept into that fateful night. Much like the ironic twists, shortcomings, and misfortune that his own life has managed to throw in his way at every opportunity, it seemed like life didn't have spare any expenses in regard for cruel jokes for the Wayne Family either. To most, that situation could be seen as an extreme case of irony, but for a twisted mind like The Joker's, it's simply... comedy. Hearing the news of Thomas Wayne's demise finally gave Arthur Fleck that one punchline of someone else's misfortune - that didn't involve him on the receiving end for once.
After everything he went through over the course of this film, I honestly can't blame him for laughing.
"Oh what the heck... I'll laugh anyway..." - The Joker, Batman Beyond: Return of The Joker
Does it deserve the praise and critical acclaim?
Joaquin Phoenix left his own unique mark on this character that I'm sure film-goers will be comparing to those that proceeded him (Jack Nicholson, Mark Hamill, Heath Ledger, etc.) in film and animation for years to come. He definitely put on a much more memorable performance than Jared Leto did a few years ago and washed the bad taste of that out of our mouths. JOKER stands to be a film that is revoluntary of it's kind within the superhero/comic book adaptation/homage genre, but I think people are getting a little of themselves to say that it's one of the greatest films of all time.
My only regret is that we won't be able to see this iteration of The Joker in the DC Extended Universe, but I wonder if Joaquin Phoenix wouldn't be opposed to playing a different iteration of him in the future?
Watch It or Don't Bother?
Watch It. This is more of a character analysis film than a superhero narrative or something that would be regarded as something connected to a bigger universe. I feel that if it were, it would have fallen down the same slippery slope that Sony Pictures' Venom fell into last year, despite it's omissions and lack of connections/references to Spider-Man. This film acknowledges that this is a "Batman" story, existing in that same universe, BUT doesn't go out of it's way to connect it to the existing DC Extended Universe. That decision gave this film a lot of creative freedom. Otherwise, I doubt that this film would have came off as powerful as it did as a look into social conformity, psychological disorders, and the importance of mental health. While I did enjoy this film, I don't like that it's does nothing to suggest those who glamorize The Joker's behavior and characterization as an anti-hero instead of the psychotic criminal that he is. He isn't a rebel without a clause, leading a movement for social justice and equality as if this film seems to suggest by the time the credits roll. This is a man unhinged by the maligned society that created him, furthering the notion that we are all byproducts of the environment that we are raised in. From all of the iterations of Gotham City that I have seen from cartoons and films growing up as far back to when I was a child, I have come to the realization that Gotham City is an absolutely rotten place to live. I'll never understand why people continue to live there from how fucked up the city is from lower class to the high class - this was even before Batman and his Rogues' Gallery came into the equation. JOKER just serves to hammer that point home even harder.
