Monday, April 8, 2019

Joker Starring Joaquin Phoenix Movie Trailer



Two days after I published my article looking at the several incarnations of the Joker in other media, the first official trailer for the movie Joker starring Joaquin Phoenix was released. I had totally forgotten about the movie when writing my article, but I had originally planned to feature the 30 second makeup test Joker director Todd Phillips had released on Instagram last October.





Shortly after that video was released, amateur footage of some scenes surfaced on the 'Net, something highly unusual for a major studio picture.





And now we finally have the official trailer. Roll it!





I don't know what to make of the idea of a standalone Joker origin story. Will it feel like we're seeing the Joker we know and love to hate from the comics, or will it simply feel like a crazy guy in clown makeup who coincidentally calls himself the Joker? Projects in the past that separate themselves too much from the source material have not been great artistic successes (I'm looking at you, Catwoman), but with creative bigwigs like director Todd Phillips (the Hangover films), executive producer Bradley Cooper (and former EP Martin Scorsese) and stars Joaquin Phoenix and Robert De Niro in tow, will this movie beat the odds? I guess we'll find out when the movie opens October 4th.

Until then, put on a happy face!



5 comments:

Bob Johns said...

I think this looks ok so far, such buzz for Phoenix. Time will tell.

Phillyradiogeek said...

Exactly Bob. This will either be awesome or terrible; I have no idea which!

Todd Mason said...

The COMEDY FILM NERDS guys note that Phoenix being a diminutive fellow works against him...most tv/film Jokers are at least tall and lanky, a lo most of the comics Jokers, when not also reasonably hefty, to help make the fistfights with Bats a bit more likely.

What would you say?

(If there's a series of recentish megahits that makes the Nolan BATMAN films look good to me, it's THE HANGOVER films...YMMV, as the kids don't write. Getting the DC films completely out of the hand of the likes of Nolan and Zac likely will only improve the product.)

Phillyradiogeek said...

The Joker is usually drawn rather thin, so I'm not surprised Phoenix went in that direction, but I'm not sure what his physique is normally, as I've never seen his films.

I haven't seen the Hangover films, but I did see OLD SCHOOL and ROAD TRIP by the same director, which I enjoyed. I can't get a good handle on how this film will turn out. It perplexes me for some reason.

Todd Mason said...

OLD SCHOOL wasn't THE film of our gen, but it beat the hell out of THE HANGOVERs.