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psmith2.0
Mr. Vieira
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Tennessee
 
2022-04-12, 09:56

Not sure how I missed this.

Possible The Batman spoilers ahead, but I'm not using tags...the movie has been out for well over a month. Everyone who wanted to see it has by now, and anyone else obviously doesn't care. I will, however, give a bit of a generous gap between here and when I start to talk, just because I'm a nice guy and there may be some on-the-fencers waiting on the HBO Max release.






**SPOILERS below, coming soon**





**Seriously, you've been warned**






Okay, apparently there was a deleted scene featuring Joker, earlier on, before his reveal at the end (sharing a wall at Arkham with the Riddler). Batman goes to Arkham to see Joker earlier in the movie - being all Clarice Starling to Joker's Hannibal Lecter - to get some insight on the Riddler's Buffalo Bill. This sequence was revealed in some of the news/promo stuff when the movie was released over a month ago, including by the director himself in some interviews.

The director, Matt Reeves, said he may release that clip at some point. Apparently he did about 3-4 weeks ago (I only found out about it this morning, Mr. Johnny-on-the-Spot that I am).

And here it is.

Some thoughts...

1. I can't understand a word he's saying

2. How/why is he so incredibly messed up?! What happened? It isn't self-applied makeup (Ledger/Phoenix), for sure.

3. He's got scars everywhere and chunks of his hair is missing (where even more scars reside, all over his head, a la Darth Vader). Did Batman drag him behind his car in an prior, unseen encounter? He's already in Arkham, so somebody - Batman? - put him there. Did Batman put him in that condition too?

4. Re: The Silence of the Lambs, that whole "hero/lead goes to visit a crazy asshole in prison (or mental hospital) to get further info on/insight into another crazy asshole" thing has been done so much over the past 25+ years. When you've got low-budget Lifetime and Syfy (and shitty CBS forensics shows) doing it for decades now, you know you've soared over that mako some time ago. I was kinda shocked to see someone doing it now, straight-faced/irony-free. "Really, DC/WB/Reeves?" This isn't the novel thing it once was...every movie/TV show (and Batman-based fan film) has walked this path, it seems.

5. Again, I can't understand a word he's saying; if he's dropping some knowledge or adding anything to the proceedings, it's totally lost on me. Is that why it was cut from the theatrical release? The director realized "there's no way this helps anything...but I probably need to throw a bone to the neckbeards and release the clip anyway"?.

What do you think about this pretty freaky, grim approach to the character? I know some comic books (and even that Gotham TV show) veered into this sort of thing at times, but the above is nothing like what we saw with Nicholson, Ledger, Leto and Phoenix in any previous live-action outings. He looks like a monster or horror movie villain, not a dapper clown or emo anarchist. Maybe they'll just leave it unresolved and let everyone guess/fill in the blanks? Sometimes that's better anyway, right?

"Do you wanna know how I got these scars?"

Not really, no.

"The flying rodent chained me behind his little jet car and dragged me down 47th Street about 30 times...this asshole is the savior and protector of Gotham, and I'm the one locked in here?! Whatever...".

Last edited by psmith2.0 : 2022-04-12 at 10:24.
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