New Deleted Scene Released Of Barry Keoghan As Joker In The Batman
Posted by Batfleck Forever on
You can watch the 4K version here.
Director Matt Reeves has shared a new scene from The Batman that was cut from the movie giving us a closer Barry Keoghan’s Joker. The five minute scene, which was made accessible as a reward for solving Riddler puzzles on the site www.rataalada.com (a promo site setup as part of the films marketing campaign, shows Batman at Arkham Asylum asking for the Joker’s input on the Riddler case.
In the actual film Joker had a smaller cameo in which he was seen in a darkened jail cell talking to Riddler and you couldn’t really see his face. Reeves had talked up filming a sequence where Batman and the Joker had an actual conversation and it looks like this was it.
Personally, I think the scene is pretty good and should have been kept in the film. Not only do we get to see the beginnings of the classic hero / villain relationship the two famously go on to develop (loved the line about their 1 year anniversary) but it also gives us a commentary into Batman’s thinking which I felt was lacking in the movie. Not only does the Joker deduce that Riddler is a “fan” of Batman’s, but he does a great job getting under Batman’s skin, pointing out what he and Riddler have in common and suggesting that Batman agrees with Riddler that Gotham’s high profile corrupt figures (who Riddler targets) actually deserve to die.
Throughout the scene Joker’s face is blurred from view (which was actually kind of reminiscent of the Joker scene in Zack Snyder’s Justice League) and we just get flashes of the back of his head and his hands, which are scarred and disgusting looking, teasing that this is one fucked up looking Joker. It all leads up to an in focus reveal of his full face which is indeed quite disturbing.
This is easily the creepiest and most grotesque Joker has ever looked. The words festering and rotten come to mind. It’s stark enough that I could see some people being turned off by it but as a fan of body horror I dig it. Reeves claims that this Joker did not fall in a vat of acid like is usually the case but he was actually born with a deformity that forced his face into a permanent disfigured smile. Despite Reeve’s explanation, he certainly looks like a Joker that took a bath at Ace Chemicals, and if that’s not his origin I’m curious how has green hair in a mental institution.
As for Keoghan’s performance, well, he seems like the Joker. We’ve obviously seen a ton of Jokers by now so it obviously becomes harder and harder to put your own stamp on the character, but I see potential here. Especially if they continue to utilize him in this Hannibal Lector / Silence of the Lambs kind of way where Bats visits him to talk about cases like this.
It’s too bad the scene was cut from the movie as it’s probably the best thing I’ve seen related to this movie. I could have easily seen them trim some other stuff out to fit this in. Maybe it’ll get spliced back in for the home video release.
