Movie Review SSJ

Under the global epidemic, the release of the movie “The New Batman” was like a shot in the arm. In the first weekend after its release, the film took in $134 million at the North American box office, higher than Warner Bros. had previously expected.

This opening weekend box office result is already a record for a movie released in 2022, and is the second recent movie to break the $100 million mark in its opening weekend after Spider-Man: No Return (released in North America last December); in overseas markets, The New Batman has now also earned $124 million.

Combined, in its opening weekend alone, “The New Batman” has pushed its worldwide box office to $258 million, a solid win for Warner Bros. for a film with a $200 million budget. Meanwhile, 45 days after the film’s theatrical release, Warner will put it on streaming HBO Max on demand.

The New Batman”, directed by director Matt Reeves (director of “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” 2 and 3), is 175 minutes long (2 hours and 55 minutes), and instead of being a superhero movie in the conventional sense, it is made as a dark gangster crime film: The film takes place in Bruce Wayne’s “second year” as Batman, when his “Batman” career is just beginning, and as Batman explores the roots of corruption in Gotham City, he begins to discover the larger corruption unfolding in the city ……

The film stars a very strong cast, in addition to Robert Pattinson as the new Batman, Paul Dano (“Blood Coming”, “12 Years a Slave”) as the Riddler, Zoe Crovitz (“Mad Max: Fury Road”) as Catwoman, Colin Farrell (“Fantastic Beasts”) as the Penguin, Andy Serkis (“Lord of the Rings” Gollum) as Alfred the Butler, and Jeffrey White (“Westworld”) as Inspector Gordon.

Good word of mouth helped the film “The New Batman”, with high scores on multiple overseas platforms including Rotten Tomatoes, IMDB and MTC, with some overseas critics scoring a perfect 100. Critics couldn’t help but compare it with director Nolan’s Batman “Dark Knight” trilogy, and some even wrote: “The New Batman” and “The Dark Knight”, which movie is greater?

American actor Paul Dano’s performance as the villain Riddler in “The New Batman” was so impressive that some critics compared him to Heath Ledger’s Joker in “The Dark Knight”, saying that “what Riddler does in “The New Batman” is more intimidating”.

However, to the surprise of many, there is a huge egg buried in the movie “The New Batman”! It is another big villain, Batman’s most famous rival: the Joker!

Although both are DC movies produced by Warner, “New Batman” director Matt Reeves has previously stated that their movie has no crossover with the previous movie “Joker” starring Joaquin Phoenix.

In other words, Joaquin Phoenix played the Joker, will not appear in the “new Batman”.

So, the Joker who appears in the “New Batman” this time, plays someone else! This is also another new Joker in the DC movie universe! When it comes to “Joker”, the earliest classic is the Joker played by Jack Nicholson in the 1989 version of the movie “Batman”.

After that, many fans in the heart of the first push Nolan directed “The Dark Knight” in the Joker played by Heath Ledger, the ultimate madness and distortion, so that people still remember.

The most talked about in the past two years, is Joaquin Phoenix in the movie “Joker” as the Joker.
This main character is the Joker movie, giving the character more room to play, so that people can see the Joker bad, but also see more reasons behind why the Joker will become bad, this role also let Joaquin Phoenix got a movie star.

Of course, there is also a not very recognized Joker, Jared Leto in the “Suicide Squad” as the Joker, handsome is handsome, but the overall performance can not be compared with the first few.

The Joker who appears in “The New Batman” this time is basically the presence of an egg –
After the Riddler is locked up, another prisoner’s voice comes from the next cell and has a spaced-out conversation with him: “One day you’ll make it to the top. Next, you’ll be a clown.”

The Riddler then joins him in eerie laughter, and a new, evil relationship is born.

Although not explicitly stated, anyone familiar with the Batman story will guess who this prisoner is – and director Matt Reeves admitted to the press: yes, he is the Joker.
At the same time, the role of this new Joker was also revealed: born in 1992, the Irish actor, Barry Keoghan (Barry Keoghan).

He has an unforgettable face, good looks, and good acting skills, having previously appeared in famous works including the film “Dunkirk” (as George, pictured below 1), “The Eternals” (as Druid, pictured below 2), and the drama “Chernobyl”.

Previously, the role played by Barry Keown in “The New Batman” was kept under wraps and was only announced as being a Gotham City cop named Stanley Merkel.

It is reported that director Reeves originally planned for Barry Keown to play the Joker to have more scenes in “The New Batman” and appear earlier in the movie, and also let this Joker and Batman have a crossover, but, now this Joker has almost been cut out of the scene.

But after much deliberation, director Reeves finally kept the part of the Riddler and the Joker, which he said was a “very creepy scene, and in fact, more trouble was already brewing.”

“I think it’s not just that audiences like to see the character, it changes the audience’s reaction to the end of the movie, to see that Gotham is still Gotham and Batman has no choice, he has to keep doing what he’s going to do.”

However, director Reeves said he was heartbroken to cut the original Joker scene, so he intends to consider releasing the deleted Joker and Batman scenes after enough viewers have seen “The New Batman”.

To maintain the mystery and to emphasize that this Joker is not quite the Joker, director Reeves shot Barry Keown as the Joker in “The New Batman” with the actor’s face obscured and partially out of focus and bokeh.

However, director Reeves still worked with the film’s makeup artist Michael Marino to set the complete look of the new Joker in the film, mentioning, “The character (Joker) suffers from a congenital disease, and he can’t stop smiling, which is terrible. For most of the film, his face is half-covered.”

Despite acknowledging that the character is the Joker, director Matt Reeves said, “I didn’t want to call him the Joker, I wanted him to be liked by the audience as someone who hadn’t yet become the Joker.”

Director Reeves revealed that it was not his intention to introduce the Joker in the film in this way, and he was not sure if the Joker, played by Barry Keown, would continue to appear in future sequels of the “New Batman” movie. At the same time, it does not rule out the possibility of appearing in an HBO Max spin-off episode.

In fact, director Reeves informed the actor of his concerns when he met with Barry Keown, “I was looking for not only a great actor, but someone who was fearless. I told him from the beginning that I didn’t know what would happen to the character and there was no guarantee that the character would continue to return, but I was eager for someone to play the Joker, even if the performance in the movie only lasted a few minutes.”

Now that the movie “The New Batman” is in theaters, director Reeves has given high recognition to Barry Keown.