Joker (2019): 8 Major Problems No One Wants To Admit

7. It Doesn't Just 'Pay Homage' - It's Genuinely Derivative

There's nothing wrong with homage. Quentin Tarantino has made an entire career out of paying respect to his cinematic idols and Joker isn't even the first comic book movie to do so either. Logan had Shane, Captain America: The Winter Soldier had Pakula and Pollack, and The Dark Knight has Michael Mann and Heat.

Art influencing art obviously isn't a new concept, and audiences will inevitably differ when it comes to how much they can tolerate before they feel a film is merely trotting out old plot points and suffocating from older works. In Joker's case, the use of homage overshadows its own story, as so many aspects of Arthur's downfall mirrors two principle works from Scorsese's filmography - Taxi Driver, and The King of Comedy.

Arthur and Taxi Driver's Travis Bickle differ in several respects, but they also encounter similar sequences. The moment the former resolves to use firearms as a vigilante, he starts hyping himself up in front of his own mirror. The latter, meanwhile, acts out with a gun at home too. Arthur's intentions differ to Bickle's obviously, but the comparisons don't stop there.

In Taxi Driver, Bickle - who, not unlike Arthur, is also mentally disturbed - falls for Betsy, a staffer for mayoral candidate Charles Palantine. Betsy's role in Taxi Driver is not all that dissimilar to the one occupied by Zazie Beetz's Sophie in Joker, but Phillips' film does admittedly have one of its brief moments of genius by revealing that her relationship with Arthur was a figment of his imagination. Still, the comparison is worth stating, as both women get caught up in the storm surrounding Bickle and Fleck respectively and both possess similarly passive roles in his overarching narrative.

Joker's rendition of Thomas Wayne recasts the character as a wealthy, Republican-style politician who condemns antipathy towards the rich as the attitude of "clowns". Like Palantine, Wayne enters the race to 'help' Gotham's citizens, and is the centre of Arthur's animosity just as Palantine is Bickle's.

Factor in the tributes it makes to The King of Comedy, and Joker's identity almost feels stitched together.