Joker Trailer 2 Review: 9 Ups & 3 Downs

1. Building The Character Mythos

The concern for this movie was always going to be that the Joker would be too demystified - just as Solo was - and we'd lose something of his magic for knowing where he came from. Cleverly, though, while it seems to answer that question (at least for THIS Joker), we're presented here with a story related by an unreliable narrator who is clearly a fantasist telling the world a story that justifies his existence. It's Travis Bickle insisting he's a response to his environment rather than a symptom of it.

And crucially, this trailer does an incredible job of actually building the Joker's mythology rather than deconstructing it. We barely see Arthur as the Joker in his final form. We see him sort of in his cocoon state, adopting his new identity and flirting with becoming part of a militant community. We see the hints of some of his targets and one flash of violence, but we never see him being the Joker - arguably apart from the one shot above as he waits in a dressing room, sombre and menacing.

Without showing too much, we're getting just the right amount of hints that suggest this film wants to lovingly craft the character - no matter how perverse the process - rather than pulling him down. And for fans, that will mean a lot.

Even more brilliantly, the trailer seeks to build the mythology of Arthur Fleck primarily (which it achieves by not showing the Joker fully). And when so many people will question a Joker origin by suggesting what he was before the Joker doesn't matter, the idea of insisting that he does and making us care by telling some of his story and hinting almost imperceptibly at other parts of it (why the bruises, who is dying, why is Thomas Wayne important, why the counselling?) you can't NOT care about who he is.

And now to the negatives...