As is the case with much of Knight's story, this premise was amazing, but its execution wasn't. The moment Joker first comes on screen in the opening act is absolutely masterful, and the subsequent moments the pair share as the story progresses are incredible too. Seeing the mind games the Clown Prince uses to erode Batman's mental barriers is brilliant to see, but Rocksteady could've learnt some subtlety when dealing with these themes. The problem with Joker's presence in Knight isn't that he's poorly written or acted (quite the contrary), it's that there's no sense of rhythm or pace. Batman's descent into madness is only measured by certain large encounters he has with the Joker in the game, but it would've made far more sense to implement Hammil's legendary villain more sparingly, slowly ratcheting up his presence and thus increasing the tension accordingly. Joker shouldn't have been there to offer commentary on everything, and the result is that his presence can actually become quite irritating after a while of being everywhere, though there's definitely a chance that was the point all along.
Resident movie guy at WhatCulture who used to be Comics Editor. Thinks John Carpenter is the best. Likes Hellboy a lot. Can usually be found talking about Dad Movies on his Twitter at @EwanRuinsThings.
