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.
WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well.
In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.
