Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker is ‘dark and disturbing’ in the first teaser at CinemaCon&

Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker is a tale mired in the tragedy of a man beaten down by the world, as revealed in the first teaser trailer for director Todd Phillips’ upcoming Warner Bros. DC movie based on one of the most iconic villains in comic book history.

There’s been a lot of chatter about what this film is and what it isn’t and most of it is not accurate, but it’s expected when you set out to make an origin story about a beloved character who basically has no definitive origin…

The trailer, which shows Phoenix’s Arthur Fleck as a dejected man stumbling through the streets of Gotham. “My mother always tells me to smile and put on a happy face — she told me I had a purpose to bring laughter and joy to the world,” he says over a montage of him trying to spread happiness while dressed as a clown promoting a store when a group of thugs steal his sign and beat him up. He’s also, hit by a car, mocked loudly and frequently. His laugh and a shot of Arkham Asylum serve as reminders of where this is all headed.

In between shots of him dancing with his ailing mother and with Zazie Beetz‘s Sophie Dumond in a diner, you see Arthur begin his slow spiral into one of Gotham’s most dangerous, psychotic criminals as he sits inside a comedy club where he emits a more deranged laugh, then starts to carry out crimes in a clown mask.

“Gotham’s lost its way,” Arthur says as he emerges as the Joker, dancing in a red suit with his trademark clown makeup. “What kind of coward would do something that cold-blooded?” a cop asks, as another reply, “Someone who hides behind a mask.”

“I used to think that my life was a tragedy,” Arthur says in voiceover, as we see him dying his hair green and transforming himself into the Joker we know. “But now I realize it’s a comedy.”

All in all, it proved a tremendously effective introduction to a new version of a character we’ve seen in countless iterations already — and we say that as a group who was initially skeptical of the whole endeavor. Joaquin Phoenix as always lives in every role he portrays and this will no doubt be another inspired and manic performance from him.

If Culturedemandsgeeks could sum up the feeling of the film, it would be that The Joker origin genre for the film is a tragedy. So far, so much the teaser footage actually delivered on much of what Todd Phillip’s has promised. If you’re missing the ‘dark’ DC, then here’s your medicine, folks.