Writing this article instilled a sadness, a despair in me that eats away at my hopes that the DCEU will pull it together and become something as powerful and weighty as the comics upon which it’s loosely based. During filming, Suicide Squad would occasionally drop images and short clips of Leto’s Joker with the hope that we’d be hyped enough to eventually see him in action. Hell, even Leto hyped his performance, sporting a kind of twisted enthusiasm that seemed to spell good news at the time. And you know what? I was hyped for this new Joker too. I didn’t particularly love his appearance, but I was willing to let it slip past my judgements if he delivered a performance worth remembering.
Sadly, his Joker barely even functions as a good background villain. He’s thrown in so that Harley Quinn can have someone to work off of, but the scenes between them don’t do their comic book relationship any justice. Sure, the “love” is definitely present, but it’s not convincing and it’s not interesting.
Jared Leto may have dropped the ball with his underwhelming Clown Prince of Crime, but that doesn’t mean he can’t turn things around. With better direction, better writing, and a whole lot of reworking, the DCEU Joker could possibly function as a passable recurring villain for Batman and his fellow DC heroes. Granted, they’d have to work in lots of improvements for the character to redeem himself after his Suicide Squad role, but it’s not impossible. If it were up to me, I’d tell him to lose the tattoos and the bling, but they can’t do that now. Why? Because continuity.
Jared Leto will return as the Joker in a future DCEU film, there’s no doubt about it. We’re just hoping his currently non-existent performance improves upon this one.
