Over the weekend, I watched the fan film “Joker Rising“.
In some ways, it’s a technical achievement, apparently shot for only
$3,000 over eight days. With that kind of budget and timeline, it’s
really impressive.
Other than that…well, it does
quite a bit of violence to the continuity of the characters. A lot. So I
recommend approaching this more as a “film about criminals” than a
“Joker” film.
And for the greatest part of the film I cared far more about “Croc” than anyone else. He was played by
Manuel Eduardo Ramirez, who brings what nuance and subtlety there is to
this otherwise straightforward film. Yes, Dylan Hobbs later gets the
Joker’s giggle mostly right (mostly; the times he doesn’t jar badly), but for most of the film his character is so freaking cardboard.
That said, it wasn’t bad, but it falls just a bit short of being good. If you’ve got the time, it’s worth watching on YouTube for free.
Apparently the indiegogo campaign for a sequel fell quite a bit short of its goal, which is a pity.