I'm in two minds about it.  For me, the character of the Joker has been quite different to so many other villains.  Leaving aside the cartoons and comics (which I admit I haven't read or watched) and focussing on the movies and TV show, the character always seemed to draw strength from the obscurity of his origins.  Heath Ledger's portrayal remains definitive for me (again, leaving aside the cartoons - I know Mark Hamill's Joker is considered by many to be the high point), and part of that was the way he deliberately remained vague about his origins, and his motivations stemmed from a commitment to chaos.

Joaquin Phoenix as Joker is a completely different kettle of fish.  The trailer and the premise of the movie seem to be drilling down into his origins, and showing a quite tragic justification for his villainy.  Herein lies my dilemma.  I'm a big fan of modern approaches to storytelling which show characters as deeper than just "goodie" or "baddie", and for this reason Game of Thrones is such an excellent show because there is good and bad in most of the characters, and they show the conflicts really well.  So a deeper understanding of character is something I'm in favour of.  However, putting the Joker into this framework doesn't sit right with me.  I like that his character is impenetrable, and that his real history isn't known.  There's something scarier about a character that "just wants to watch the world burn", rather than a character that wants to watch the world burn because they have a grudge against the world.

Maybe I'm wrong, and maybe the film is not what I think it will be.  But right now I'm sitting on the fence as to whether I will watch it.

nathan:No spoilers but all the Batman enemies are there except