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2024-10-07 05:48:16 UTC
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PermalinkArthur Fleck, aka the Joker, in Todd Phillips’ Joker: Folie à Deux.
Ostensibly a sequel to Joker, Folie à Deux is less a continuation of the
story begun in the 2019 film and more a denouement of it. It takes big
swings, but it seems to have lost the plot. That’s largely because, like
its predecessor, it lacks a basic understanding of the titular
character. The critical and expected commercial underperformance of
Folie à Deux hints that Hollywood has done what it always has and milked
every last drop from the Joker cow.
Once upon a time, the Clown Prince of Crime was an icon of the comic
book world, a titan of entertainment with more lives than Catwoman.
People used words like “complex” and “three-dimensional” to describe
him, separating him from the cheap villains he once shared the spotlight
with. A few years ago, the Joker was a precious role that earned Oscars
for his performers and elevated any project it was a part of.
Flash-forward to now, and what you have is a ghost of what once was, a
joke that has been told so many times that it no longer has a punch
line. Because, now that the Joker has gone from villain to antihero to
champion of the oppressed, what’s left for him to be other than a joke
himself?
Let the Joker laugh
To talk about Batman is to talk about the Joker. The character debuted
in the first issue of the Batman comic book in 1940 and has remained a
consistent aspect of the hero’s history. His backstory, motives, and
demeanor have changed over the years, but his animosity toward the Caped
Crusader has remained. The Joker is among the most fluid characters in
comic book history: he is whatever he needs to be, depending on the
story. In The Killing Joke, he is a broken misanthrope looking to prove
everyone can be just as bad; in A Death in the Family, he’s a cunning
terrorist with the intelligence to outsmart the World’s Greatest
Detective; in The Long Halloween, he’s a rabid clown using laughing gas
to commit his crimes.
This malleability has allowed Joker to rise in popularity as not only
Batman’s archnemesis, but arguably the best supervillain in comic book
history. Whereas other villains have more defined personalities, Joker
is everything and nothing; he can be a petty, street-level criminal and
a manipulative crime lord from one panel to the next. In more ways than
one, Joker is an idea rather than a defined character. His backstory
changes as often as the flower on his lapel, with his insanity and
obsession with Batman being two of the three constants in his stories.
The third element crucial to the Joker’s characterization is in the name
itself: he laughs. The Joker is in on the joke, which also changes
depending on the narrative. Sometimes, he laughs at the knowledge that
everyone is as bad as he is; other times, the laugh comes from knowing
Batman is his soulmate and the two are destined to be in each other’s
stories forever, which, believe it or not, is his version of happily
ever after. However, Joker always laughs: he’s a clown, a trickster, a
perversion of humor that’s nonetheless humorous.
The decline in the Joker’s public persona can be traced back to this
basic quality all but disappearing in recent years. The Joker is
supposed to laugh out of genuine, albeit deranged glee. He truly finds
everything funny; the world’s inherent chaos and cruelty are
entertaining to him. It’s the ultimate source of comedy, one big,
perverse joke that everyone is a part of.
Yet, recent versions of the Clown Prince of Crime use laughter more as
an intimidation tool rather than an expression of the Joker’s inner
turmoil. To me, this choice speaks to a basic lack of understanding of
who the Joker is, what his purpose is, and where he comes from. How can
you be the Joker if you don’t laugh? As silly as it sounds, it’s
seemingly not simple enough for the entertainment honchos to understand.
The Rorschach test
It’s not an overstatement to say DC, on the big screen, is kind of
embarrassed by its source material. Whether it’s The Penguin changing
the main character’s name to sound more “grounded” or Todd Phillips
changing the DNA of the Joker to turn him into a champion of the
disenfranchised, DC is very much ashamed of being based on a comic book
property, and we can tell. However, in its attempt to turn Batman and
everything relating to him into the hyperrealistic tone established by
Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy, each new adaptation offers very
little to the Batman mythos; on the contrary, it only takes away from it.
https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/congratulations-hollywood-ve-ruined-joker-143015334.html