The reply is straightforward. The Joker thrives on chaos and unpredictability. He has no origin, no backstory. The place Batman perpetually carries the tragedy of his dad and mom’ homicide, Joker is free from something that will moor him to actuality. And but, film variations of the character have grow to be more and more predictable, particularly after The Darkish Knight. Phoenix, Leto, and Keoghan are all enjoying variations of Ledger, similar to Nicholson and Hamill riffed on Romero. We all know that when the Joker exhibits up, one thing twisted will occur, even when he doesn’t have the phrase tattooed throughout his brow. That point.
Moreover, the incessant consideration on the Joker ignores Batman’s many different fantastic villains. Consider it or not, Joker was simply one of many dangerous guys within the Darkish Knight’s rogue’s gallery, and probably not his arch-nemesis till the late ’70s and ’80s. Batman’s first supervillain, Dr. Hugo Unusual, punished the hero’s thoughts together with his psychiatric video games and punished his physique together with his military of Monster Males. The Penguin was one other wealthy playboy with bizarre extracurriculars, Catwoman pushed his sense of morality, and Two-Face represented the worst attainable response to private tragedy. The Riddler and Ra’s al Ghul matched Batman’s intelligence whereas Scarecrow confirmed the darkish aspect to his concern ways.
And that doesn’t even get into the diamonds within the tough, enjoyable and bizarre characters who not often get the centerstage, such because the Ventriloquist and Scarface, Man-Bat, and Magpie. Grant Morrison additions resembling Professor Pyg and Dr. Harm are nonetheless on the market, able to blow the minds of unsuspecting audiences. Earlier than anybody scoffs on the thought of taking these characters significantly, keep in mind how Mr. Freeze was a giant joke till Batman: The Animated Sequence gave him a tragic backstory.
A few of these characters have been performed in motion pictures (principally by Nolan). Others don’t clearly appear to suit. However that’s sort of the purpose. Joker takes up a lot area that filmmakers not often take the time to even take into account the probabilities these varied rogues supply. The Batman began issues in the appropriate course, reimagining the Riddler as John Kramer on the Darkish Internet, and The Penguin TV present is attempting to do one thing totally different with Colin Farrell‘s character (with combined outcomes). However Keoghan’s cameo as an much more disfigured Joker hangs over the film and its sequels like an albatross. Not as a result of Keoghan’s model is so disgusting. Relatively as a result of it’s so uninteresting, only one extra instance of a gross smiling weirdo.
Joker: Folie à Deux ends by suggesting that Arthur Fleck isn’t the true Joker. With its allusions to The Darkish Knight, the film means that Ricky will go on to be the legal who plagues Bruce Wayne, now orphaned after the occasions of the primary movie. However the harm has already been performed. By placing Arthur on the display and on the stand, Phillips has completely mined the character for each attainable secret, any final remaining shock. The anarchic power that when made him so compelling is completely gone, abandoning nothing however a sequence of empty signifiers for some dude named with a Glasgow smile to choose up.
The Joker is lifeless. Lengthy reside completely anybody else in Arkham Asylum.
