People have every right to like this film,
but don’t tell the people that are disgusted by what tragedy Phillips has done to this character “they just didn’t get it”.
There’s no deep meaning behind this film and excusing its egregious mishandling of such an Iconic character because you don’t feel like Arthur was ever actually the Joker is a ridiculous train of thought, and frankly, sounds a bit like coping with the direction they took a character you were really beginning to like in the first picture.
Todd, the director, you know the guy with the vision to tell here, is outright telling you this is Joker, from the first film, onward.
Sure it’s his interpretation, though is it not meant to be the same character?
Take any other character as loved and widely known as this, completely change everything about them, change Superman, change Peter Parker.
Imagine Gunn deciding his Superman doesn’t fly and you’re just supposed to deal with that, and attempt to “get it”.
Going against the grain doesn’t make an exceptional film, nor does it give it the blanket of being called an “Art House” film.
The first was beautifully shot with a proper bow on its finale while still leaving its ending shrouded in darkness. There should always be a layer of mystery over the character you’re to be careful not to unveil, same with Myers.
You’re to know nothing about me.
Todd goes out of his way to answer questions no one raised, ultimately watering down a character that could’ve had a lot of depth while still keeping true to the ambiguity of The Joker’s very personality.
There’s zero ambiguity to Arthur, to Joker, and that’s a huge problem, lack of mystique, interest undoubtedly wains.
Part of what makes The Joker terrifying is when looking at his face you don’t have a clue what is going through his mind, a mad dog.
Ledger & Nicholson both are extremely fascinating without hardly knowing anything about either of them. You can only ride the down on your luck character trait for so long before it grew redundant, which to me, it did, halfway through the first film.
Which is why this film is so jarring.
Todd made it a point to show how bad
Fleck was treated in the first, practically begging you to feel sorry for the life path the character finds themself on with the intentional slow motion shots, the music cues then in this, there’s zero empathy from the Director.
So to not see any progress in either direction in the character is a complete waste of my two hours and twenty minutes, what are you telling that you didn’t the first time Todd.
Tack the last ten to fifteen minutes of this film onto the first, this one is rendered obsolete entirely, that’s not something you want to unearth in your script after throwing $200 Million at this.
