Let's hope this spurs comic book filmmakers to take more risks than they have been. Since the first wave of the new kind of comic book film (I'd put this at Iron Man/Captain America/Thor) they've stagnated and perfected a formula which is duller and duller by the movie.
But now, I think, we're seeing another wave coming along which is Logan, Deadpool, and now Joker. The easy thing for people to do is credit the R rating, but I don't buy it. I think it's the ingenuity. Logan told a family drama disguised as a comic book movie, but shot like a western. It's the best comic book film to date (my opinion) because it put the characters in the driver's seat (not the action). Deadpool delivered up a less moral character than most superheroes (not quite the true anti-hero some paint him as) and broke the fourth wall: we haven't seen that in superhero flicks before. Now we have Joker. Socio-political commentary, a deep character study, and a dive into the effects of mental illness and poverty. It took the best of Elseworlds (it's a one-off that ignores comic book accuracy) and Vertigo (exploration of psycho-sexual themes, hard R capabilities) and put it on screen.
So, I'm hoping that they get innovative and creative again. I hope that they don't just start xeroxing "dark" movies or insisting on R ratings for gratuitous reasons (edginess is cool and sells!) but rather I hope that they start pushing the boundaries of what can be accomplished with a comic book film.
Basically, they need to stop following Marvel films' successes and just tell some good stories.
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