Joker: The gift and the curse of the film not following the comics

Todd Phillips’ Joker not following the comics isn’t necessarily a good or bad thing.

Joker has given people mixed feelings about it since it was announced. Some people are excited, and think that it’s been too long since we’ve had a movie solely focused on the Joker. Other people aren’t so sure. The Joker’s origin has been clouded with mystery (even after Alan Moore’s The Killing Joke). Telling his story takes away from the mystique of the character. It’s one of the reasons people loved Heath Ledger’s interpretation. And now, there’s been even more controversy added to the the movie following writer and director Todd Phillips’ recent comments to Empire:

"“We didn’t follow anything from the comic books, which people are gonna be mad about. We just wrote our own version of where a guy like Joker might come from. That’s what was interesting to me. We’re not even doing Joker, but the story of becoming Joker. It’s about this man.”"

There you have it. A movie called Joker that isn’t based on anything people know from the comics. Is this a gift or a curse? It can be a little bit of both.

One thing that can hurt a movie is when the creative team tries too hard to please everyone. When you’re making a movie based on a character everyone loves, certain groups are going to be upset. It’s almost always on the side of, “It wasn’t enough like the comic!” What Todd Phillips has done is told the world what to expect.

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Now, he can focus on making the best movie possible. With a phenomenal actor like Joaquin Phoenix, this shouldn’t be that difficult. He is going to rock this role and will more than likely be nominated for his performance, even though it’s a movie based on a comic book character. And if critics love the film after it hits theaters, the Joker character will be changed forever.

We’ve already seen situations where how a movie is received determines what happens to a character in the comic books. Jessica Jones and Star-Lord changed due to their high praise on TV and  in film . In their cases, it worked out. If or when Phoenix does a great job, Joker’s origin will be retold in the comics and it’ll look very similar to that of Joker’s. Whether this will be a pro or con is yet to be seen. The one thing that should worry comic book fans is what happens to the comic book movie genre from here.

The fact that this movie has nothing to do with the comic books means they’re just using the Joker’s name and  likeness to make money. Granted, people make movies to get paid, but the worry should be what happens next. Characters with distinct personalities like Wolverine, Deadpool, and Batman could all be used just for their names, which ultimately takes away from what writers created and molded. We’ve seen this in Batman and Robin, a movie that was more parody than anything.

As much as Todd Phillips says the character doesn’t follow the comic book, we’ve already seen ahint of The Killing Joke. Joaquin Phoenix seems to be playing a comedian who just can’t make it big, which was present in Moore’s story. Personally, Phillips saying, “People are going to be mad” probably won’t leave fans like myself with much hope for the project. However, I won’t be sending any angry letters, tweets, or judgement until I’ve seen the movie. For now, all any of us can do is hope for a project that does the character justice and leaves fans with smiles on their faces.