Complex Numbers

Grouch

Entry 4 of 8 for

Journalistic Intentions  [18+] #2213121 This is for the journal keeping types that come to PLAY! New round starts February 1! by Elisa the Bunny Stik

Admission time

I, a lifelong comic book fan; I, an enthusiastic follower of fantasy, science fiction and action movies; I, a firm believer in the power of cinema to bring to life the tropes originating in comics; I have not yet seen Joker.

One reason? Same reason I never saw Titanic. Too popular.

Another reason? Incels online like it way too much, and online incels are poison.

Yet another reason? Well, this third reason is kind of nuanced and I'll get in to it below.

And also I just couldn't be arsed to leave the house when it was in theaters. Of course now that there's a dread disease going around, NOW I want to leave the house and be social, because I'm contrary that way.

Third Reason

It's one thing to appreciate a movie villain as a foil for the protagonist. It's another thing entirely to turn the villain into the hero.

I know there's a lot of that going around these days, and to be fair, no one is perfectly good or perfectly evil (or at least they shouldn't be if you're telling a compelling story), but when you're telling a story specifically designed to make the audience relate to a mass murderer, I'm not sure I'm on board with that. Don't get me wrong; I'll see it eventually, because I see every comics-inspired movie eventually. And I may turn out to be completely misguided in my assessment; after all, I can't review a movie I haven't seen. But I did see Birds of Prey in the theater, and I feel the same way about turning Harley Quinn into a protagonist.

To summarize: apparently it's okay to make audiences relate to mass murderers in movies, but gods forbid you depict any character smoking a fucking cigarette; that would be BAD. Also, violence is just fine, but depict acts of love and you can't let CHILDREN see THAT.

ANYway

Don't let the above make you forget that I'm not much of a grouch; I do, actually, have a sense of humor, and that video was goddamned hilarious.

My comments on antagonists notwithstanding, I find the "dark and gritty" trends amusing, for the most part. I mean, Zack Snyder, whose movies I generally like, shouldn't have done that with Superman, but apart from that, hell, give me a dark, gritty remake of, say, Mister Rogers' Neighborhood and I'll watch the SHIT out of that.

"Hello, neighbor. You might have noticed the blood on my cardigan. That's because I was just the victim of a drive-by shooting. Can you say 'drive-by shooting?' I knew you could. Now I'm going to have to call Mr. Ambulance to come pick me up. It might be an hour before they get here because this is the ghetto, so meanwhile I... I... I don't think..." *thud*

Also, can I have an adult-themed drug-fueled dark remake of H.R. Pufnstuf  ? Please and thank you.

Point being, if you're going to combine Sesame Street, Joker, and dark and/or gritty remakes, I'm all over that shit. Saturday Night Live has had its ups and downs over the years, but when it's up, it's spot on.

Now someone just needs to parody SNL itself and we'll have reached Peak Parody.