The Penguinshows just how to get a villain story right, which the other high-profile recentDCrelease,Joker: Folie à Deux, did not.The Batmanhas become one of the Dark Knight’s best films. Due to the movie’s success, director Matt Reeves received carte blanche to develop spinoffs and build out the world of his franchise.The Penguin’s cast of charactersisled by Colin Farrell’s return as Oz Cobb, and the villain thrives as the protagonist for a change.
Another major DC villain recently returned to live-action.Joaquin Phoenix won the Best Actor Oscar for 2019’sJoker, which broke the $1 billion mark and was the highest-grossing R-rated film of all time for years. That led to the release of a sequel, which was expected to be successful, butJoker: Folie à Deuxbombed at the box office. The movie had many issues, andThe Penguinshows what theJokersequel lacked.
10The Penguin Makes You Care About The Characters
The DC Series Boasts Impressive Talent
While Farrell’s Oz Cobb is the show’s main character,The Penguinmanages to treat its diverse roster of players in a similar way. After debuting inThe Batman, this version of the Penguin is further developed in his HBO series. Oz Cobb turns out to be a fascinating character whose interesting traits gofar beyond his use as comedic relief inThe Batman.
Theo Rossi
Dr. Julian Rush
The DC series' nuanced take on Oz Cobb extends to all of its characters, with Carmine Falcone, Victor Aguilar, Sofia Falcone, and more getting their backstories and motivations explained in insightful ways.Joker: Folie à Deuxdiffers fromThe Penguinin that regard. WhilePhoenix once again delivers an excellent performance as Arthur Fleck, theJokersequel does little to make the audience care or connect to any other character that appears in the film.
9The Penguin Is As Interested In The World As It Is In The Story
The Show’s Gotham City Feels Alive
Gotham City is integral toThe Penguin. The HBO series does a great job of making the iconic comic book location feel like a character in its own right, whichThe Batmanhad also achieved before. As Oz Cobb tries to take over Gotham’s underworld,The Penguinshows the issues that have plagued the city’s population for decades, also touching on the huge impact of the Riddler flooding Gotham inThe Batman’s ending.
The Batman’s Spin-Off Just Nailed The Dark Truth Of Gotham In Four Words
The Batman’s first spinoff has completely described what makes Gotham City what it is in a simple but effective way, and The Penguin is better for it.
2019’sJokeralso used Gotham in a key way, showing how the city and its citizens contributed to Arthur Fleck reaching his limit and becoming the Joker. However,Joker: Folie à Deuxdoes not do much with that element, as the filmalmost entirely takes place at Arkham or Gotham’s courthouse. The world was not used to enhance the film’s core story this time around.
8The Penguin’s Oz Cobb Is A Real Villain Unlike Joker 2’s Arthur Fleck
Joker: Folie À Deux Shows Arthur Is Not A Villain
The main reasonThe Penguinworks as a villain story whileJoker: Folie à Deuxfails is because Colin Farrell’s Oz Cobb is a true villain, whereas Joaquin Phoenix’s Arthur Fleck is not. The HBO series makes it clear thatwhile Oz is the protagonist, he is not a good guy. The audience might root for Oz to rise to power, as he presents his motivations, but he will kill and betray whoever he needs to get there.
Joker: Folie à Deux’s ending sees Arthur get killed by the real Joker, his successor.
While the first Joker film made it seem like Arthur Fleck had fully become Gotham’s Clown Prince of Crime, that was not true. Most of the sequel follows Arthur as he wrestles with his two identities. By the end of the film, he realizes thathe was never the Joker, just Arthur, someone hurt so much that they lashed out, not a villain.Joker: Folie à Deux’s endingsees Arthur get killed by the real Joker, his successor.
7The Penguin Has Impactful Action Scenes
Joker: Folie À Deux Offers Few Thrills
Joker: Folie à Deuxseemed like it was embarrassed to be a comic book movie, andreports about director Todd Phillipsconfirm that he was never interested in that label. After presenting the Joker’s rise in the first film, the sequel delivered a more psychological story. Gone were most of the action scenes seen in the original, with Phoenix’s Arthur Fleck not even killing anyone in the movie.
Joaquin Phoenix’s Arthur Fleck killed six characters inJokerand none inJoker: Folie à Deux.
The Joker is one of Batman’s most violent villains, so to have him go a full movie without murdering someone shows thatJoker: Folie à Deuxwas never really interested in telling a story about the villain. On the other hand,The Penguinhas no fear of making its biggest characters as violent as they should be. Oz burns two people alive, and Sofia Falcone kills her whole family, with the two remaining as popular as ever with fans despite the brutal nature of their actions.
6The Penguin Builds On What Came Before
The Joker Sequel Fights With The First Film
The Penguinfeels like the perfect bridge betweenThe Batmanand thestory forThe Batman - Part II.The DC show takes place a week after the Riddler flooded Gotham. That catastrophic event, Carmine Falcone’s death, and more plotlines fromThe Batmanheavily impact the story of the series. Oz Cobb in the show follows the natural trajectory of the character presented inThe Batman.
The same cannot be said forJoker: Folie à Deuxand the way it ended Arthur Fleck’s story. Arthur’s arc in the sequelgoes directly opposite his development in 2019’sJoker. That movie ended with the Clown Prince of Crime being crowned, only for the sequel to throw all of that away and present a real Joker instead. There is a disconnect between who Arthur is in both films, and that hurts the sequel.
5The Penguin’s Story Does Not Feel Superfluous
The DC Show Was A Necessary Next Step
The Penguinoffers the perfect example of a spinoff that manages to take the best aspects of the original project to continue a part of that world in a satisfying way. With Carmine Falcone’s death at the end ofThe Batman,someone had to rise to become the boss of Gotham City’s underworld.The Penguintells that story, continuing Oz Cobb’s arc and presenting many complex characters and relationships, makingThe Batmaneven better by association.
Joker: Folie à Deuxdoes the opposite.The firstJokerfilm worked perfectly as a self-contained story. There was simply no need for a sequel other than to attempt to repeat the original’s major box office.Joker’s ending worked as the birth of the Batman villain, but in making a sequel, DC put out a flimsy story that failed to excite and ended up tearing down what the first film accomplished.
4The Penguin Makes DC Characters Better
Joker: Folie À Deux Failed Two Major Batman Villains
The idea of doing a movie or TV show focused on a villain has to delve deeper into what makes the character tick. In that regard, bothThe PenguinandJoker: Folie à Deuxdid a great job, as Oz Cobb and Arthur Fleck’s mindframes and motivations are worked on in their respective projects. However,when it comes to the Joker side of Arthur, his film dropped the ball.
While Arthur Fleck is an interesting character, he isnot nearly as exciting to follow as DC Comics' Joker. On the other hand,The Penguinis doing wonders to try to make its versions of characters from the comics like Oz Cobb and Sofia Falcone the best versions of them.Joker: Folie à Deuxdid not manage to do that with Phoenix’s Joker or Lady Gaga’s Harley Quinn. The latter did not appear enough and was not even close to the exciting dynamic brought byMargot Robbie’s version of Harley.
3The Penguin Thrives Even Without A Hero To Fight
Batman Is Not Needed For The DC Series To Work
One of the main reasons thatThe Penguinworks as a villain story is thatBatman is not neededfor it to be exciting. A DC hero is not required to make the story work, as watching Oz lie and kill his way to the top of the criminal world is just as entertaining as his interactions with Robert Pattinson’s Dark Knight inThe Batmanwere.
The Evidence Is Mounting That Robert Pattinson’s Batman Has Quit Gotham City
The Batman - Part II’s story has yet to be revealed; however, The Penguin makes it seem like Robert Pattinson’s Batman has left Gotham City.
That said,Joker: Folie à Deuxdid not in any way present a story that would have been as exhilarating or compelling as if it had shown Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker going up against a version of Batman. That could never happen in the film’s world, asJokerrevealed that Bruce Wayne was still a child, with his parents being killed at the end of the movie. Without Batman, a proper Joker story, or a more engaging psychological exploration of the character like in the firstJoker, the sequel turned out dull.
2The Penguin Knows What It Wants To Be
Joker: Folie À Deux’s Genre Choice Made Little Sense
The Penguin’s tone fits the dark and gritty world the DC series takes place in. The show is a fine addition to director Matt Reeves' The Batman Epic Crime Saga. The HBO series makes the most of its tone with violent action, mature themes, and more, delivering a story thatfeels visually and tonally in line with what is expected from a story of Oz’s rise to power in Gotham.
Joker: Folie à Deuxmade the baffling choice ofusing a musical to tell the Batman villain’s story. The film never managed to prove itself exciting for those who wanted to watch a classic Joker story, fans of the fresh spin on the character from the first film, or those who enjoy musicals. TheJokersequel ended up being brought down by director Todd Phillips' vision. Without gripping action, more than one compelling character, or exciting musical sequences,Joker: Folie à Deuxnever had a clear identity.
1The Penguin Lets Its Villain Bounce Back
Joker 2 Never Does The Same For Arthur Fleck
Superhero projects often follow a formula, with the hero fighting their main villain at least once, being defeated, but later winning and saving the day. That concept should not be lost in a villain project, as overcoming difficulties is what leads to a character’s transformative and iconic moments often.The Penguinunderstands that assignment.
The show’s story is essentially aboutOz and Sofia proving those who doubted them wrong, with Oz killing someone who mocked him right in the first episode.Joker: Folie à Deuxsees Arthur kicked while he is down — figuratively and literally — by Arkham prison guards. While the first movie saw the Joker rise in cathartic moments after Arthur endured abuse, the sequel never does the same. All of those factors combine to explain whyThe Penguinworks as a villain story andJoker: Folie à Deuxdoes not.
The Penguin
Cast
Created by Lauren LeFranc, The Penguin is a crime-drama spin-off television series of 2022’s film The Batman. Set shortly after the events of The Batman, Oz Cobb, A.K.A. the Penguin, begins his rise in the underworld of Gotham City as he contends with the daughter of his late boss, Carmine Falcone, for control of the crime family’s empire.
Joker: Folie a Deux
Joker: Folie à Deux is the sequel to Todd Phillips' critically acclaimed comic book thriller Joker. Reprising his Academy Award-winning performance as the failed comedian Arthur Fleck, Joaquin Phoenix revisits the iconic DC character alongside Lady Gaga, who makes her debut as Joker’s lover Harley Quinn in this standalone continuity of the DC Universe.
