Google’s next major update for smartphones is here. Android 15 rolled out to Pixel devices on October 15 and will trickle down to countless other devices over the next several months. Android 15 has eschewed visual updates and instead tidies up the interface and improves existing features. It also gets a number of under-the-hood improvements that you may toy with occasionally.
Android 15 packs a host of privacy-centric features, including the excellent new Private Space. Android 15 also brings a big boost to satellite communications, extending the functionality beyond the Pixel lineup. Let’s dive into more details about the availability and new features coming to your phone with Android 15.
As a cheeky trick, Google released Android 15 on October 15 for supported Pixel phones and the Pixel Tablet. All Pixel phones from the Pixel 6 lineup and newer are eligible for the update. Since Pixels make up for a small chunk of the Android space, a large percentage of devices still await their respective Android updates.
As with each year, manufacturers have been adapting their custom skins to Android 15, adding their own custom visuals and features on top. Besides Google, brands such as OnePlus, Oppo, Realme, and Samsung have already previewed their new Android 15-based interfaces. Meanwhile, some other brands such as Motorola, Nothing, Vivo, and Honor have initiated open beta programs for some of their devices where anyone can try the upcoming updates. Xiaomi is the sole big brand that has yet to make any announcement about its Android 15 update.
Google Pixel 9 (left), Pixel 9 Pro, and Pixel 9 Pro FoldAndy Boxall / Digital Trends
Of the phones that can already download the Android 15 update, Google’s Pixel phones top the list. The Android 15 update is already available for the following Google devices:
In addition, a small set of phones, including the Nothing Phone 2a, Vivo X100, and the Vivo X Fold 3 Pro have already received open beta updates based on Android 15. Motorola is also rolling out the beta update for Motorola Edge 2024, but only in certain regions where the phone is known as Edge 50 Fusion.
We shall have more details about other devices in the coming weeks. In the meantime, if you wish to see if your phone qualifies for Android 15, we have a comprehensive list of all the phones that will get Android 15.
With Android 15, Google offers a new way to hide away certain apps and files in a secure vault. Google advertises this as a feature to keep your work and office apps and files separate; it’s like running a phone within a phone — something that previously required specialized apps. Private Space can be an ideal space to tuck away your social media, banking, or dating apps.
Before you can use Private Space, you have to activate and then set it up on your Pixel phone from Settings > Security and privacy > Private space. Google recommends you use a separate email with Private Space. That’s because apps in the vault will exist in a sandboxed environment and can’t interact with the rest of the phone. It is also a good way to secure apps if you are nervous about certain apps stealing your data or abusing Android’s security permissions to access your files.
With Private Space, you can either use your phone’s existing biometrics or set up new ones (including a dedicated fingerprint). This will also be beneficial if you share the device with other people.
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After it is set up, Private Space is accessible from the bottom of the app drawer in the Pixel Launcher, where you can add apps or privately access files. At the moment, Private Space is exclusive to Pixel phones and may not necessarily be available on other phones, since some Android manufacturers already offer some similar solutions. For instance, Samsung has a Secure Folder in One UI. Whether other manufacturers adopt the functionality is likely to become clear in the coming months.
Android 15 also brings Predictive Back, a feature that lets you get a preview of the screen that will load up when swipe from one edge for the back gesture. This is similar to the back gesture on iOS, and feels like revealing the card behind the top one in a deck. The idea is to let users know the previous screen without completing the back gesture so they can avoid it if needed. Google says it “lets the user decide whether to continue—in other words, to ‘commit’ to the back gesture—or stay in the current view.”
Unfortunately, Google’s implementation in its current form feels crude (especially compared to iOS) and only displays a small portion of the previous screen. Another disadvantage is that it currently only works in a very small set of apps — we could only spot them in the Settings app and the app drawer.
We would expect other apps to adopt the functionality but unlike Apple, Google gives developers free rein on which features to implement. So, similar to Material You and adaptive theming, developers may choose to overlook Predictive Back.
Partial Screen Recording on Android 15 lets you screen record contents on your screen selectively. While starting a screen recording, you will be prompted to choose whether you want to record a specific app or the entire screen. If you choose the first option, the screen recording will only include parts from the selected app and black out the section where you weren’t using the app.
This will prevent you from inadvertently leaking any private information through the screen recordings.
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Simultaneously, there’s another hidden feature that lets you bypass restrictions when specific apps, such as your banking app, prevent taking screenshots. You can skirt around these restrictions by heading over to Settings > System > Developer options > Disable screen share protections. If you haven’t used Developer options before, you may need to enable them from the phone’s Settings > About phone, scrolling all the way to the bottom, and then tapping Build number seven times in quick successions.
With the Pixel 9 series that Google announced earlier this year, the company confirmed satellite connectivity as one of the features. Similar to satellite SOS services on relatively newer iPhone and the Apple Watch models, the Pixel 9’s satellite connectivity lets you call emergency services or notify top contacts in case you are ever stranded with no Wi-Fi or cellular service.
Google takes this a step further with Android 15, allowing all phones — besides the Pixel 9 series — to communicate directly with an extraterrestrial satellite. In addition to contacting first responders or alerting chosen contacts, the feature also lets you send messages to just about any phone number.
Google elaborates that any phone with the “proper hardware” will be able to communicate via satellite when necessary. It should supposedly mean phones with modems that support satellite communications, though it’s a little difficult to confirm without proper confirmation from Google.
Google says the feature will depend on carriers, and could possibly happen through special messaging apps that these telcos designate. Though privacy, encryption, and interoperability on these apps are part of a different ball game altogether, we know the functionality will likely not be free of cost. Having long conversations at the expense of artificial celestial bodies will not be economical, so there might be limitations, but these details elude us for now.
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Notably, T-Mobile is the only carrier to have activated satellite connectivity. It recently enabled satellite-based texting in partnership with SpaceX, for all of its users in areas affected by Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton. However, this functionality supposedly worked irrespective of the operating system.
Whether it’s T-Mobile’s lead with the feature or Google promoting it in Android 15, we can expect satellite communications to get the due attention it deserves.
Android has supported multitasking in split-screen mode for palm-sized Android devices since Android 7.0 Nougat that was launched in 2016. Over the years, split-screen functionality has become fairly useful because of larger-than-ever displays and hardware that can actually handle the workloads with two apps running simultaneously.
With app pairs on Android 15, you can save sets of two apps that can be launched together in a split-screen view. App pairs can be saved on the home screen, and you can launch pairs directly by tapping the icon. Some Android tablets already support the feature, but it’s now headed to regular-sized phones.
To save an app pair, you first need to:
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Open two apps simultaneously in split screen.
Open the Recent apps menu.
Tap and hold the apps’ icons.
Tap “Save app pair”.
These app pairs will appear on the home screen, where you can tap the icon to launch the two apps in split view over and over again. These app pairs would not save in the app drawer, so you will need to be wary while purging excess icons from the home screen.
With Android 15, Google plans to reduce the pressure that the barrage of notifications put upon us. For this, Google added a feature aptly known as Notification Cooldown with an objective to prevent the bombardment of notifications.
If you ever receive a string of notifications, the feature will subsequently reduce the volume of alerts so they become less annoying. Continuous pings and dings should no more interrupt your flow of thought while you’re trying to conjure up the perfect witty caption for a picture of your cats romping around their multistoried house.
Notification Cooldown currently only works if you keep the volume on for your ringtone and notification alerts. However, if you prefer your phone steadily in silent mode, Android 15 also adds Adaptive Vibrations, which reduces the intensity of vibration when the phone is still (i.e., not being used actively) and facing upward.
This should ideal prevent you from getting distracted by a string of notifications, especially when the phone is set aside. Pixels also give you the option to put your phone facing downward to send it into Do Not Disturb mode.
Notably, Google has downsized the options with these features as compared to when they were initially launched with Android 15 developer preview. This could indicate the company is working to improve them slightly more before being vocal about them.
When the global pandemic hit, our webcams really found purpose again. For many of us who continue to work from home, webcams are vital. But the potato camera that most of the cheap webcams have can impair the quality of our virtual interactions.
As a solution, Apple released Continuity Camera two years ago, allowing the iPhone to be used as your webcam. Google followed suit last year, and enabled your Android to be used as a wired (not wirelessly, alas!) webcam with any Windows, macOS, Linux, or even ChromeOS machine. With Android 15, the quality is getting a significant boost as Google adds a new “HQ” — referring to high quality — mode for the webcam.
The HQ mode makes your images noticeably sharper without adding any latency to the video feed. You can also use your Android phone for camera-dependent activities, such as streaming, without explicitly relying on expensive hardware.
The functionality was previously also facilitated on Android but through third-party apps. By adding this as a native feature, Google eliminates the need to pay to unlock high-quality and near instant camera feed sent to your PC.
USB Lockdown adds an extra security layer
Tushar Mehta / Digital Trends
Android’s Lockdown feature adds an extra layer of security to your phone by disabling biometrics. So, in case one of your friends or family members tries to use your phone without your permission, they cannot unlock it by just holding it up against your face or fooling you into pressing your finger on the fingerprint scanner. Even if you haven’t paid attention to lockdown, it has been around since Android 9.
With Android 15, Google goes a step further and locks access to file storage while the phone is in lockdown mode. That essentially means that anyone who tries to access your files by connecting the phone to a computer without your permission, they won’t have luck. More importantly, the feature prevents “juice jacking,” or the technique where public chargers are loaded with rogue cables that can be used to covertly steal your data.
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Unfortunately, it doesn’t still tie into the new anti-theft features that Google recently announced for all devices running Android 10 and above. Anti-theft forces your phone to lock when it detects a sudden jerk (similar to the ominous scenario of your phone being yanked out of your hand), but doesn’t fully trigger lockdown mode.
Unused apps can take up space on your phone for no reason, which is why last year Google — presumably, with inspiration from iOS — added a feature that would automatically archive apps that you don’t use when the phone’s storage is running low. While it deletes the app package, all your data remains intact so you can download the app again and can pick up from where you left.
Android 15 augments the feature, now allowing you to manually archive apps they don’t use but aren’t ready to delete just yet. A new Archive button is now present on the info page for particular apps. That’s another way Android raises the bar for iOS.
Viewer numbers and hours watched are both on the rise for Twitch, according to the latest report from StreamElements. This might be due to the rise of September subathons, which many streamers hold to capitalize on the platforms discount on subscription prices. Several members of FaZe Clan held such subathons, with many of them hitting StreamElements’ list of Top 10 Streamers for the month.
According to data from StreamElements’ analytics partner Rainmaker.gg, gamers watched 1.653 billion, slightly below August’s 1.660 billion. However, the daily hours watched was higher than it was in August — 55 million and 54 million, respectively. World of Warcraft and Dota 2 saw large boosts in hours watched, and EA Sports FC 25 debuted in the Top 10 games category
Four out of the top ten streamers for September were members of FaZe Clan, many of whom hosted subathons during the month and each reportedly streamed over 695 hours. StableRonaldo took the crown with 9.7 million hours watched.
Or Perry, CEO of StreamElements, said in a statement, “Twitch experienced two significant highlights in September that fueled each other: a rise in daily hours watched and a reshuffling of its top streamer rankings. Members of FaZe Clan held simultaneous subathons, each lasting over 695 hours, propelling four creators into the top 10 for the first time, with Stableronaldo claiming the crown… FaZeClan members benefited by joining each other on stream, which could bolster the use of features like Stream Together that streamline the collaborative process.”
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More than most genres, survival horror feels rooted in time. It started with the methodical Resident Evil on the original PlayStation and is defined in part by limitation — a slow pace, grimy visuals, and scant resources to help amplify the scares. Many of those elements stemmed from the early, awkward days of 3D gaming, whether it was Resident Evil’s clunky controls, which made zombie chases more terrifying, or Silent Hill’s fog, which lent an iconic atmosphere while also letting the developers get around technical limitations of the time.
And a few decades later, developers are still finding ways to bring the most important elements of those games — namely, the mood and scares — to modern horror without feeling dated.
The most obvious way to do this is keeping the style and tone of classic survival horror while updating the gameplay to make it more approachable. The most recent example of this is Fear the Spotlight, the first release from horror movie studio Blumhouse’s new gaming label. Much like Crow Country and Signalis, it’s a game that looks like it was ripped right out of 1998; the visuals are blocky, the textures low-res. It gives the experience a grimy feel, which is just the right note for horror.
Fear the Spotlight.Image: Blumhouse Games
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Fear the Spotlight — developed by the two-person team at Cozy Game Pals — starts out simple enough, with two friends breaking into their high school to perform a seance in the library. But, of course, things go bad, and they get pulled into a nightmare realm that connects both to their own pasts and a dark mystery the school has been hiding for decades. It’s part coming-of-age story, part romance, and part true crime. But it’s all rendered in the crunchy style of PlayStation-era horror, which lends it an uneasy edge.
The game also lets you really focus on the story by streamlining the gameplay. There’s a lot of puzzle-solving; much like in early Resident Evil games, you’ll be fixing all kinds of complex mechanical problems and dealing with arcane statues and locks. But there’s almost no actual combat. Instead, you have little choice but to run and hide when the terrifying monsters appear. Some of the scariest moments of the game have you huddled under a desk, waiting for the creatures — which have deadly spotlights for faces — to pass.
In some ways, removing combat makes the game even scarier since you have no way to fight back. These moments in Fear the Spotlight reminded me a bit of stowing away in a locker in Alien: Isolation, hoping the xenomorph couldn’t see me. The hazy, dirty visuals only amplify this feeling, as it’s often difficult to get a clear view of what’s ahead of you.
Silent Hill 2.Image: Konami
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On the other side of the spectrum is the recent remake of Silent Hill 2. Instead of creating a brand-new survival horror experience with modern sensibilities, it’s an attempt to take one of the genre’s most influential titles — a particularly idiosyncratic one at that — and reimagine it as a big-budget release in 2024. That has pros and cons. Like the remakes of classic ResidentEvil games and the original Dead Space, Silent Hill 2 looks and plays like a modern release. The visuals are crisp and detailed, instead of hazy and disorienting. And it controls like a well-tuned third-person action game. It’s immensely satisfying to swing a bat, whether you’re smashing in windows or fending off a living mannequin.
There’s a shift in tone. The modern Silent Hill 2 is still scary. The level of realism makes the squirming enemies and cramped hotel hallways feel incredibly unsettling, and there’s a level of immersion that can be panic-inducing. But now it plays and feels like a lot of other games and is, for lack of a better word, a lot cleaner than the original. It’s no longer as weird and distinct. It reminds me a bit of the 2018 remake of Shadow of the Colossus: a cover song that doesn’t replace the original but provides a different way of looking at it, one that’s welcoming for newcomers. (If only Konami made the original Silent Hill 2 more accessible.)
The point is, these games show there is still plenty of room to do interesting things with survival horror. And they do it in a way that both connected to the genre’s history without being stifled by it. More importantly: they find new ways to scare.
Fear the Spotlight and Silent Hill 2 are both available now.
Samsung has used advanced computer modeling to accelerate the development of Selector-Only Memory (SOM), a new memory technology that combines non-volatility with DRAM-like read/write speeds and stackability.
Building on the company’s earlier research in the field, SOM is based on cross-point memory architectures, similar to phase-change memory and resistive RAM (RRAM), where stacked arrays of electrodes are used. Typically, these architectures require a selector transistor or diode to address specific memory cells and prevent unintended electrical pathways.
Samsung has taken a novel approach by exploring chalcogenide-based materials that function as both the selector and the memory element, introducing a new form of non-volatile memory.
A broader search
eeNews Analog reports Samsung researchers will present their findings at this year’s International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM), taking place from December 7 to 11, in San Francisco. The South Korean tech giant will discuss how it screened an extensive range of chalcogenide materials for SOM applications.
Samsung says its study explored over 4,000 material combinations, narrowing them down to 18 promising candidates using Ab-initio-based computer modeling (see the diagram at the top of the page). The focus was on improving threshold voltage drift and optimizing the memory window – two key factors in SOM performance.
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Traditional SOM research has been limited to the use of Ge, As, and Se chalcogenide systems found in ovonic threshold switches (OTS). However, Samsung says its comprehensive modeling process allowed for a broader search, considering bonding characteristics, thermal stability, and device reliability to enhance performance and efficiency.
In a follow-up IEDM presentation, eeNews Analog reports, IMEC researchers will discuss potential atomic mechanisms, such as local atomic bond rearrangement and atomic segregation, that could explain how the selector component in SOM operates, further influencing threshold voltage – an important factor in memory performance.
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The online gaming industry in India has been on a transformational journey with a promising growth trajectory, despite regulatory ambiguities and a high tax rate. Not only has it been a major contributor to the broader media & entertainment space but has also become an integral component of the Animation, Visual Effects, Gaming & Comics (AVGC) sector in India, drawing significant government support, with many states crafting their own AVGC policies to give a boost to the sector.
With over 1,400 homegrown online gaming companies, India’s online gaming sector is uniquely positioned to support the goals of our country’s economic growth ambitions, attract large foreign investments, generate sizeable employment, and spur innovation. Consequently, it has the potential and the necessary elements to become a global supplier and establish itself to become India’s soft power on the global front.
India hosts the second-largest community of gamers globally and has become a popular choice in the entertainment sector, which clearly reflects a transformative shift in the entertainment consumption pattern. With this being said, the online gaming industry goes beyond the premises of entertainment; it opens up opportunities in various other allied industries such as UI/UX design, data engineering, development, programming, testing, sales, branding & marketing, etc. It also fuels innovation in emerging sectors like AI/ML, cybersecurity & cloud, and fintech.
Currently, this sector alone provides over 1 lakh jobs to the skilled workforce of the country and is expected to add 1.5 lakh more by 2025. Further, with only 31% of the rural population using the internet compared to 67% of urban residents, as per the India Inequality Report 2022, there is a significant economic opportunity to increase internet access and digital inclusion in rural areas.
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A recent report by the EGROW foundation and Primus Partners states that there has been a 20-fold increase in the workforce between 2018-2023, with a 97.56% compounding annual growth rate. In terms of workforce participation, the industry has significant male participation and was mostly viewed as a male-dominant industry for the longest time. But what truly stands out is the evolving gender dynamics in this space, with female workforce participation far outpacing male workforce participation, achieving a massive 103.15% CAGR in the same period.
Moreover, there has been a steady increase in female participation in gaming. As of 2022, about 43% of women engaged in online gaming daily, with most female participation from non-metro cities.Furthermore, the sector not only recognizes the contribution that women bring to the creative and business processes but also fosters a more inclusive environment for them to thrive. This is evident in the surge in female gaming content creators and streamers in the country.
The findings of the report also highlight the sector’s contribution to the AVGC industry, which is projected to rise 68% by 2026. The government has provided much-needed impetus to the industry by charting out a forward-looking path, constituting a task force, and setting up the first National Centre of Excellence solely dedicated to the AVGC industry.
However, for the industry to thrive and enter the next phase of growth, the government must come out with a national AVGC policy that has been in the works for some time.
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Despite the tremendous growth seen by the industry, certain concerns pertaining to excessive screen time, addiction and financial fraud remain. This becomes even more critical in the context of teenagers and young adults who need to be made aware of responsible gaming practices. In this regard, the recent installation of ‘Beware of Smartphone Zombies’ signboards in Bengaluru is a stark reminder of the growing epidemic of digital distraction. While some of these concerns are being addressed by the industry, more can be done to safeguard vulnerable consumers. For instance, to limit exposure to screen time and mitigate financial risk for the consumer, features such as time limits, monetary limitations and exclusions have been introduced by several gaming platforms with the aid of technology.
Further online gaming platforms often require personal information such as name, age, contact details, and in case of real money gaming, also financial information. With this comes the risk of data breaches and related concerns such as identity theft leading to financial fraud. In this context, Know Your Customer (KYC) procedures play a critical role in helping protect both consumers as well as businesses from fraud. Further, online gaming intermediaries are required to process and store digital personal and non-personal data in compliance with the applicable data protection laws of India. However, until the Digital Personal Data Protection Act comes into force, this remains a voluntary effort.
Last but not the least, a sector which holds substantial economic promise deserves regulatory backing and clarity. For much of its existence, the industry has operated self-sufficiently, wherein the collective efforts of the industry have led the way for a more robust, responsible, and accountable ecosystem. However, regulatory ambiguities and uncertainties have time and again created roadblocks for Indian gaming startups, and therefore, it is necessary that regulatory clarity be provided, and as a first step, the amended IT rules be implemented.
With an encouraging regulatory environment, the online gaming industry, which has seen a 27.45% CAGR between 2019 to 2022, in its contribution towards the country’s GDP, can further enhance India’s growth story and solidify its position as a disrupter in the global gaming landscape.
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(The author is a Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha, and former Minister of State for GAD, Education, Health, Maharashtra).
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of THE WEEK.
Venom: The Last DanceSony Pictures / Sony Pictures
Mark Millar’s limited series Wanted, loosely adapted in 2008 into an atrocious movie, imagined a dystopian world where all the superheroes are dead and the supervillains have won. That’s kind of how the multiplex feels right now. Comic-book cinema, which towered over the competition a mere five years ago (it reached its popular peak in 2019, the year of Avengers: Endgame and Joker), has entered a state of ongoing commercial decline. Capes and cowls are no longer a sure thing at the box office; increasingly, it feels like we’ve stepped into a post-superhero age. And in the absence of the virtuously costumed, it’s supervillains — and antiheroes — who have fought for dominance over the screens of 2024.
This weekend, for example, marks the theatrical return of Venom, the erstwhile Spider-Man arch-nemesis, again divorced of any relationship to Marvel’s friendly neighborhood web-slinger. Venom: The Last Dance, which just opened in theaters everywhere, rounds out a whole trilogy of starring vehicles for Tom Hardy’s take on hapless journalist Eddie Brock and the trash-talking, long-tongued extraterrestrial who’s made a home inside his bulky body.
Warner Bros.
Need another fix of bad? The Last Dance arrives on the heels of Joker: Folie à Deux, the majorly underperforming musical sequel to Todd Phillips’ origin story for the most infamous madman from Batman’s gallery of rogues, the Clown Prince of Crime. And it anticipates another Sony spotlight for a Spidey foe, Kraven the Hunter, which is due this Christmas and belongs to the same weird, misbegotten franchise of Spider-Man movies without Spider-Man as the Venom series and this past spring’s baffling bit-player flop Madame Web. Hell, even the one bona fide comic-book-movie hit of the year, Deadpool & Wolverine, stars a character who began his fictional life as a villain, a quipping adversary of various X teams.
Not so long ago, any of these characters getting their very own movie would have been inconceivable. The mere existence of Kraven the Hunter is proof of how deeply Hollywood bought into the lie that anything Marvel- or DC-related could be a giant hit. Starring vehicles for supervillains feels like the natural next step (or maybe the last step, the point of termination) for a cash-cow genre that’s looked to back issues and more obscure corners of comicdom for available source material. You don’t get this year’s crop of bad-guy spectacles without the previous decade’s experiments in making second stringers into A-listers. There would likely be no Venom trilogy without the success of Guardians of the Galaxy or Suicide Squad.
Marvel Comics
To some extent, superhero cinema has worked back around to the ’90s, when the genre was basically Batman sequels and adaptations of cult comics like The Crow and Tank Girl and Judge Dredd. That was also the era when the big two publishers were lining up their own starring vehicles for the heavies of their respective universes. Again, Venom and Deadpool were both villains before they proved popular enough to get the antihero makeover, and to headline their own limited and ongoing series. In truth, this was always kind of a letdown. Venom, that slobbering rage monster, made for a pretty scary Spidey rival. Softening him into an “edgy” vigilante, a so-called “lethal enforcer,” was a waste of a good adversary.
Sony Pictures
This year’s unlikely supervillain movies suffer from a similar problem. They soften and brighten characters whose whole appeal was their rough edges and their darkness. The Venom movies are not without their pleasures, most of them courtesy of Hardy’s valiant effort to forge a screwball buddy comedy out of the symbiotic relationship between Eddie and his alien guest. But Venom has always been cooler as a villain, a vengeful anti-Spider-Man, and the movies never approach the fearsomeness that made him such a popular character in the first place. Imagine flashing back to 1988 and telling a reader that not only would Venom one day get his own trilogy of movies but that he’d be reduced to a one-man Midnight Run, a glorified mismatched-partner routine.
Likewise, Joker: Folie à Deux buys so fully into the idea that Joaquin Phoenix’s Arthur Fleck is a misunderstood misfit — destined for infamy only because he was abandoned by the system — that it leeches the character of all his psychotic power. You don’t have to be an incensed fanboy to recognize that turning the Joker into a pitiable sadsack is a delating approach to one of the most flavorfully outsized villains in all of comics. And if Deadpool has been a superhero for a lot longer than he was a supervillain, it’s still odd to see his trilogy of movies undercut their anarchic, sarcastic spirit with warm-and-fuzzies. Who was clamoring for a Deadpool with big feels? Are we really supposed to care about the crime-fighting dreams of a psychotic assassin who breaks the fourth wall at every opportunity?
Marvel Studios
The Venom and Joker films — along with Suicide Squad and Morbius and one must presume the forthcoming Kraven the Hunter — run into the same daunting obstacle, which is that it’s hard to build a conventional movie around characters that work best in opposition to the superhero, as a distorting mirror or foil or hurdle. All of them get around that problem by essentially turning their villains into more virtuous, upstanding, or even conflicted versions of themselves… which ends up violating what’s special about them. It’s actually hard to imagine a Venom or Joker movie that embraced the more twisted (or #twisted) aspects of either, because where would the rooting interest lie? You’d have something like The Fly or Natural Born Killers — which, no, that sounds pretty good, actually. What we got instead was de facto superhero movies in supervillain drag.
Sony
These films evoke the grimdark ’90s in another way, one that should be much less comforting for studio executives. That decade wasn’t just the era when comics were locked in an arms race of excessive edginess, with both Marvel and DC — along with Image, a publisher that was edginess all the time — pushing superheroes into the ethically cloudy arena of antiheroism. It was also a time of boom and bust for the comics industry, when an explosion of big sales and collector investment earlier in the decade lead to a rapid decline in interest, culminating in Marvel filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy at the end of 1996. Maybe superhero cinema is following a similar trajectory, sputtering out with a run of stories for the tortured bad boys of their roster. At the end of the parade, the rapscallions briefly take the spotlight.
But in the words of one of the genre’s biggest and best hits, maybe the night is darkest before the dawn. Which is to say, maybe there’s a glimmer of something brighter on the horizon, past these (mostly unsuccessful) flirtations with the dark side of the superhero industrial complex. The bad guys had their moment this year. Don’t be surprised if the medium’s most iconic character, a man who puts the super in superhero, kicks off a comeback for the good guys next year.
Venom: The Last Dance is now playing in theaters everywhere. Joker: Folie à Deux is playing in a dwindling number of theaters everywhere. For more of A.A. Dowd’s writing, visit his Authory page.
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