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Oh, yes, all caps for this flick! What a great week for a geek like me! Joker gets released and the DC Universe just announced a call for scripts and ideas (check out my other thread in 'contests').
No Spoilers!
Joker is a serious and dark take on Gotham and society as a whole. This is no fairy tale and could be happening as I write this. Just an absolute brilliant take on the Joker origin story. If Ledger got an Oscar for his portrayal, Phoenix is destined for the podium!
I grew up in NJ and they portrayed Gotham just how I remember NYC as a kid in the late '70's. Garbage strike and all.
Could have been so much more. The idea was there. Aesthetically it was there. The cast was good. However, the movie was pretty straight-forward. It is what you pretty much expect it to be.
The movie could have been much more interesting if they didn't make the Joker to be so much of a victim.
Incredible Central performance, legendary cinematography and a really bold and interesting journey that was both tragic and comedic, disturbing and inspirational.
Incredible Central performance, legendary cinematography and a really bold and interesting journey that was both tragic and comedic, disturbing and inspirational.
Never thought I would hear that about a Todd Phillips flick. Gotta check this out.
Gotta admit, I'm increasingly intrigued by this one. I had absolutely no interest at first, from the initial announcement up to and including the trailer (Joaquin Phoenix notwithstanding); I've had enough of superheroes and all things related, even "darker"/more adult takes like The Boys. My interest was piqued when the controversy and comparisons to Scorsese/King of Comedy started to roll in. I didn't even realize The King of Comedy was a thing to anybody, but the plot sounds terrific and an oddly specific/random thing to be compared to (need to watch ASAP).
Since then, I've heard many a great thing from my personal go-to critics/Internet personalities -- folks who wouldn't normally be into this sorta thing. The negative reviews have largely painted it as something I'd really like to see, despite the intention usually being the opposite. Seems very polarizing and imperfect, but a lot of the best stuff is. I think I've got reasonable expectations at this point. I'm expecting something like Watchmen: bleak, gruesome, and entertaining but surface-level and subtely-free despite much reaching (with the director bearing the brunt of scrutiny)... could be a bit of fun.
That said, I'll wait to catch it at home. Flick is 2 hours plus 20-30 minutes of (mostly) bad trailers. Not trying to sink my weekend on another okay-ish franchise film that's longer than it needs to be. But I'm interested.
The Villain's Journey has arrived! Joker takes the hero's arc and reverses it. The story is good, could be better, but what ultimately raises this is to epic is Joaquin Phoenix's amazing performance.
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Get it while you can! It was posted on a certain site a week or so ago and then pulled in a flash, so it might not last... Unless it makes Awards season nominees.
Get it while you can! It was posted on a certain site a week or so ago and then pulled in a flash, so it might not last... Unless it makes Awards season nominees.
Nope - misses for me. Yes, Joaquin is amazing - kudos for the performance. I just felt the story was a bit empty - Joker starts at the near bottom and descends further.
My main grips as an origin story as I can't imagine how this particular character would ever evolve to the arch villain Joker. He has little physical ability, no mental acuity, no special talents. I think he needed to be a brilliant dude that devolved.
I loved it but agree with Dave that I can’t see where this Joker goes on to become an arfch-villain... but that’s completely fine for me as I see this as a one-off and totally stand alone drama.
Nope - misses for me. Yes, Joaquin is amazing - kudos for the performance. I just felt the story was a bit empty - Joker starts at the near bottom and descends further.
My main grips as an origin story as I can't imagine how this particular character would ever evolve to the arch villain Joker. He has little physical ability, no mental acuity, no special talents. I think he needed to be a brilliant dude that devolved.
Each to their own, but I feel that you're bringing in false expectations and judging the film based on what you wanted it to be, rather than what it is.
It's called Joker, not The Joker. Who says he's the actual Joker? And who says the actual Joker is even one person?
Nobody knows "The Joker's" real name or his real origin, that's part of the fun.
His most common name is Jack Napier, but he often says in the comics that he can't remember his own past and he prefers it to be multiple choice.
He's been John Doe, Jack Napier and Melvin Reipan (Napier backwards), and now Arthur Fleck.
In the comics it's frequently the real joker who kills the Waynes...it wasn't Fleck who did that in this movie. It was a random guy in a clown mask...was that the actual Joker?
As Philips himself said: “Maybe Joaquin’s character inspired the Joker,” Phillips said. “You don’t really know.”
I also think a lot of people are missing some essential things:
1. Whether any of the events even happened at all, or whether it was all a King of Comedy type delusion and he's been in a mental hospital the whole time.
2. The central point that everything is perspective.
What's funny and what's not is entirely subjective. What some find offensive or even terrifying, to someone else can be hilarious.
It's the same with the idea he descended further. From whose perspective? From, our 'normal' perspective he's gone insane, but from other people's perspective he's a hero.
That was the real genius of the story, for me. It was a very truthful appraisal of violence. Of its power to make impotence itself impotent. All you have to do to get respect is smash someone's head in....and if enough of you do it, you become the Kings and rulers and you get to impose your perspective on people. That is the joke.