** Last and final warning. There are MAJOR specific spoilers in this thread. Keep reading at your own choice! **
Saw the new Joker movie last night with my good friends. The theater was great, we had perfect seats in the middle, with full reclining seats and everything. Unfortunately, one of the BIGGEST reasons I hate going to the movies was in full effect. The noise people make while the movie is playing irritates me to NO end. Rattling a bag as loudly as possible, constantly, for 3 minute intervals, really is the most douche canoe thing you can do in a theater. Not to mention occasionally the talkers, people who get up and are apparently godzilla with keychains hopping down the aisle seemingly TRYING to make the most noise as possible. It’s insanely distracting to me. I had to actually yell “just open the fucking bag” at one point, and that was the most tame I could possibly be.
ANYYYWAY, sorry had to vent real quick.
The movie was phenomenal. My expectations were destroyed. I was expecting it to be dark because that’s all I heard. But in my head that just meant Joker being Joker. Ya know, stirring the pot, robbing places, killing, ya know, criminal behavior. I wasn’t expecting a true origin story. Yes I know it was marketed as an origin story, but I was expecting it to actually be a true origin story. And it was. It takes you to before Joker really became the Joker. It shows you his life before the “transformation”. Some small backstory from other times in his life as well. But mainly what made him ultimately go from a normalish dude with a mental illness, to an insane mass murdering psychopath that we all know and love today.
The portrayal of Arthur Fleck (Joker) was done with such realism and veracity. It did not feel like a comic book movie AT ALL, like not even a little bit. Felt like a dark drama, which is pretty much what it was. It takes you through a lot of emotions. It’s hard to make a known villain the protagonist of a movie, which is probably a big reason something like this is almost never done. You can’t have the audience relate to him and side with him completely and throughout the entire movie. You have to sorta tow the line of “I get why he’s this way and why he’s doing what he’s doing, but he’s clearly psychotic and needs serious help”. And they accomplished that beautifully in this movie. Joaquin Phoenix’s portrayal of Joker was masterful. For me, nothing will ever be able to top Heath Ledgers performance of the Joker, it’s impossible. I just thought Heath’s portrayal was perfect, can never get better than perfect. But Joaquin made it his own. He didn’t copy anyone, his Joker is unique. I’m Sure he took inspirations from other Joker portrayals, but that’s what everyone does for any role or even movie really. Everyone is inspired by someone. Basically, Joaquin did the best Joker possible without Heath being in this world. This is just my opinion, of course.
The story telling of having the audience experience what Arthur was experiencing in his mind with the girl and other instances was brilliant. We all thought the girl was really there and into him and all that. Well, I’m sure some of you, like myself, had their suspicions. But it was done so subtly it wasn’t a big thing you were focusing on. The reveal of all this was amazingly done as well.
The intense realism of the violence was, believe it or not, refreshing. Especially considering it IS a movie based on a comic book character from the DC Universe. Sometimes it’s just satisfying to see violence portrayed as it actually happens in real life. No cut aways, no cheap camera tricks, no sugar coating it. Just real and raw, and amazing.
The part where he kills the big guy in his apartment was incredible, probably my favorite scene. Because on one hand you have this very real, terrifying murder that you just witnessed right before your eyes take place, but the comedy aspect of the midget being in the room was also once again a brilliant move. And when he went to the door and couldn’t reach the lock to get out and needed Joker’s help to leave? Perfect, and actually genuinely hilarious. You felt a little bad for laughing considering Joker just murdered a dude in cold blood, and the fact of why you’re laughing, but that just made it even funnier, at least to me. A beautiful duality of shock and awe, and another beautiful duality of anger and happiness all in one scene.
The amount of emotions you tackle in this movie is unreal. I don’t think it ever grips you enough for tears to start falling, but that’s not quite what I mean anyway.
I have much more to say, and some speculation about the ending, but I’ll wait to see if anyone even responds to this first so we can get some discussion going.
What were y’alls thoughts? Did you like it? Love it? Not sure how you feel about it? Hated it? I would love to know what y’all thought on this one!
Saw the new Joker movie last night with my good friends. The theater was great, we had perfect seats in the middle, with full reclining seats and everything. Unfortunately, one of the BIGGEST reasons I hate going to the movies was in full effect. The noise people make while the movie is playing irritates me to NO end. Rattling a bag as loudly as possible, constantly, for 3 minute intervals, really is the most douche canoe thing you can do in a theater. Not to mention occasionally the talkers, people who get up and are apparently godzilla with keychains hopping down the aisle seemingly TRYING to make the most noise as possible. It’s insanely distracting to me. I had to actually yell “just open the fucking bag” at one point, and that was the most tame I could possibly be.
ANYYYWAY, sorry had to vent real quick.
The movie was phenomenal. My expectations were destroyed. I was expecting it to be dark because that’s all I heard. But in my head that just meant Joker being Joker. Ya know, stirring the pot, robbing places, killing, ya know, criminal behavior. I wasn’t expecting a true origin story. Yes I know it was marketed as an origin story, but I was expecting it to actually be a true origin story. And it was. It takes you to before Joker really became the Joker. It shows you his life before the “transformation”. Some small backstory from other times in his life as well. But mainly what made him ultimately go from a normalish dude with a mental illness, to an insane mass murdering psychopath that we all know and love today.
The portrayal of Arthur Fleck (Joker) was done with such realism and veracity. It did not feel like a comic book movie AT ALL, like not even a little bit. Felt like a dark drama, which is pretty much what it was. It takes you through a lot of emotions. It’s hard to make a known villain the protagonist of a movie, which is probably a big reason something like this is almost never done. You can’t have the audience relate to him and side with him completely and throughout the entire movie. You have to sorta tow the line of “I get why he’s this way and why he’s doing what he’s doing, but he’s clearly psychotic and needs serious help”. And they accomplished that beautifully in this movie. Joaquin Phoenix’s portrayal of Joker was masterful. For me, nothing will ever be able to top Heath Ledgers performance of the Joker, it’s impossible. I just thought Heath’s portrayal was perfect, can never get better than perfect. But Joaquin made it his own. He didn’t copy anyone, his Joker is unique. I’m Sure he took inspirations from other Joker portrayals, but that’s what everyone does for any role or even movie really. Everyone is inspired by someone. Basically, Joaquin did the best Joker possible without Heath being in this world. This is just my opinion, of course.
The story telling of having the audience experience what Arthur was experiencing in his mind with the girl and other instances was brilliant. We all thought the girl was really there and into him and all that. Well, I’m sure some of you, like myself, had their suspicions. But it was done so subtly it wasn’t a big thing you were focusing on. The reveal of all this was amazingly done as well.
The intense realism of the violence was, believe it or not, refreshing. Especially considering it IS a movie based on a comic book character from the DC Universe. Sometimes it’s just satisfying to see violence portrayed as it actually happens in real life. No cut aways, no cheap camera tricks, no sugar coating it. Just real and raw, and amazing.
The part where he kills the big guy in his apartment was incredible, probably my favorite scene. Because on one hand you have this very real, terrifying murder that you just witnessed right before your eyes take place, but the comedy aspect of the midget being in the room was also once again a brilliant move. And when he went to the door and couldn’t reach the lock to get out and needed Joker’s help to leave? Perfect, and actually genuinely hilarious. You felt a little bad for laughing considering Joker just murdered a dude in cold blood, and the fact of why you’re laughing, but that just made it even funnier, at least to me. A beautiful duality of shock and awe, and another beautiful duality of anger and happiness all in one scene.
The amount of emotions you tackle in this movie is unreal. I don’t think it ever grips you enough for tears to start falling, but that’s not quite what I mean anyway.
I have much more to say, and some speculation about the ending, but I’ll wait to see if anyone even responds to this first so we can get some discussion going.
What were y’alls thoughts? Did you like it? Love it? Not sure how you feel about it? Hated it? I would love to know what y’all thought on this one!
