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The Official “Joker” Thread?


Rick N. Backer
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No one has started a thread about this already?

 

I loved it. It’s really only a DC movie for about 20 minutes. The other 100 are a deep dive into how a severely mentally ill person deals with a society of distressingly unkind people. Phoenix should get best actor IMO. He’s not the hero of the movie, and people won’t quote him the way they (OK, I) quote Heath Ledger. He does however evoke your sympathy, and when he becomes violent, you shake your head at how unfortunate it is that he ended up where he does.

 

If you’re going for a super hero movie, I think you’ll be disappointed. If you liked One Flew Over the Cuckoos’ Nest, I think you’ll like this.

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We were talking about it over in the Last Movie You Watched thread. I loved the movie and Phoenix is brilliant in it. I'm not too big on superhero movies because I just think there's too many of them to keep track of today. I've always been more intrigued by the super villain characters and their state of mind. No matter what world the story of the Joker is told in, it's obvious that the person is mentally ill in many ways. The movie shined a very strong light on mental health and how somebody can easily pass the point of no return when certain events happen that push an already unstable person to completely detach from reality. I hope they find a way to make a sequel. Phoenix has said he wants to do more with the character.

 

I don't know how many best lead actor in a film awards there are in the world but Joaquin Phoenix should win them all for this performance.

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Zoe my 22 year old daughter dragged me to this movie on Sunday when she was home for the weekend.

I saw the trailer and it looked sooooo boring.

But she was so excited about it. I heard that this movie received a 7 minute standing ovation in Europe after a test preview.

 

I can't stand DC comics except for Batman.

 

So I decided to go for it.

 

First off I'm a huge VENOM fan and I loved what In association with Marvel did to that movie. R RATED. Incredible flick.

 

Well now JOKER.

 

Holy Shit Batman! I thrive on horror, cult and violent films and my mind was blown.

 

The movie should win Oscars.

 

"Once Upon A Time....." by Tarantino should also win a few Oscars.

 

 

I think "JOKER" should be NC-17.

 

As I walked into the theater to claim our tickets there was a black and white sign saying....

 

While viewing Joker do not wear any costumes. No masks, no props, no plastic knives and no plastic weapons of any kind will be allowed in the theater.

 

When I saw that I rolled my eyes.

 

After the film I totally understood. Holy Cow! Please no more random shootings or suicides. Life is too short to begin with....................................................................

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Zoe my 22 year old daughter dragged me to this movie on Sunday when she was home for the weekend.

I saw the trailer and it looked sooooo boring.

But she was so excited about it. I heard that this movie received a 7 minute standing ovation in Europe after a test preview.

 

I can't stand DC comics except for Batman.

 

So I decided to go for it.

 

First off I'm a huge VENOM fan and I loved what In association with Marvel did to that movie. R RATED. Incredible flick.

 

Well now JOKER.

 

Holy Shit Batman! I thrive on horror, cult and violent films and my mind was blown.

 

The movie should win Oscars.

 

"Once Upon A Time....." by Tarantino should also win a few Oscars.

 

 

I think "JOKER" should be NC-17.

 

As I walked into the theater to claim our tickets there was a black and white sign saying....

 

While viewing Joker do not wear any costumes. No masks, no props, no plastic knives and no plastic weapons of any kind will be allowed in the theater.

 

When I saw that I rolled my eyes.

 

After the film I totally understood. Holy Cow! Please no more random shootings or suicides. Life is too short to begin with....................................................................

 

I actually disagree with the concern about violence the film. Here's why

Fleck kills the three "Yuppies" on the train while they were savagely beating him. You can argue that killing the third guy who was fleeing was the only one done after he no longer had a legitimate self defense argument. He kills his co-worker because he cost him his job and was leading the authorities to him. Clearly a criminal act, but certainly not a random or senseless act in the context of Fleck's severe mental illness and all that has gone on in the movie to that point. Killing DeNiro is clearly the "snapping point" of the character. That one is a senseless act of violence. Ditto for the nurse he apparently kills as the credits roll. So two senseless killings? That doesn't make them positives, but hardly beyond the pale of what comes out of Hollywood today. And the depictions of the killings are less graphic than those in, for example, Scream or A Nightmare on Elm Street.

 

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I’ve got some stuff to say... :blaze:

 

1) I’m way more of a Marvel guy than DC but Joker was certainly better than the last few MCU flicks (Spidey 2, Endgame, Captain Marvel, and whatever). I liked it a lot and was for certain the best movie under the DC tent in years.

 

2) Good superhero stories whether in print or on film focus around character development (imho). It’s the reason I really disliked Thor Ragnarok. That was nothing but bs comedy, glitzy CGI, and non-stop posing. No development. Nothing real. Nothing you could sink your teeth into. Secret Wars, the Marvel comic storyline from the 80s, was also over-the-top posing with no character development. Just a lot of colors and splash pages. (I heard Secret Wars will likely be an MCU storyline soon. No surprise. Yawn.) Joker was none of that crap. We really got to soak in his further deterioration from an already hurt and disturbed individual. The pacing of that I thought was done really well too.

 

3) Joaquin Phoenix. Holy shit he was on fire. That performance was in the same ballpark as what he did in Gladiator.

 

 

Grade: A

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We were talking about it over in the Last Movie You Watched thread. I loved the movie and Phoenix is brilliant in it. I'm not too big on superhero movies because I just think there's too many of them to keep track of today. I've always been more intrigued by the super villain characters and their state of mind. No matter what world the story of the Joker is told in, it's obvious that the person is mentally ill in many ways. The movie shined a very strong light on mental health and how somebody can easily pass the point of no return when certain events happen that push an already unstable person to completely detach from reality. I hope they find a way to make a sequel. Phoenix has said he wants to do more with the character.

 

I don't know how many best lead actor in a film awards there are in the world but Joaquin Phoenix should win them all for this performance.

 

I'm not sure they'd do a sequel because they've got the new "The Batman" movie (1st of a trilogy) coming out in 2021. And it's already been stated that the two won't be connected. They might think this double universe of Batman characters (two Bruce Waynes for example) is too much for the cinemagoers soooo, no Joker sequel. Who knows though? Big box office earnings win out previous thoughts of "No, won't happen" and "highly unlikely". All I know is that I might go see this again and I'm NOT interested in the new Batman movie starring Robert Pattinson as Bats

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I won’t say I loved it but I liked it a lot. I expected something more violent and emotionally disturbing, fortunately it didn’t need to be. This film takes it’s time to tell the story but it was never boring. I did on occasion compare Ledger to Phoenix, does that mean I wasn’t fully engaged? “Eat the rich” is a element of the plot but it didn’t play like a Bernie Sanders long form TV commercial. Thomas Wayne isn’t an overt Trump caricature. I didn’t leave the theatre knowing what director Todd Phillips’ politics are. It was a trip to the past where NYC...excuse me Gotham City was a dumpster fire. A great adult take on the clown prince of crime’s origin story.
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We were talking about it over in the Last Movie You Watched thread. I loved the movie and Phoenix is brilliant in it. I'm not too big on superhero movies because I just think there's too many of them to keep track of today. I've always been more intrigued by the super villain characters and their state of mind. No matter what world the story of the Joker is told in, it's obvious that the person is mentally ill in many ways. The movie shined a very strong light on mental health and how somebody can easily pass the point of no return when certain events happen that push an already unstable person to completely detach from reality. I hope they find a way to make a sequel. Phoenix has said he wants to do more with the character.

 

I don't know how many best lead actor in a film awards there are in the world but Joaquin Phoenix should win them all for this performance.

 

I'm not sure they'd do a sequel because they've got the new "The Batman" movie (1st of a trilogy) coming out in 2021. And it's already been stated that the two won't be connected. They might think this double universe of Batman characters (two Bruce Waynes for example) is too much for the cinemagoers soooo, no Joker sequel. Who knows though? Big box office earnings win out previous thoughts of "No, won't happen" and "highly unlikely". All I know is that I might go see this again and I'm NOT interested in the new Batman movie starring Robert Pattinson as Bats

 

Well considering this film stands alone from any other franchise, and Phoenix has mentioned interest in doing more, I don't see why a sequel would be out of the question.

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For those who’ve already seen it, this video has a good interpretation of the ending.

 

 

Looper can be trusted as much as the Joker character’s thoughts and words. They had a lot of ideas/predictions on Infinity War and Endgame before those came out that weren’t very close. Looper’s just around to draw up attention to movies.

 

But yeah, there’s a lot which is open to interpretation. Still,

the whole thing being in Arthur’s mind is a bit of a weak plot twist and akin to the plot twist in that below average, little known Emilio Estevez movie Wisdom. Sure, that’s what the moviemakers might’ve intended but I hope not. I took that whole “You wouldn’t understand the joke” line as Thomas Wayne indirectly creating Joker which led to Joker indirectly creating Batman.

.

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We were talking about it over in the Last Movie You Watched thread. I loved the movie and Phoenix is brilliant in it. I'm not too big on superhero movies because I just think there's too many of them to keep track of today. I've always been more intrigued by the super villain characters and their state of mind. No matter what world the story of the Joker is told in, it's obvious that the person is mentally ill in many ways. The movie shined a very strong light on mental health and how somebody can easily pass the point of no return when certain events happen that push an already unstable person to completely detach from reality. I hope they find a way to make a sequel. Phoenix has said he wants to do more with the character.

 

I don't know how many best lead actor in a film awards there are in the world but Joaquin Phoenix should win them all for this performance.

 

I'm not sure they'd do a sequel because they've got the new "The Batman" movie (1st of a trilogy) coming out in 2021. And it's already been stated that the two won't be connected. They might think this double universe of Batman characters (two Bruce Waynes for example) is too much for the cinemagoers soooo, no Joker sequel. Who knows though? Big box office earnings win out previous thoughts of "No, won't happen" and "highly unlikely". All I know is that I might go see this again and I'm NOT interested in the new Batman movie starring Robert Pattinson as Bats

 

Well considering this film stands alone from any other franchise, and Phoenix has mentioned interest in doing more, I don't see why a sequel would be out of the question.

 

Yes that’s right.

 

I’m not sure the average moviegoer thinks of these as stand alone movies though even when some know they are.

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For those who’ve already seen it, this video has a good interpretation of the ending.

 

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lvobr-K2Sps[/media]

 

Looper can be trusted as much as the Joker character’s thoughts and words. They had a lot of ideas/predictions on Infinity War and Endgame before those came out that weren’t very close. Looper’s just around to draw up attention to movies.

 

But yeah, there’s a lot which is open to interpretation. Still,

the whole thing being in Arthur’s mind is a bit of a weak plot twist and akin to the plot twist in that below average, little known Emilio Estevez movie Wisdom. Sure, that’s what the moviemakers might’ve intended but I hope not. I took that whole “You wouldn’t understand the joke” line as Thomas Wayne indirectly creating Joker which led to Joker indirectly creating Batman.

.

 

The age differential between Fleck and Bruce makes it unlikely, to me, that the two stories could overlap.

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For those who’ve already seen it, this video has a good interpretation of the ending.

 

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lvobr-K2Sps[/media]

 

Looper can be trusted as much as the Joker character’s thoughts and words. They had a lot of ideas/predictions on Infinity War and Endgame before those came out that weren’t very close. Looper’s just around to draw up attention to movies.

 

But yeah, there’s a lot which is open to interpretation. Still,

the whole thing being in Arthur’s mind is a bit of a weak plot twist and akin to the plot twist in that below average, little known Emilio Estevez movie Wisdom. Sure, that’s what the moviemakers might’ve intended but I hope not. I took that whole “You wouldn’t understand the joke” line as Thomas Wayne indirectly creating Joker which led to Joker indirectly creating Batman.

.

 

The age differential between Fleck and Bruce makes it unlikely, to me, that the two stories could overlap.

Not sure how old Arthur/Joker is supposed to be in this. Early 40s? 30s? I guess they could push it and say he’s in his late 20s making him slightly less than 20 years Bruce Wayne’s senior?

 

Or they could go with one theory I’ve seen which states that...

Arthur isn’t the Joker but he inspires someone else to become the “real” Joker. This is a comic fanboy theory I’ve read and dislike.

 

 

I’d be happy if they didn’t do another one and leave this as it is - an excellent, one-off stand-alone.

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For those who’ve already seen it, this video has a good interpretation of the ending.

 

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lvobr-K2Sps[/media]

 

Looper can be trusted as much as the Joker character’s thoughts and words. They had a lot of ideas/predictions on Infinity War and Endgame before those came out that weren’t very close. Looper’s just around to draw up attention to movies.

 

But yeah, there’s a lot which is open to interpretation. Still,

the whole thing being in Arthur’s mind is a bit of a weak plot twist and akin to the plot twist in that below average, little known Emilio Estevez movie Wisdom. Sure, that’s what the moviemakers might’ve intended but I hope not. I took that whole “You wouldn’t understand the joke” line as Thomas Wayne indirectly creating Joker which led to Joker indirectly creating Batman.

.

 

The age differential between Fleck and Bruce makes it unlikely, to me, that the two stories could overlap.

Not sure how old Arthur/Joker is supposed to be in this. Early 40s? 30s? I guess they could push it and say he’s in his late 20s making him slightly less than 20 years Bruce Wayne’s senior?

 

Or they could go with one theory I’ve seen which states that...

Arthur isn’t the Joker but he inspires someone else to become the “real” Joker. This is a comic fanboy theory I’ve read and dislike.

 

 

I’d be happy if they didn’t do another one and leave this as it is - an excellent, one-off stand-alone.

 

I’ve heard the same thing. That seems to me to be the equivalent of jamming a square peg into a round hole.

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I see a ridiculous character like The Joker, and I think to myself "how can this person exist?". Even as a kid, watching the awesome Caesar Romero, I asked that question.

 

Now I have my answer. The vat of acid BS didn't seem plausible. This story does. I know it won't stick as cannon, but it's good enough for me.

 

 

BTW, I just found out about "Pennyworth" today. Alfred as a former SAS. Yeah, that works too.

Edited by grep
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I see a ridiculous character like The Joker, and I think to myself "how can this person exist?". Even as a kid, watching the awesome Caesar Romero, I asked that question.

 

Now I have my answer. The vat of acid BS didn't seem plausible. This story does. I know it won't stick as cannon, but it's good enough for me.

 

I think a lot of people don't know or have forgotten the fact that the Joker was, first and foremost, a criminal mastermind. No superpowers, but he was a genius in chemical engineering and technology. His Joker persona merely enabled him to be Batman's ultimate arch-enemy on a personal level.

 

Thanks to The Dark Knight and to this new film, fans are now all about his mental illness....even to the point of feeling sympathy or compassion for him. He's just a comic book character. IMO, people are going way overboard in trying to analyze the character.

Edited by Principled Man
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I see a ridiculous character like The Joker, and I think to myself "how can this person exist?". Even as a kid, watching the awesome Caesar Romero, I asked that question.

 

Now I have my answer. The vat of acid BS didn't seem plausible. This story does. I know it won't stick as cannon, but it's good enough for me.

 

 

BTW, I just found out about "Pennyworth" today. Alfred as a former SAS. Yeah, that works too.

 

Falling into the vat of acid was the icing on the cake when it came to the mental breakdown of the character. He had some traumatic things happen to him in a short period of time. The acid was the final thing that pushed him over the edge. I find it totally plausible that being physically deformed and probably coming close to death can cause someone to snap and lose touch with reality.

 

That being said, I think the story of how the Joker came to be was told much better in this movie. When you look back on all the different incarnations of the character, it's very obvious the person suffers from some sort of mental illness. More than likely this was something he had since he was younger rather than something that just came along all of a sudden.

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Zoe my 22 year old daughter dragged me to this movie on Sunday when she was home for the weekend.

I saw the trailer and it looked sooooo boring.

But she was so excited about it. I heard that this movie received a 7 minute standing ovation in Europe after a test preview.

 

I can't stand DC comics except for Batman.

 

So I decided to go for it.

 

First off I'm a huge VENOM fan and I loved what In association with Marvel did to that movie. R RATED. Incredible flick.

 

Well now JOKER.

 

Holy Shit Batman! I thrive on horror, cult and violent films and my mind was blown.

 

The movie should win Oscars.

 

"Once Upon A Time....." by Tarantino should also win a few Oscars.

 

 

I think "JOKER" should be NC-17.

 

As I walked into the theater to claim our tickets there was a black and white sign saying....

 

While viewing Joker do not wear any costumes. No masks, no props, no plastic knives and no plastic weapons of any kind will be allowed in the theater.

 

When I saw that I rolled my eyes.

 

After the film I totally understood. Holy Cow! Please no more random shootings or suicides. Life is too short to begin with....................................................................

 

I actually disagree with the concern about violence the film. Here's why

Fleck kills the three "Yuppies" on the train while they were savagely beating him. You can argue that killing the third guy who was fleeing was the only one done after he no longer had a legitimate self defense argument. He kills his co-worker because he cost him his job and was leading the authorities to him. Clearly a criminal act, but certainly not a random or senseless act in the context of Fleck's severe mental illness and all that has gone on in the movie to that point. Killing DeNiro is clearly the "snapping point" of the character. That one is a senseless act of violence. Ditto for the nurse he apparently kills as the credits roll. So two senseless killings? That doesn't make them positives, but hardly beyond the pale of what comes out of Hollywood today. And the depictions of the killings are less graphic than those in, for example, Scream or A Nightmare on Elm Street.

 

 

What about

 

 

His mom

?

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