Joker (Post-release)

[Strikerkc]

You also know that Disney must be scratching their collective heads. They cannot answer "Joker" with anything.

They don't really need to though. They're not in the business of making gritty movies like that. They're not in business to do character pieces as grim and foul as that, let alone filmed in as graphic and visceral a nature.

Any ways. I finally saw the movie. It was different than I expected in a few ways, and it was always for the better. I was pleased that, while the Wayne's played a part in the story, there was no real biological link between the families. And that Arthur's mother was not some discarded mistress, but actually a damaged delusional person herself.

The sad part of having watched this movie, is I'm not sure I even like the joker character anymore. I think I may even be done with Batman.

The ending, leading from the "you wouldn't get it" line, to the bloody foot steps and swagger, then a silly chase with a guard was the most joker thing I'd ever seen in my life. Just knowing that joker could have simply killed that guard, but instead ran around like a loony toon. Perfect.

It was amazing, and it horrified me. I've always really enjoyed the joker character, and I know he's a mass murdering psycho at odds with Batman. But he was that way in a cartoon/movie sense; all make believe. But something about that ending, as a culmination of the whole film, felt like it was a REAL thing I was watching, and it made me want NO part of it. I wanted that guard to crack him on the head so hard that you knew he was never getting up again. I wanted a world without the joker in it.

I'm not sure I'll be able to enjoy watching the character in other things now. And to an extent, may not be able to enjoy Batman; just because the character always let's joker live. Plays some broken morality card, just to let him carve through Gotham over and over. Batman is stupid, and the joker can't be allowed to exist.

That's what I took from it. Sucks to be me I guess.

 

[Ron]

They don't really need to though. They're not in the business of making gritty movies like that. They're not in business to do character pieces as grim and foul as that, let alone filmed in as graphic and visceral a nature.

Any ways. I finally saw the movie. It was different than I expected in a few ways, and it was always for the better. I was pleased that, while the Wayne's played a part in the story, there was no real biological link between the families. And that Arthur's mother was not some discarded mistress, but actually a damaged delusional person herself.

The sad part of having watched this movie, is I'm not sure I even like the joker character anymore. I think I may even be done with Batman.

The ending, leading from the "you wouldn't get it" line, to the bloody foot steps and swagger, then a silly chase with a guard was the most joker thing I'd ever seen in my life. Just knowing that joker could have simply killed that guard, but instead ran around like a loony toon. Perfect.

It was amazing, and it horrified me. I've always really enjoyed the joker character, and I know he's a mass murdering psycho at odds with Batman. But he was that way in a cartoon/movie sense; all make believe. But something about that ending, as a culmination of the whole film, felt like it was a REAL thing I was watching, and it made me want NO part of it. I wanted that guard to crack him on the head so hard that you knew he was never getting up again. I wanted a world without the joker in it.

I'm not sure I'll be able to enjoy watching the character in other things now. And to an extent, may not be able to enjoy Batman; just because the character always let's joker live. Plays some broken morality card, just to let him carve through Gotham over and over. Batman is stupid, and the joker can't be allowed to exist.

That's what I took from it. Sucks to be me I guess.

That's quite an interesting perspective you came out of it with. Many of us prior to seeing the movie stated that despite what our sympathies for the Joker might be at the beginning of the film, by the end of it we have to find him despicable if he's to truly be a villain. Looks like it did the trick for you .

 

[Kovnyn]

Now that it's available to rent, I finally saw it.
I really enjoyed it. Dark and gritty and really left you questioning everything that actually happened. How much of that only occurred in his own psychotic fantasy?

I like the idea, though it was not portrayed in the movie as such, that there were always more than one Joker in Gotham, and that Arthur Fleck was only one of them, possibly the first who inspired others to take up the mantle.

Either way, Joaquin Phoenix was amazing. Easily my second favorite Joker now, and only slightly behind Heath Ledger.

I think this worked so well for me because he wasn't just a psycho villain, but a man suffering from mental illness trying to get by in a world that didn't care about him. His perspective that people are terrible, society was terrible and he was forever at odds with himself for trying to fit into that society was raw, painful and I empathized with him on a certain level.

I agree his transition from Arthur Fleck to the Joker could have had a stronger catalyst, bit his slow fall into madness and violence was still quite well done. Not every major personality shift requires one single hard hitting instance. For Arthur, it was several smaller hits that just kept slowly pushing him over the edge. Losing his job, the subway shooting, his mother's letter to Thomas Wayne, reading her records at Arkham... it felt like a death by a thousand cuts. Every step and turn was more pain, more anguish, and he never had anything good or positive. His hallucinations about his neighbor, and possibly more than just that, helped cement his increasing madness which mirrored his increasing violence.

All in all, probably the best DC movie to have come out in a long time.

 

[DARTH ANIBAL]

I agree his transition from Arthur Fleck to the Joker could have had a stronger catalyst, bit his slow fall into madness and violence was still quite well done. Not every major personality shift requires one single hard hitting instance. For Arthur, it was several smaller hits that just kept slowly pushing him over the edge. Losing his job, the subway shooting, his mother's letter to Thomas Wayne, reading her records at Arkham... it felt like a death by a thousand cuts.

it’s not the large things that

send a man to the

madhouse. death he’s ready for, or

murder, incest, robbery, fire, flood…

no, it’s the continuing series of small tragedies

that send a man to the

madhouse…

not the death of his love

but a shoelace that snaps

with no time left …

From The Shoelace, by Charles Bukowski

 

[Boba Debt]

"Arthur, can you get the lock?"

One of the best scenes in the movie