Joker

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Davies
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Joker

Post by Davies »

I caught an early showing yesterday. Long story, I would have done better to wait for next Tuesday. Mr. Phoenix is excellent in the title role, but the predictable story leaves much to be desired in narrative coherence. Its biggest sin is in making the Wayne murders even less plausible than usual -- there's literally no reason that the killer would leave Bruce alive in the situation it depicts. When Batman vs. Superman does that better than you, you've got problems. Watch only if you've nothing better to do, and don't bother to wait for a mid- or post-credits scene.
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saint_matthew
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Re: Joker

Post by saint_matthew »

Yeah I had no interest in seeing this when it was originally announced, I had no interest when the trailer came out & now that a particular subset of people are telling me I have to go watch it, because me watching it will drive moral scolds crazy, I still have no interest in watching it.

So this will be a hard pass from me.
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Scots Dragon
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Re: Joker

Post by Scots Dragon »

Even beyond the film's apparent shitty politics and the weird anti-social justice rants of its director, who apparently based the whole thing off of his own failed stand-up career...

The film just looks like boring and pretentious garbage masquerading as something deeper while masquerading as a superhero film.

I don't think I've ever had less interest in seeing a film.
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squirrelly-sama
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Re: Joker

Post by squirrelly-sama »

What I find hilarious is that this movie probably would have passed mostly under the radar for most people who weren't actively seeking it
if so many people didn't try to kill it before it even came out.
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saint_matthew
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Re: Joker

Post by saint_matthew »

Scots Dragon wrote: Fri Oct 04, 2019 7:00 pmEven beyond the film's apparent shitty politics and the weird anti-social justice rants of its director, who apparently based the whole thing off of his own failed stand-up career...
LOL no. None of that is true. It's just a movie that a particular group of people pre-emptively got a stick up their collective arses about, it's no different than any other movie. If it weren't for the people who desperately want to believe this movie will cause mass shootings by an army of incels (which hopefully will be the stupidest statement I'll have to type today), this movie would have passed generally without commentary.
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Scots Dragon
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Re: Joker

Post by Scots Dragon »

Yeah because no theatres have had to close because of credible threats or anything.

Oh wait.
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Scots Dragon
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Re: Joker

Post by Scots Dragon »

Of course, I should add as an addendum to that, the reason people were afraid of this inspiring mass shootings?

The Joker-inspired weirdo mass shooter who literally shot up a theatre playing Dark Knight Rises in Aurora, Colorado.


And I wasn't even talking about the 'inspire mass shootings from incels' thing. I was talking about the actual film and its creator, Todd Phillips, on a creative level. A film creator who has blamed the backlash upon the far-left, and who made the film because 'Woke Culture' apparently made it difficult for him to continue making comedies.* I was mistaken about the stand up part of that, but meh.

He apparently wanted to sneak in a 'real movie' under the studio system's focus on comic-book films. Which is just pretentious garbage since superhero films are perfectly capable of being 'real cinema', no matter what Martin Scorsese or Todd Phillips has to say.


*Which is universally code for 'my jokes aren't actually funny, just shallow attempts at edginess driven by punching down at marginalised groups'. A lot of these people like to cite George Carlin, but he'd have dismissed them as unfunny poseurs for using comedy to go after the powerless, and rightly so.

But then, everything has to be about 'owning the libs' to the right-wing. Not that I'm even a lib, at that.
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saint_matthew
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Re: Joker

Post by saint_matthew »

Scots Dragon wrote: Sat Oct 05, 2019 5:42 pmYeah because no theatres have had to close because of credible threats or anything.
You are correct Scot, not a single theatre was shut down due to a credible threat from this imaginary incel army. Some third party troll decided to troll the people who collectively & pre-emptively have a stick up their butt, because they thought it would be funny to see those people over react.

It literally wouldn't have happened if these people hadn't driven themselves in to hysterics by talking shit for weeks about it.
Scots Dragon wrote: Sat Oct 05, 2019 9:13 pmOf course, I should add as an addendum to that, the reason people were afraid of this inspiring mass shootings?
Because the very same media class of people who peddled this crap to the people with sticks up their butts today lied to people back then too. The Aurora shooting had nothing to do with The Joker. The shooter didn't think he was the joker, he wasn't inspired by the Joker, it had literally nothing to do with the Joker.

The media lied to people.
Scots Dragon wrote: Sat Oct 05, 2019 9:13 pmI was talking about the actual film and its creator, Todd Phillips, on a creative level. A film creator who has blamed the backlash upon the far-left, and who made the film because 'Woke Culture' apparently made it difficult for him to continue making comedies.* I was mistaken about the stand up part of that, but meh.
No, not meh. You didn't simply state he was a stand up comedian, you said & I quote: "apparently based the whole thing off of his own failed stand-up career..."

So lets be clear here, he wasn't a stand up comedian, he didn't fail at being a stand up comedian & he didn't base this entire movie on being a stand up comedian. That's a little more then "meh", that was completely wrong, in that your entire statement was not only wrong as a statement so was every element that informed that statement.
Scots Dragon wrote: Sat Oct 05, 2019 9:13 pm*Which is universally code for 'my jokes aren't actually funny, just shallow attempts at edginess driven by punching down at marginalised groups'. A lot of these people like to cite George Carlin, but he'd have dismissed them as unfunny poseurs for using comedy to go after the powerless, and rightly so.
LOL no: Not only has this directors jokes worked in the past, his serious stuff like War Dogs, also worked.
Scots Dragon wrote: Sat Oct 05, 2019 9:13 pmBut then, everything has to be about 'owning the libs' to the right-wing. Not that I'm even a lib, at that.
No, this is just a movie, not unlike any other movie. As for owning the libs, no one did anything like that, a movie was made & a group of people pre-emptively drove each other to hysterics over it, imagining an imaginary army of incels coming to get them. No one had to own these people, they did it to themselves, working themselves up in to hysterics, like some modern day Lucy Goosey, being hit on the head by an Acorn & then running around shouting "the sky is falling, the sky is falling." Except in this case, there wasn't even an acorn, just the idea of a movie about an acorn.
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squirrelly-sama
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Re: Joker

Post by squirrelly-sama »

Here's the thing that's confusing me about this whole thing.

The movie SUPPOSEDLY is supposed to be pro-right wing incel preaching anti-sjw propaganda. Someone calls in a mass shooting threat because of it. my question is why they are thinking that it's the movies inspiring they are saying it's the movies supposed audience that is doing the mass shooting and not say the people that they're claiming it's speaking against that's threading theaters to get it shut down?

Basically Group X is saying the movie is about how X is terrible Y is awesome. Someone sends in threat that if the movie airs that they'll shoot up the theater. Group X claims it's someone from group Y even though they're saying the movie they're trying to shut down supports group Y and shits on group X.

To me this looks a lot more like the said group is making threats of violence then blaming the target of said violence for said threats. This is quite literally like punching someone one then saying it's their fault for making you mad. Rather this seems like someone got punched out of sight and of the only two people there the one one who didn't get punched is saying that the person punched themselves for no reason, also that the other person is horrible and evil and violent and should totally be put away because of that.

This sort of logic has me question if the person would be singing the same tune if the political parties were reversed here. Lets say there's some pro-LGBT movie or cartoon coming out, someone calls in threats to shoot up the studio or stores or movie theaters that support it or show it. Will those people blaming Joker for this exact same scenario be then saying it's said theoretical LGBT supporting movies fault for inspiring violence, or rather will they then also that "the gays" are threatening to shoot things up because a pro-gay movie is about to come out and that said movie should be banned?
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Re: Joker

Post by FuzzyBoots »

I have heard that Joaquin Phoenix's performance is amazing, no matter what you think of the subject matter. As regards the reported shooting threat, I don't see it as being necessarily about the movie any more than the bomb threats at schools, chain emails about someone helping an Arabian man and getting a friendly warning to stay away from X place on Y date, etc. Yes, "credible", but that usually just means they didn't track down the giggling highschooler ten minutes after the call was made from their home phone.
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Davies
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Re: Joker

Post by Davies »

FuzzyBoots wrote: Sun Oct 06, 2019 1:07 pm I have heard that Joaquin Phoenix's performance is amazing,
It's true, it is. I would not be surprised if he got an Oscar nomination. But he's one of only two really good performances, and when the second one is not Robert de Niro, you can tell that something has gone very wrong somewhere.
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BriarThrone
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Re: Joker

Post by BriarThrone »

Scots Dragon wrote: Sat Oct 05, 2019 5:42 pm Yeah because no theatres have had to close because of credible threats or anything.

Oh wait.
"Credible."

You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means. :lol:
FuzzyBoots
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Re: Joker

Post by FuzzyBoots »

After reading some of the reviews, Scorsese's commentary on MCU movies makes more sense. Joker is kind of a DCU Taxi Driver .
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Ares
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Re: Joker

Post by Ares »

Well, it looks like Joker is set to not only be the highest grossing R-Rated film of all time, but also the most profitable comic book-based film of all time. Thanks to its small budget, it's actually made more profit than even Avengers: Endgame.

Having seen the movie, I thought it was well made, incredibly acted and a decent story, but I wouldn't want this to be the established take on the Joker. More of a good one-off Elseworlds take on the character that does some interesting things. But overall I enjoyed it.

What surprised me was how much outraged this movie inspired and the sheer hostility some people had towards it. Some people were talking about how this film was a legitimate safety hazard, how it would inspire incel violence, how it would glorify toxic masculinity and white entitlement, how it would give Gary Glitter money because one of his songs was in the movie, etc. There was an instance where an interviewer opened up on Phoenix with an incredibly loaded question that the actor just walked away from, and the press got so bad that they were band from opening night and interviewing the filmmakers.

And for all of what felt like a concerted effort to tank the film, nothing bad happened. There were no incidents of violence, Gary Glitter didn't make any money, etc. In fact, the only people making money is the studio and show-runners. The social influencers opened up on this movie with both barrels, but instead of the Joker it was like they were shooting at Superman. It just bounced right off.

Honestly, the media circus and social outrage at the film was the ultimate clownshow.
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FuzzyBoots
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Re: Joker

Post by FuzzyBoots »

Some of the anger, as I understand it, was based off of early speculation and cuts of the film. There was apparently a part of the plot that had him motivated by his lack of romantic success, but they rightfully excised it before the final cut. I also saw it recently, and I was impressed. It is kind of annoyingly ambiguous at places, especially after it's established that not everything we see is real, and that Arthur is aware that he's making some things up, but I think that that kind of plays into it, with the film becoming a bit of a Rorschach test as to how people interpret what's going on.

I do think it's an interesting question of whether or not Arthur is happy that he's gained this following, and whether he actually had the laughing disorder or if it was a cover-up for a twisted sense of humor. Joaquin Phoenix did do an amazing job of establishing all of the little verbal and physical tics from Joker's mimicry to the hunched posture when not in-character. He's hit the second-best Joker in my mind, just below Caesar Romero's portrayal.

I do agree that it ought to stay an Elseworld. But Phoenix has apparently agreed to do a sequel.
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