During the 1980s, a failed stand-up comedian is driven insane and turns to a life of crime and chaos in Gotham City while becoming an infamous psychopathic crime figure.
Lotsa notes before we start this review,so keep scrolling,I think,in case you don’t care.
1. Terminator Dark Fate (for the brief seconds I saw while entering the IMAX Auditorium since there was a 5-Minute preview in front of Joker in IMAX) looks fookin’ spectacular. Such a shame Italy won’t release it in IMAX 3D…
2. This movie has a great friendship with A Quiet Place for “Dead Silent...Stone Cold Audience I’ve ever had at a Movie”
3. DC Black may be the studio I’m most looking forward out of all the other CBM Studios,but it’s no surprise given Warner Bros’ fantastic year (so far)...
End of notes.
The worst part of Joker may be the fact that I’ve seen all of this coming from the trailers. Guy gets slapped by Society,he starts to get mad,and so here we have an Odyssey of Madness that’ll turn him into the Clown Prince Of Crime,yadda yadda,we all know it by now. But,the thing that makes it stand amongst other character studies done by the numbers is the rather unnerving nature of the character we’re following (played by Joaquin Phoenix with mesmerizing attitude) and the fact that,for a Director last known for making Comedies,this feels like such a huge directorial shift (besides the kinda harsh comment he made on Recent Comedies). This may be the scariest IMAX Experience I’ve had since...I dunno...Mission Impossible Fallout? Which isn’t saying much,considering I’ve never seen a scary movie in IMAX.
What also fuels the movie up to 11 is the fact that this is my movie. A movie that says many things about the harsh and insulting society we’re living in right now (another movie like this is Taxi Driver,of which the movie takes inspiration from. No,seriously,there’s a sequence involving Arthur toying around with a gun that feels similar to Travis Bickle’s “you talking to me?”),which is better than great for me,as I despise the lots and lots of people that behave like they’re the most important being in existence,complete with self-indulgence and insults towards others. All spectacular stuff for this movie. But,while most of it feels earned,I don’t think it needs to fully embrace it,since there’s a minority about people who actually know what they’re doing and hope they can literally “rebuild the world” as it was. Yeah,I’m getting ahead of myself,but it’s something I really wanted to talk about in a long time,internet or not. And it feels unreal that I’m talking about it in a Comicbook Movie that shouldn’t work if done in other ways.
But if it stopped itself from fully embracing the theme of Society,then we wouldn’t have gotten the big-ass epic finale it had,with a speech that,while feels forced by WB,didn’t bother me at all,especially with a worse gripe than the speech. That being the blatant and unnecessary Batman references. At first it was cute,but during the finale,it felt sort of rushed. Not for Thomas Wayne,since he was part of the plot,but for the sake of the studio trying to Franchise this up,therefore losing the soul the movie was aiming to have,and making it just “Another Comicbook romp”. Speaking of that,yeah,it stars a Comicbook character as the main lead,and the title is Joker,but should I even consider it a Comicbook Movie?
Character aside,this feels more a Character-driven film rather than a CBM,and,while there are action sequences (and Violence) in it,it doesn’t matter all that much considering the Nature of the Story we’re being told,nor is it as insulting as the troll reviewers are talking about (there are positive reviews,no worries,but I hate making fun of these critics,since it ain’t my thing,and I know there will always be more of them in other movies).
But all in all,I think Joker is my Iron Man. While I’ve seen most Comicbook Movies by this point,I never had one where it felt like a proper introduction to the Genre (besides Spider-Verse),and anticipating it as “The Rebirth Of Comicbook Fare” was definitely my thing. Sure,it wasn’t the greatest movie of all everyone was talking about,but that still didn’t stop me from being thoroughly surprised by it. The fact it doesn’t show the DC logo at the beginning is already a Plus.
