Just saw Joker

[monstertoronto 8,659]

Just saw Joker FAD.  I know I’m late to this but just wanted to share some thoughts  trying not to do any spoilers. 
It’s so sad. It’s not a thriller or an action movie or a dark comedy or anything as unhinged as the original. It’s a fairly slow dark courtroom drama about a mentally ill accused, and about the false and fickle comforts of fame and the cruel realities of real life.  It was honestly like watching a tragedy. With full musical numbers inserted in a way I found a bit jarring  even though I was anticipating them  

Gaga is very good. She’s enigmatic and compelling and I loved seeing her on screen. She’s not on as much as I would like but her character is pivotal to the plot. She def makes an impact. 

The musical scenes are glorious and fun.  But I enjoyed them as a Gaga stan. It’s so hard to imagine any Joker or DC fans enjoying them as they are so fanciful and full on musical productions. It’s so hard to picture who they thought the audience was going to be. it’s truly shocking that they spent so much money on this exact movie  

I do understand Gagas interest in it as it really seems like a treatise on toxic fandom and there prison of personas and how fan love is the worst  

But I have to say it was a hard watch, Very bleak all the way to the bitter end  I don’t think I would watch this again  

 

 

[QueenChromatix 1,933]

which part of Joker (2019) can be classified as a dark comedy?

[ALGAYDO 28,974]

What would you rate it?

[MaybeKermit 3,781]

I watched it for a second time yesterday and I must say my 2nd watch was way better. 
 

first time I had very high expectstions so it fell..flat tbh, didnt really enjoy it a lot

2nd time I already knew how the movie was so I had time to enjoy everything and ok, there’s 2-3 songs too many, but the movie itself felt like a much nicer watch

[Helxig 41,079]

55 minutes ago, monstertoronto said:

It’s so hard to picture who they thought the audience was going to be

This is what I keep thinking! Who was this movie for? Fans of the original were bound to hate it, DC fans were also never going to like it, they used Gaga to bring in her fans but then hardly had her in the movie, it's too all over the place for just regular folks to enjoy, straight men were always going to hate the musical aspects and gay men were always going to get bored of the constant dialogue in dark rooms, and to top if off they loaded the trailers with action and drama and delivered none of that and even excluded scenes from the trailers so?.. who were they marketing to? Who did they even think was going to speak positively on this film after release? They should've picked one and gone with it  

I know that it's all art and has it's place etc but I really think there was a tonne of potential here for something really amazing and even high budget and it just wasn'tttt. I keep saying it isn't a bad film, it's just okay

[Bobina 1,055]

I completely agree with the musical numbers being jarring, especially the first one. They didn't let Lee's and Joker's relationship build at all. They had, what, two scenes? Before they were fully "in love"? Gaga had barely any time to establish Lee as a character. In most of her scenes, she was singing. Had scarcely any speaking lines. Don't think it passed the Bechdel test. This movie had a lot of potential. And it wasn't Gaga's fault that it was so empty and all over the place. But, man, I just wonder when and where the vision got so lost. The ending twist could have hit so good but because of the build-up, it just didn't. 

[monstertoronto 8,659]

15 minutes ago, ALGAYDO said:

What would you rate it?

I think 6/10 if I’m being generous tbh 😭

[LordByron28 851]

8 minutes ago, QueenChromatix said:

which part of Joker (2019) can be classified as a dark comedy?

Honestly question most reviews from critics and viewers if they’ve seen the original. Like Arthur is singing and dancing in that movie as well. The media created this incel narrative that is just not present if you watch the movie.

The original told a tale of a poverty stricken man suffering from mental illness and how society and government failed him. He was born into poor circumstances, failed by social services, failed by a government elected by people idolizing billionaires who cut government programs to benefit the less fortunate, treated awfully by society, was handed a gun and made a series of poor decisions that led to a killing spree. His killing spree gave him a lot of attention and unintentionally made him an icon and representation of everything wrong with the government and society.

The sequel further elaborated with how social services failed him as a kid as well as the shortcomings of how we treat prisoners. In addition to highlighting how people treat their icons/heroes when they don’t live up to the lofty expectations we had of them in our head. 

I enjoyed the movie. Don’t think it’s worthy of all the hatred it has received. It doesn’t follow the comics but neither did Suicide Squad or a lot of DC films. It has a number of deeper commentaries. References and plays homage to a number of classic films. There’s a unique premise with a few memorable musical numbers. Film and art direction is beautiful. There were some plot lines I would’ve wished for more or less screen time dedicated towards or handled slightly differently but a solid 7-8/10. 

[monstertoronto 8,659]

16 minutes ago, MaybeKermit said:

I watched it for a second time yesterday and I must say my 2nd watch was way better. 
 

first time I had very high expectstions so it fell..flat tbh, didnt really enjoy it a lot

2nd time I already knew how the movie was so I had time to enjoy everything and ok, there’s 2-3 songs too many, but the movie itself felt like a much nicer watch

Interesting. I don’t know if I want to watch it again right now but I did enjoy seeing Gaga up there. That’s the only reason I would see it again. 

[monstertoronto 8,659]

5 minutes ago, Helxig said:

This is what I keep thinking! Who was this movie for? Fans of the original were bound to hate it, DC fans were also never going to like it, they used Gaga to bring in her fans but then hardly had her in the movie, it's too all over the place for just regular folks to enjoy, straight men were always going to hate the musical aspects and gay men were always going to get bored of the constant dialogue in dark rooms, and to top if off they loaded the trailers with action and drama and delivered none of that and even excluded scenes from the trailers so?.. who were they marketing to?

All of this!!!  I don’t think it really pleases any particular fanbase and probably alienates a lot of them. The fanboys are NOT going to like all the musical interludes and I was kind of bored by all the dark room scenes. 

[monstertoronto 8,659]

40 minutes ago, QueenChromatix said:

which part of Joker (2019) can be classified as a dark comedy?

True. It was also very sad. 

[monstertoronto 8,659]

8 minutes ago, Bobina said:

I completely agree with the musical numbers being jarring, especially the first one. They didn't let Lee's and Joker's relationship build at all. They had, what, two scenes? Before they were fully "in love"? Gaga had barely any time to establish Lee as a character. In most of her scenes, she was singing. Had scarcely any speaking lines. Don't think it passed the Bechdel test. This movie had a lot of potential. And it wasn't Gaga's fault that it was so empty and all over the place. But, man, I just wonder when and where the vision got so lost. The ending twist could have hit so good but because of the build-up, it just didn't. 

Yes!  I mean I understand the concept of the songs being his inner life  but it just didn’t work for me, especially with her also actually supposed to be singing sometimes. It felt so forced.  It felt like a theatre kid got to make a joker movie. And it’s not Gaga who wrote or directed this movie but it feels like Gaga’s musical persona just sort of got grafted onto this movie and I feel the fanboys would hate those scenes. 

[LordByron28 851]

8 minutes ago, Bobina said:

I completely agree with the musical numbers being jarring, especially the first one. They didn't let Lee's and Joker's relationship build at all. They had, what, two scenes? Before they were fully "in love"? Gaga had barely any time to establish Lee as a character. In most of her scenes, she was singing. Had scarcely any speaking lines. Don't think it passed the Bechdel test. This movie had a lot of potential. And it wasn't Gaga's fault that it was so empty and all over the place. But, man, I just wonder when and where the vision got so lost. The ending twist could have hit so good but because of the build-up, it just didn't. 

Arthur hallucinated a romance and relationship to a woman that spoke to him for 30 seconds in the previous film. Lee was manipulative and lying to him. When confronted she lied and said she was pregnant with his kid and further manipulated him. 

[Bobina 1,055]

Just now, LordByron28 said:

Arthur hallucinated a romance and relationship to a woman that spoke to him for 30 seconds in the previous film. Lee was manipulative and lying to him. When confronted she lied and said she was pregnant with his kid and further manipulated him. 

 I know. I watched the movie(s) 

[monstertoronto 8,659]

8 minutes ago, LordByron28 said:

Honestly question most reviews from critics and viewers if they’ve seen the original. Like Arthur is singing and dancing in that movie as well. The media created this incel narrative that is just not present if you watch the movie.

The original told a tale of a poverty stricken man suffering from mental illness and how society and government failed him. He was born into poor circumstances, failed by social services, failed by a government elected by people idolizing billionaires who cut government programs to benefit the less fortunate, treated awfully by society, was handed a gun and made a series of poor decisions that led to a killing spree. His killing spree gave him a lot of attention and unintentionally made him an icon and representation of everything wrong with the government and society.

The sequel further elaborated with how social services failed him as a kid as well as the shortcomings of how we treat prisoners. In addition to highlighting how people treat their icons/heroes when they don’t live up to the lofty expectations we had of them in our head. 

I enjoyed the movie. Don’t think it’s worthy of all the hatred it has received. It doesn’t follow the comics but neither did Suicide Squad or a lot of DC films. It has a number of deeper commentaries. References and plays homage to a number of classic films. There’s a unique premise with a few memorable musical numbers. Film and art direction is beautiful. There were some plot lines I would’ve wished for more or less screen time dedicated towards or handled slightly differently but a solid 7-8/10. 

I like your analysis of the films. I just didn’t really enjoy watching this one and felt the tone was all over the place.