My Review of 'Joker'

A lot of people have been bad mouthing DC movies for awhile because Marvel movies have done a lot better with their campy style of story telling. DC has always been the more serious version of superhero movies and people tend to forget this. They even wanted to change them to make them feel more like Marvel movies. It's a shame that a lot of companies are willing to make these changes because that's where the big bucks seem to be. I'm glad DC has stuck to their guns with Joker.

There's a ton of controversy concerning this movie, and I'll get to that later on in this review. First you have to have a little background of the movie. In this movie the protagonist is actually the lifelong villain of Batman. This is an origin story of how he came to be. Joker starts out as Arthur Fleck, played by Joaquin Phoenix. He's a guy that is down on his luck. His mother is sick, he's got mental issues that he has to correct with medication, he has a medical condition that forces him to laugh uncontrollably, and he's getting bullied by pretty much everyone he meets. From this point we already can see that he's going to blow up at any moment. The guy is basically a ticking time bomb waiting to happen.

It's totally odd that Todd Phillips directed this movie, because I'm more familiar with the comedies he's directed, such as Road Trip and the Hangover trilogy. Recently he's made a name for himself with the movie Green Book. All of his movies have a central theme, and that's bullying. In all of these movies he's had characters being bullied, so I guess Joker was right up his alley.

Now for the controversy that this movie has created. First off this is a disturbing movie at times. There are scenes that you want to tell Arthur not to do the bad things that he's going to do but you know it's going to happen anyways. It's kind of sickening that we kind of cheer for Arthur to kill, but it was well directed that we feel sympathy for the killer and we root for Joker.

There's a ton of scenes that deal with Arthur's illusions. A lot of people say they find it confusing but really if you think about the scenario with a rational mind, you would see how obvious the delusions are. Just think about the situations and see how each of the characters act. If you don't think you would rationally do what the character did in the movie, then it's most likely a delusion. There were a lot of pretty obvious delusions and it's smart that they put them in the movie because Arthur is dealing with mental instability and we are trying to see the world through his eyes.

One of the biggest controversies is one of the murders that happens in the movie that I think was edited out of the movie in post production. We've had some serious problems with groups that call themselves InCels, short for involuntarily celibate. These are usually young men that rage out at the fact that women will not date them or give them the time of day. There's a scene in this movie that comes a little close to giving InCels some empathy.

Then we have to talk about the violence that some think that this movie will cause. I know a lot of people will say, "Hey, violent movies and games don't make people commit violent acts." I can yes, to a certain degree, agree with this. We are not all the same. This movie is telling us just that. The majority of us will not kill when we see violence in movies but it only takes one person that is susceptible to violence to cause a heinous act. We are not worried about the majority of the population, we're worried about the few that have issues. So yes, I was a little concerned. The mere fact that the audience was freaked out about the movie was because it seemed like it can actually happen in real life today. Doesn't that say anything?

Ultimately the message that this movie was trying to make is to treat each other as you would like to be treated. Don't bully people because they're different because you never know what' they're going through. As a side note I found it totally odd that despite Arthur having that horrifying creepy laugh, people were still willing to bully him. I would be freaked out if someone laughed like he did in that movie.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this movie as a movie. Some of the scenes are very sensitive to watch but I like the fact that film makers still have the artistic freedom to make these types of movies. Do I think this movie is for everyone? Absolutely not. I am rating this on how well I enjoyed the movie, and that would be an 8.5 out of 10. You have to remember the movie is highly predictable but the performances and the delivery of the movie were great. It is a very interesting watch and will bring tons of discussions after you finish watching it.