Okay, this film has already been so widely debated that I’m not sure what I can really add to the conversation. So, I’ll just give my thoughts.
“Joker” is a fairly basic character study of Arthur Fleck, a mentally ill man who feels increasingly marginalized by an uncaring and brutal society in Gotham City. To start, the characters, except for Arthur himself, are pretty flat. They seem to have little purpose other than to further Arthur’s story. This includes Thomas Wayne, who in other media is portrayed as a man of many dimensions, wealthy but caring, and instilling these values in his son Bruce. Here, he is portrayed as much more uncaring and elitist. Which gives much less of an impact in the inevitable alley scene we see in everything remotely related to Batman. More on this in a minute. It’s important to the point.
Arthur suffers a condition that makes him burst into laughter at inappropriate times. He also has other unspecified mental illnesses. We’re never given the specifics. This is actually a little troubling because of the general depiction of mental illness. It almost seems like they are saying that if someone is mentally ill then they are a ticking time bomb and it’s only a matter of time before they go off. This is not a good look.
After a series of events, Arthur begins spiraling downward, but at the same time realizes how much influence he can have over other people, an aspect of the Joker that isn’t often explored. And this is where the characters other than Arthur being rather flat comes into play.
There’s more than one indication that we are actually witnessing these events through Arthur’s eyes. And this creates a brilliant depiction of a narcissistic personality. The only character that gets fully fleshed out is Arthur himself, but he can’t or won’t connect with other people to see their depth. As such, we get to see narcissism from the inside, no connection to others and in fact seeing them as pawns in his own schemes. It’s subtle and definitely not in your face, but if you look carefully, the hints are there.
Those who fear that "Joker" would glorify incel violence or otherwise can rest a little easier, but as I mentioned, the film isn't without its troubling portrayals. It does vilify the mentally ill, which creates a whole host of other issues. The movie swings wildly between "excellent" and just "okay," and sometimes even "meh." As such, it gets a recommendation, but only a mild one.

Joker. The character that has existed since 1940, has become so heavy with so many different portrayals, different origins, that it feels impossible for any mortal man alive to impersonate the scattered personalities. It is an insurmountable task for any director to digest it all and still produce one more.
Todd Phillips had a crazy challenge. He brought in one of the best actors alive to lift it with him, Joaquin Phoenix. Together, they have built a mass-market masterpiece which is just above the crop. It is appropriately crazy and completely focussed on the central character. The narrator goes close to the shores of that craziness, wets his feet but remains dry to tell this story. It is like those news reporters which go closer to the burning amazon, but it is impossible to step in the fumes. In no way, Joker is telling his story. Instead, his story is told to us and there are pillars of sanity (like the detectives, asylum clerk etc.) which remain steadfast to give a strong anchor to the audience. This dilutes the effect of the film.
With the copious amount of material on Joker already, I wished to consider this film as a standalone character study vaguely inspired by the batman universe. But this is not entirely possible. I was forced to think about it on two levels. With Batman and Without Batman.
With Batman, The Joker is on the home turf. There have been many renditions of Joker, and Heath Ledger's portrayal is still vivid in my mind. I knew that Arthur here will go on to become someone who is going to say, “ Introduce a little anarchy. Upset the established order, and everything becomes chaos. I'm an agent of chaos...”. When I was thinking Joker in the context of Batman, I could not keep Ledger's joker too far away. I was searching for a path for Arthur to go from the mentally unstable to the calculating anarchist. I was left searching for that path when the movie ended. To remain as the crown prince of crime, and to justify the title of the greatest adversary of Batman, just mental instability isn't good enough. He needs to be much more intelligent, much more cunning. These traits are often visible early, In the case of Arthur, I could not find that complete foundation upon which the later psyche can stand. This reminded me of Cameron Monaghan's Jerome Valeska. The joker of my understanding is somewhere between the cruelty of Jerome and pitiable delusions of Arthur. Also, the iconic Batman moment was not needed in this. I kept feeling that Joker is trying to stand with the support of Batman's tale as a clutch. A safety net enforced by the producers.
On the other hand, if I consider this movie as a standalone tale, then it was a bit more satisfying. There are tearjerker movies where nothing good ever happens with the protagonist. A series of bad lucks, or difficulties keep blocking a normal life. He is most definitely poor, has a sub-optimal family background, has a medical affliction which is unique and provides a foundation of the pity I felt. This is not very far from Rani Mukharjee's Hichki if you only consider the medical condition. Rani's Naina had Tourette syndrome while Joaquin's Arthur suffers from pseudobulbar affect. The setting and genre make the two films vastly different. More often than not, I have noticed these disorders lift a lot of burden from the narrative. In the case of Joker, couple his disorder with usually being in the wrong place at the wrong time, you have a travesty of human life. Add to that, an unstable parent, amplify it with the volatile societal conditions, you have a perfect decoction of what Joker is made of. As a tale of its own, it works. The delivery is great thanks to the spectacular performance. It also helps to increase the awareness of mental health. But when you strip off all the Batman context, it remains a well-acted and averagely written tale.
Unfortunately, this is a single film, and I felt it is torn between these two polarising treatments. It wants to find its ground, which it finds. But that ground is far from being sensational. It remains somewhat indecisive. It can not be well soaked in Batman lore like James Gordon's tale, Gotham is. I am considering Gotham because both Gotham and Joker do not feature Batman, but they both have Bruce. Gotham understands its lore and fully embraces it but Joker does not want to. At the same time, as a tale of the psychologically troubled protagonist, Joker tries to play safe with the aim to please audience en-mass. I kept thinking about American Psycho and The Machinist. (Coincidently, both star ex-Batman Christian Bale). Those two take you in the psyche of the protagonist. Those take you inside the burning Amazon and not stand at a safe distance. Joker does not aim to do so.
I am not at all qualified to talk about the acting performances. Joaquin Phoenix is in every frame and the way he waltzes between emotions is terrifyingly amazing. The Tai Chi to calm himself down, the menacing stare when finally becomes the Joker, those are chilling. He lives the character to the best of his abilities. Regrettably, he does not have the same level of writing support which Heath Ledger had and so due to no fault of his own, Joaquin could not topple Heath Ledger's portrayal of the crown prince of crime.
If I consider Todd Philips's entire resume, this was a genre shift for him. He knew very well that the biggest trump card is Joaquin Phoenix, so he takes no risk. He keeps him in focus, almost always all the setting and cinematography works for him. The only exception being Robert De Niro. Robert is allowed to carry his scenes quite independently. I think Todd Philips relied on both these giants to carry their parts. Sadly, I had gone to a theatre which had a bad print or screen so I think I will have to watch it again sometimes to enjoy the cinematography.
I realised, I kept writing a lot and this is already over a thousand words. If you are here and reading still, I must say thank you. To summarise, The Joker worked for me and I enjoyed it, but I would not consider it the best depication of the iconic villain from comic books. The best may yet come.

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Obviously, Joker is one of my most anticipated movies of 2019. I mean, how couldn't it be?! Besides belonging to the superhero genre, DC has been on a streak of great films within its universe, so an isolated installment definitely excites me, especially about one of the evilest villains ever. It's by far one of the less comic-book-y flicks of the century. It doesn't follow the generic origin story formula, it avoids any cliches associated with the genre, and it's the type of movie that's becoming more and more rare nowadays. It's a character study like we haven't seen in a long time.
I'll simply begin with the person that elevates the entire thing: Joaquin Phoenix. Now, if there's something I'm not going to do is compare his performance with Heath Ledger's. That's the number one mistake people are going to keep making forever. First of all, The Dark Knight and Joker couldn't be more distinct films, even if they belong to the same genre (despite Joker being unique, it's still about a famous comic-book villain). Then, despite Phoenix and Ledger portraying the same "version" of the clown (crazy, sadistic psychopath), the former is 90% Arthur Fleck while the latter is 100% Joker, throughout each of their movies. Finally, Phoenix is the sole protagonist of this feature, while Ledger had the best live-action Batman sharing the spotlight.
In conclusion, it's both unfair, and a bit unreasonable to compare both interpretations since their roles have a different impact on the narrative, as well as each film being entirely different. In the end, both are impressive. However, let's switch to Phoenix since he's the star of this show … He has 2019's best performance, by far! With a strong marketing campaign, I'm sure he'll get that Oscar. I hope so! It's so well-deserved. Todd Phillips and Scott Silver developed a brilliant screenplay, but Phoenix elevates it to a whole other level.
Throughout the entire runtime, I felt weird. Perturbed. Even uncomfortable with what I was watching and consequently feeling. It's a dark, brutal, violent, emotionally powerful origin of a villain who I feel disturbingly empathetic towards. Phoenix makes the story work due to its remarkably captivating display of someone who's mentally ill. Arthur Fleck slowly becoming crazier is due to how society behaves and not due to some chemical pool that transforms his skin white and hair green (nothing wrong with this, but I know which origin story I prefer). "The world is getting crazier out there", and it becomes excruciatingly painful to deal with it, especially when so much is going on with Arthur’s personal life, and most of it he doesn't even realize because he tries to hide everything behind a smile.
It's a screenplay filled with narrative twists that not only pack a punch of surprise but leave you feeling extremely upset. The last act is one of the best in the last few years. If the second act is an enormous build-up, the last one is a terrific payoff. I can't remember the last movie I saw where I loved 100% every single narrative decision. I wouldn't do any of the big moments differently. There are so many excellent references hidden in plain sight that comic-book fans (and fans of the TDK trilogy as well) will love just like I did. In the ending, there's one pivotal moment in particular that serves as the absolute climax … I got chills all over my body. They couldn't have done that scene more perfect. I only have one tiny nitpick with the way some scenes feel repetitive since they neither move the plot forward or give us anything new. Some of these still help to create tension, some feel like they're just… there.
A Best Picture and Best Actor nominations seem to be on its way, but these are not the only achievements that deserve to be recognized. The original score by Hildur Guðnadóttir is incredibly addictive, so much that I'm listening to it while writing this review. It definitely helps to generate tremendous build-up, and it elevates the sinister environment of Gotham City. Lawrence Sher's cinematography is utterly stunning. The underexposure of some scenes is glorious. Sher paints the screen with so many gorgeous shots, especially with his close-ups on Phoenix, where the latter is able to shine. Jeff Groth is also impeccable in the editing room. There are several long takes with Phoenix just giving his all and letting all his emotions out (or keeping them all contained), which is always something I deeply appreciate since it helps with the flow of the narrative.
Regarding the film's controversy surrounding its messages and the incentive to violence, I really don't know what to say. It's ridiculous. I remember those times when going into the movie theater was a surreal experience. It was the number one place for people to forget about their lives, jobs, everything. Joker is a fictional story! It's the origin of one of the worst psychopaths in the history of comic-books and cinema. If people expected to leave the theater "happy" or "joyful", then at least one of the film's message is right: society really is getting crazier. Have people forgotten who Joker is? What could you possibly expect from his origin story?!
Nowadays, no one knows how to behave (social media is the primary source for spreading hate). No one respects the fellow citizen or even the world itself. More and more people only look at their own bellies. Political agendas are everywhere. New extreme movements are created every other year. Social hypersensibility is exponentially growing. The same way some people will hate this movie for not being able (or simply not wanting) to accept that they feel empathy towards a murderer, people all around the world behave like their actions don't reflect on another person's life and on their own planet. If people get ruthlessly violent because they watched Joker, how can someone complain that the film's message is bad when it's eventually true?
All in all, Joker is one of the best movies of the year, and it's definitely on my Top3 at the date of this review. Joaquin Phoenix delivers my favorite male performance of 2019, by elevating a script about the origin of one of the evilest villains ever. The way he gradually becomes more insane is worthy of study, but it's how he's able to make the audience create empathy towards a psychopath that leaves me disturbingly captivated. Todd Phillips produces a character-study filled with an astonishingly tense build-up and one of the most chill-inducing payoffs of the last few years. With every single narrative decision nailed perfectly, Hildur Guðnadóttir's score and Lawrence Sher's cinematography stand out. The lack of restraint in showing the unmerciful violence (physical and mental) that society inflicts on one another is what makes us feel unsettled. Because we know it's mostly true, and we refuse to accept it. It's not a film about the Joker. It's a very realistic portrayal of someone (anyone!) who can become someone like him. And it's disturbingly brilliant!
PS: Robert DeNiro (Murray Franklin) and Zazie Beetz (Sophie Dumond) are also great. Phoenix's performance is so mesmerizing that I almost forgot there were other actors in the movie.
Rating: A

These kind of movies are among the few movies that I can be bothered to go to an actual theater to watch nowadays. For most movies I just wait until they come out on disk (preferably Ultra HD Blu-ray if it’s available) and watch them on my home theater rig. So this weekend me and the kids went to the theater to watch Avengers: Endgame.
I have to say that it was better, even much better, than I feared. I really feared that the SJW retards at Marvel would take this opportunity to completely re-organize the Marvel universe to their liking. Like how they completely ruined both professor Xavier and Wolverine in that abysmal Logan movie. Luckily, this did not really happen. Maybe the financial reality of their failing SJW comics and Disney doing a bit of culling of the most extreme of the Marvel retards, the ones who fail to understand that super hero movies are meant to entertain and not be their personal agenda channel, are starting to take effect.
It was actually a quite good movie with plenty of action, some humor and, of course, lots and lots of special effects. Even the story made somewhat sense, at least in the context of a Marvel movie, even though the writers resorted to time travel.
The movie starts of somewhat dark and grim but I guess that was to be suspected. It cheered up as it moved along and then ending … well to me at least it was mostly satisfactory.
I was not too thrilled about the “new” Hulk although I warmed up to him a bit during the film. Thor? The less that is said about him the better actually. The rest of the merry bunch was in pretty good shape and I am quite happy that we did not get to see to much of Quill’s usual shenanigans. I really hate that character.
I was quite positively surprised at the huge and quite cool battle towards the end. I was thinking, or rather hoping, that at some time they were just going to reverse Thanos’ crap and that would be it but instead we get to watch another huge confrontation with pretty much everyone involved at the end. Very cool action and FX indeed.
There were some silly plot holes of course. As always when writers resort to time travel. An obvious one would of course be that, when they knew they only had enough Pym particles to complete one trip for each person why did they just not go back in time to get more the first thing they did? Especially since they later did exactly that. Also, Captain Marvel (in her new SJW hairdo) flies through a barrage of fire, smashes through Thanos’ ship like it was nothing and then struggles to combat Thanos himself? There were a bit of this silliness spread around but not too much for me to be bothered by it.
There were a few casualties of which I am saddened by two of them. I think at least one of them was unnecessary and probably agenda based. I also strongly disliked the rubbish with Captain America at the end. He has never been one of my favorite characters so I do not really care much about him being around or not but that rubbish sob-scene where he hands over his shield to a “politically correct” person was really unnecessary. I guess it must have been put there to appease the Marvel SJW retards.
Anyway, my bottom line is that I was greatly entertained by this movie. It had all the good stuff, real super heroes, action, special effects and not too much of the crap that has been spewing out of Marvel the last years.

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Don't worry. This is going to be a pretty vague review. Right now, as I'm writing this sentence, I'm still processing what I saw and how am I going to explain how I felt without spoiling a single tiny thing. First of all, it's such a mix of feelings. On one hand, I'm extremely happy that I was lucky to be alive during this epic time and that I was able to follow these characters that I love and care about so much. On the other hand, I'm obviously sad that it finally reached the end of this (hopefully) first incredible saga. There are no perfect films and one with so many heroes will always have struggles balancing it all (Infinity War already had this issue).
However, the Russo brothers did everything they could to deliver a phenomenal story, and they did. I don't think this could have been any better. Its last hour exceeds any expectations. It's epic, emotional, action-heavy, and it has one of my favorite shots in the entire history of cinema. It's pure magic, and the VFX team will surely get an Oscar for it. The action reminded me of the biggest Lord of the Rings' battles, and it was impeccably filmed, filled with riveting and chill-inducing sequences. Nevertheless, don't expect this high-intensity feeling throughout the whole runtime. The other two acts are a slow-burn build-up to a payoff that's going to make you pretty much either "love" or "like" this movie. I absolutely love it!
This is easily one of the best MCU films, if not my new number one. I can't deny that the 3-hour runtime has some unnecessary scenes, but even if they don't have a significant impact on the plot or even in the characters, they still contribute to the enormous build-up. Seeing this family that we grew up with just talking with each other or having lunch, at the same time that they deal with the consequences of Thanos' snap, is inexplicably captivating and heartwarming. Characters like Natasha (Scarlett Johansson) and Steve (Chris Evans) supporting each other is simply beautiful. Their comradery and chemistry are worthy of some tears here and there.
Some people didn't really enjoy Infinity War so much due to the lack of screentime that some characters had. This time around, there are fewer characters to work with, so the balance is better. Everyone gets an important role, from Captain America to Ant-Man (Paul Rudd) to Nebula (Karen Gillan), and even Rocket (Bradley Cooper). Every single character has a major moment. If you take one out of the movie, it just doesn't work anymore. This is not only great work from the directors, but also from the writers.
Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely are not even going to be remembered because fans will always think of the cast first. Most of them will also remember the directors. But the writers?! If I stand at the door of the theater at the end of the film and question everyone about who are the writers, I strongly believe most of the audience won't know. Every dialogue, every sentence, every word carries so much impact on the narrative. Literally, I cried and got chills just by hearing two freaking words with the perfect timing in between. The amount of grief that the words of the ones who've lost everyone and everything carry is palpable and, for me, those are the most emotional moments of the movie: seeing how everyone is suffering from their own losses, not the deaths themselves.
The humor is mostly on-point, but it's still connected to my only real issue with the film, which is the second act's tone. From the moment the team decides what to do, we already know that this is a 1 in 14 million chance of success like Dr. Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) said, so the stakes and pressure are massive! With this level of tension, I didn't expect such an “easygoing” and “funny” vibe throughout, except for one particular sequence. They do a great job once again of pairing up certain Avengers together, but most of them go through these too comedic plot points for such a crucial and serious mission. Fortunately, this act carries enough action and emotional drive to make this problem not that big of an issue.
Visually, this is arguably the best-looking superhero film ever. From the mind-blowing visual effects to the gorgeous cinematography, everything is perfect. The costumes are gritty and muddy when our heroes are in a battle, their faces are all filled with blood, and I have no words to describe how jaw-dropping that last act is. I can't wait to change my desktop wallpaper once THAT shot is available. I dropped a single tear just by looking at it. No one talks, no one does anything. It's just an amazingly beautiful image. The score is epic as hell. So much that I'm listening to it right now as I'm writing this review, and I'm getting chills all over my body.
I can't really write much more, to be honest. I will acknowledge the cast because they are brilliant. Each and every single member delivers an outstanding performance, but if I had to choose the ones that both surprised me and had the most impact on me, they would be Johansson's, Evans', and Robert Downey Jr's (Tony Stark / Iron Man). “New” characters like Captain Marvel (Brie Larson) blend seamlessly, and the payoff is unbelievably satisfying. In terms of predictability, it goes more or less as I expected, but it still carries a few surprises throughout. Nothing is ever like we imagine or theorize about, so expect the unexpected, and don't judge a movie by if it fits your crazy, unrealistic theories that never crossed the producers and directors' minds in the first place!
All in all, I don't know what to do now. The only thing I'm sure of is that I want to see it again, as soon as possible. The last hour is f*cking insane. I couldn't fall asleep properly because I couldn't stop thinking about it. Endgame surpasses all expectations. It's everything I wished for and so much more. I could easily spend a whole day at the movie theater and watch three sessions in a row. It's that good. One of the best comic-book films of all-time, without a single doubt. Thank you to Kevin Feige and everyone who worked hard to bring the MCU to where it stands now. I can't even think of how are they going to produce something at the level of Infinity Saga. Maybe they never will. Maybe we'll have to wait another decade or two for something like this. Until then, see you at the next Endgame screening! Enjoy! Oh and #DontSpoilTheEndgame!
PS: it's not a perfect movie, I know. It doesn't exist one. Yes, Endgame has some issues regarding its pacing and tone, but I would be lying to myself if this isn't everything I dreamed of. I felt the same way with Civil War, regarding the rating to give, and I ended up giving it an A after a first viewing. As soon as I watched the second time, I changed it to an A+. I don’t need to wait for that second viewing with Endgame … And thank you to my audience for being incredibly respectful. No yelling, no crazy laughs, no stupid people doing stupid stuff. Thank you so much for not ruining one of the best cinematic experiences of my life!
Rating: A+

The epic Marvel Saga that started over ten years ago has been building up to the inevitable clash with the powerful tyrant Thanos (Josh Brolin). Last year’s “Avengers: Infinity War” set the stage for the highly-anticipated conclusion; “Avengers: End Game” and at long last it has arrived.
Picking up shortly after the events of the last film, the Avengers must deal with the aftermath of what Thanos has done. The team is naturally divided between wanting revenge, wanting to set things right, and just wanting to take what they have and go on.
As time passes and they struggle to accept the reality of their situation; an unexpected individual returns and with them comes the seeds of a new plan to make things right. Naturally Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) is skeptical but eventually warms to the possibilities of the idea thanks to a new scientific breakthrough that makes it possible.
Inspired, Tony sets out to put an elaborate plan in motion that will allow the team to try to fix things and to stop Thanos once and for all.
What follows is an extended and at times nostalgic heist where various members of the team work to assemble the pieces needed for the plan as they believe they only have one chance to make things right.
The film is essentially three acts in one. The first deals with the recap and expansion of their situation and the planning. The second act is basically a heist where action and comedy are blended with some touching moments.
This all leads to the final act which is the FX laden set piece where the ensemble cast gathers to fight the forces of evil in a battle to save the Universe.
The film is epic in scale and length as it clocks in at over three hours but the movie is filled with so much content that the time goes by quickly and you have a hard time believing three hours have elapsed.
It is also a difficult film to review as you cannot recap elements of the film in any great detail without giving away elements that are sure to delight the fans. Suffice it to say that my only real issue with the fil and it was minor; was that it took a while to get to the action but at least there was plenty to keep you entertained along the way.
As this phase of the Marvel Film Universe winds down and plans are put in place for the next five years; “Avengers: End Game” is a satisfying conclusion to the epic saga that was started many years ago and weaves elements of many of the past Marvel films into an entertaining tale which features all of the best elements that have made the series of films such big hits.
4.5 stars out of 5