Just got back from the theater. I didn’t hate this.
It reminded me of the Last Jedi strangely. In parts this thing has a lot of good stuff in it but as a whole it’s a mess. The musical aspect could have worked with better songs. The visuals of them were fine but the singing was awful, perhaps intentionally, certainly so with Gaga at least. That was the big swing and a miss. I could see the vision but the execution left much to be desired. It could have worked and that’s probably something some test screenings could have helped with.
I’ve been popping in and out this thread all weekend so I went in with low expectations, which may have helped since it could only go up from there. Lots of beautiful shots in this and the non-musical score has that same haunting feeling from the first. That really helped create an atmosphere in Arkham.
I guess for me Arthur was never ‘the Joker’ we know from the comics. The first film seemingly established that to me. He’s ’a Joker’ but not the one were thinking he was going to be. I didn’t see this as a lack of character growth but that the character was never in line to become what some presumed he’d be. Arthur isn’t the same Arthur in this film, he has changed for sure but not in the way many were hoping, which has lead to a lot of the hate I think. This actually felt more realistic for him to have his 5 minutes of fame and then go back to what he was before. Knowing he could achieve some form of grandeur but only if he wasn’t his true self. He seems to accept that by the end, and his fans in the film aren’t accepting that much different than Joker fans in real life. Ironic.
This was a huge gamble and it just didn’t pay off. Remove the musical aspect, which admittedly was the core to Arthur and Harley’s relationship, and the rest of the movie is decent. Interesting choices for sure but the first film made some as well, albeit more successful and accepted ones. I was never the biggest Phoenix Joker fan. The first film is rough and a downer and not something I care to rewatch often. He’s fantastic for what the character is but he’s just not the Joker we really wanted. This guy was never meant to go toe to toe with a Batman.
These are an arthouse films about mental illness thinly wrapped in comic book packaging. An ‘Arthur Fleck’ film would have done well in the Oscar and festival circles but wouldn’t have made a billion dollars at the box office. Suddenly call it Joker and everyone goes to see it. The story could certainly have worked without the DC branding but the box office success would have been severely limited. This just wasn’t meant to be apart of a larger DC universe.