est wrote:
Loved Joker. Great performance by Phoenix.
Quincy Abeyie wrote:
Anyway, just watched Joker. It was pretty good I thought. Phoenix is, as you guys have said, really great. Both people praising it for it's commentary on society and those criticizing it for being "dangerous" are way off the mark though. It's not really a movie that says much. It's very edgy/dark and people always seem to interpret that as deeper/more meaningful for some reason.
It doesn't need to say much to make people think about something that's an issue in our society. The message doesn't always have to be intricate and layered, it can be simple yet still quite powerful like in this case.
Daz wrote:
As I said though, I'm certainly not going to look to a batman movie for meaningful social critique, and it's still an enjoyable movie for the most part.
Why not? Does it have to be one or the other and not both entertaining and thought provoking at the same time?
In any case, this was not your usual superhero flick. Made me enjoy it even more, but I can understand if some people were expecting something a bit more superheroe-y from a Joker movie.
The message can be simple, but if you're trying to say something about society you need more than "society bad -> good guy turns bad". Although Joker is a much better movie, it doesn't have more of a message than Venom, for example. As I said, I liked it, but I don't see anything thought provoking about it at all. That a villain's origin comes from him having problems with society is basically what most of them are about, be it Lex Luthor, Thanos, Alexander Pierce, Zemo, Ultron or Killmonger. The villain either wants power or he wants society to change. What's new about Joker, other than that the movie is about him?
Oh, and I don't think anyone who knew more about the film than simply its name would expect something more superheroey.
