Originally published at: We're officially getting a Joker sequel | Boing Boing
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I still haven’t seen the first. I have no interest in seeing the first. Joker never appealed to me much in all of his various forms. Plus I’ve seen Taxi Driver, so I’m set.
That said, I don’t think artistic directors complaining about how Marvel ruined movies is getting to the real crux of the problem. Marvel didn’t ruin them. Industry consolidation and control has ruined them. Gone are the days of seven or eight major studios, plus dozens of smaller ones, where various types of films can comfortably exist and expect distribution. Now it’s just a couple of major conglomerates each to pad investor bank accounts, and that spells “take no risks, give the people what they’ll pay billions for.” Never mind that we’ll pay to go see the smaller, more interesting stuff, too. Well… maybe not so much these days. There’s always streaming services if they’re really worried, and that’s the actual future of cinema.
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The first movie wasn’t even originally supposed to be about “the Joker”, it was a generic art-house movie about a sad clown with psychological problems being sad. The studio looked at it, and said “Hey, I heard those super-hero movies are popular, what if we slap some super hero names on it and call it done? We’ll make millions on people buying tickets due to name recognition alone, and it doesn’t even have to be remotely related to the source material, nobody reads that kid stuff anyways!”
So they did, and they managed to produce the only possible movie-Joker crappier than the one in Suicide Squad. And because name recognition alone sold lots of tickets, they decided it was profitable, so another one is happening. Expect it to be worse, because it will be executive-committee designed pablum, instead of at least having started as some writer attempting to make something artistic before the clueless movie execs got their hands on it.
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I honestly didn’t think Joker was bad at all, but a sequel? Nah.
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Just watch The Last Circus.
All the clown violence one could ever need.
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I think doing a more authentic Shang-Chi, son of the racist caricature of Dr. Fu Manchu, could have been much much worse than what we got.
Also, Marvel putting butts in seats helps keep theaters open.
Formulaic movies being more successful than artsy films is a trope as old as Hollywood. “If you want to send a message call Western Union” puts a date stamp on just how old. I think indie movies of quality that could never be seen can now be found streaming somewhere, can’t really see MCU as the villain in movieland.
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Disagree. I liked Joker and look forward to the sequel.
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Joker tapped a fountain of misanthropic idolization, acting as an inspiration for violence and a few murders. Repeating that experiment seems unwise. Of course, Phoenix’s Joker appeared to be a doubling down on Ledger’s, so I suppose cruelty (and cash) is the point.
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Imagine if the new Predator movie didn’t just feature Indigenous Americans as the lead- that weirdly speak English for some reason- but chose to make
Well, it isn’t any weirder than Chernobyl or The Death of Stalin with everyone speaking in British accents. But I heard they are going to do a full Comanche dub.
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When the credits rolled at the end of “The Joker”, I thought, " 
Well, it was nice to see Joaquin getting some more work; other than that 
"
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Kruschev would like a word.
Some years ago we realised we’d watch a movie just because of him and thought we’d watch him in anything. He’s an amazing actor. Then The Clown came along and it turned out we wouldn’t watch him in just anything. Had no interest in it.
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Joaquin was even great in “8mm”.
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I JUST rewatched that film for the first time since when it came out. He did do a good job.
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Thanks, Not sure I want a second helping of that brand of nihilism right now.
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I thought he was excellent in Walk the Line.
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I haven’t seen it, for largely those reasons. I don’t like horror movies, especially ones that are a celebration of mass or serial killers. I’ve always chafed at Punisher as a hero, or even anti-hero. I liked Suicide Squad, though it was populated almost entirely with villains, as there were several there who had degrees of being redeemable, and several had some notion of greater good, besides just a high body count.
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I was wondering how long it would take for someone to bring up Shakes the Clown.
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I saw Joker once. That was enough. Not only does it openly rip off Taxi Driver and the King of Comedy (I mean, they cast Robert De Niro in it), it does it poorly with the plot phoned in. The only thing it had going for it was Joaquin Phoenix performance as a nihilistic outcast who turns to serial killing because he’s butthurt. Phoenix is a great actor and he nailed the part. Todd Phillips even said (I’m paraphrasing) that his directorial style for the movie amounted to pointing the camera at Phoenix and letting him chew scenery.
I’m glad I got to see Phoenix’s performance. I have no desire to ever see the movie again and don’t blame anyone for eschewing entirely due to the depressingly pathetic subject matter. There are plenty of other great parts in which I can re-watch Phoenix. As for Jokers, I’ll stick with Mark Hamill and Heath Ledger.
I doubt I’ll see the sequel.
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