Lots has been said about this movie. A lot more has not been said about it. What has been said is that it is not like other super hero movies. This is true. What has been said is the acting is great. This is true. What has not been said is ...can acting alone save a movie when the writing is shit? What about if there is very little plot and a message about the 1 percent being pushed when in fact the would be hero to come is the 1 percent ? The movie is well made from a production stand point. It looks great. In my writing on music one of my common complaints about music these days is bands might sound good, meaning they have every thing dialed in to get a certain sound, but they can not write songs. This fits if you replace sound with look. This movie could have been edited down to 30 minutes because nothing happens until the last 30 mins. Oh, a sub way shooting. That could have happened during the opening credits. But it is an origin story one person on Facebook cried when I expressed my boredom with the first half of the movie . To which so was Conan the Barbarian. In fact Conan had a much worse go of life, he not only saw his parents get killed, but he was sold into slavery and forced to push a wheel of pain for 14 years...and still he was kicking ass with in the first 20 minutes of the movie.
The buzz this film built around it came from the scare of gun violence. Without it would it have really had much more hype than "Suicide Squad" or the "Venom" movie ? It is closer to Venom than Suicide Squad in terms of execution. Though It reminded me more of "the Brown Bunny" if it had been given a "Falling Down" twist. The comparisons to "Taxi Driver" are not unfounded but almost gives the writing too much credit. It felt like they only had a script for the last 30 minutes. There will be some who would like to think they are thinking deeper about this movie so lets make sure we did not miss anything. Life is hard for the Joker. He has a condition where he can not stop laughing. This is difficult. The mental health care system is rough, hey I know this one first hand , I am always saying I should become super villian. Life dealt him a bad hand. How many movies has this been the case ? Mmm "The Elephant Man", "Hunch Back of Notre Dame" , "Carrie" ...I can keep going though you can also count the other movies we have used as comparisons too. He cracks under pressure and we know where this is going so there are no real spoilers here. In other words more thoughtful than most villians get and I think he will stack up well again the Twilight Knight version of Bat-man.
What I liked the most about this movie was even in trying to be a high brow art house flick it was not overly apologetic for being a comic book movie kept things in Gotham and gave appropriate wink to the Bat Man mythos. If you were really into this character then I think you will appreciate this part. As how he stacks up against the other Joker's he is closer to Heath's which is not my favorite and I think the hype of his performance will not stand the test of time . I think the scare tactics employed for controversy might have been generated by the studio themselves. Nothing in the movie is any cause for alarm. Some one asked me if this is dark and I told them what are you comparing it to ? Other super hero movies sure. Lars Von Tier or David Lynch films ...no. Horror movies no. If there is a cheap matinee is worth that I would not pay more than six buck unless you are really bored or a mega Joker fan.
