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“Joker” was a good but not great movie. The film doesn’t open with the DC logo, but instead it opens with the logo of Warner Brothers. From that alone, I knew that the movie would be a little different from the comics. Being a Batman fan, I know that “Joker” is his enemy and plays a big part in making Gotham City unsafe. This character is known for his mind games. Originally in the DC comics, Joker falls into chemicals while running from Batman, and this changes his hair color to green, bleaches his skin and ultimately drives him insane. “Joker” tells a different story. The movie “Joker” is about how Arthur Fleck become a villainous character.  

The film makes viewers sad, angry, scared and amused all through out. The movie documents the life of Arthur Fleck, played by Joaquin Phoenix. Fleck unknowingly suffers from severe mental illness, and due to a head trauma from child abuse, he often laughs uncontrollably. Ultimately, he’s bullied because of it, which leads him into a downward spiral where he eventually turns violent. 

Joaquin Phoenix did a great job playing Joker by showing the world a new side of the character. I was glad that Phoenix brought his own style to Joker instead of going off one of the previous Jokers. Phoenix was able to get the viewers to buy into the Joker’s psychotic behavior. I found myself feeling bad for him at the beginning of the movie. Fleck spins a sign and dances as a clown, and a group of boys take the sign, causing him to run after them. When he finally gets close, Fleck is hit with the sign, kicked and punched repeatedly by the group of boys. 

After being bullied and tormented every day, viewers can feel Fleck’s tension and see his frustration grow. In real life, if this were to happen to one of us, naturally we would be angry and go over the edge too. Viewers begin to see Fleck’s frustration when, after a bad day, he plays with a gun given to him by a coworker. In his living room, he pretends to shoot people. While I understand that he’s angry, he’s taking it too far. Another example of how Phoenix portrayed Joker’s craziness is shown toward the end of the movie. Over the course of the movie, viewers watch Fleck and his neighbor become friends and then enter a romantic relationship. However, at the end of the film, the truth is revealed that Fleck had completely lost his mind and the friendship was a delusion, only existing in his head. Phoenix showed me the weird and awkward side of the Joker that many people have never seen before. I enjoyed figuring out how Arthur Fleck eventually became the Joker.

The movie gave me mixed emotions. If I could watch it again, I would. Although I enjoyed watching Arthur Fleck become Joker, there were a few things I would change relating to the acting and film length. 

Even though I think Phoenix was a good Joker, I feel like he had some tough shoes to fill following Heath Ledger. Ledger is arguably the greatest Joker of all time. The laugh is one reason why. Ledger’s laugh gave me a creepy feeling and added to the Joker’s weirdness. In Ledger’s portrayal of the Joker, his laugh was weird and higher pitched than Phoenix’s. When Phoenix laughed, I didn’t get that same feeling. His laugh was loud, but it lacked the creepiness. 

Not to mention, the movie was a little long for me. The writers and directors could have wrapped up the movie in a smaller time frame while still getting the same story across.

One thing I will say is that the violence in this movie was much needed. Warning: Children of a certain age should not be allowed to see this film. Joker has always been a dark character, but we’ve only seen a little glimpse of how violent he really is. In the movie, there are many violent scenes that get viewers thinking.  The violence was necessary because it shows people a portion of how Fleck felt his whole life. An example of the need for violence is when Fleck was on a train and started laughing because of his condition. This condition led him to get beat up. However, the bullies weren’t expecting Fleck to pull out his gun. In self defense, Fleck shoots and kills his attackers. Fleck was happy that he was finally able to do something about people who have hurt him in his life. 

Another example of the need for violence was when Fleck was invited on one of his favorite TV shows, but he was only invited on the show to be made fun of. When he finally got on the show, Fleck made several inappropriate jokes. This is when he officially gets the name Joker. After confronting the host on his true intentions, Joker shoots the host in the head. He wanted people to feel his pain, and he used violence to solve his problems.

Toward the end of the movie, viewers see a young Bruce Wayne and his parents walking down an ally to avoid the rioting that is taking place in Gotham. It was in this instant that Wayne’s parents were killed in front of him, and if you know Wayne’s background, then you know that scene is the reason why Wayne becomes Batman. He wants to stop Joker because he killed his parents. For non-comic book fans, this movie bridges the gap between the characters and their influences. For comic book fans, this movie allows you to relive your childhood. I would give this movie 4 out of 5 stars. This movie provokes several emotions, and it keeps viewers interested. Director Todd Phillips did a great job telling Joker’s story through an outsider’s perspective and capturing how everything gets started in Gotham.