Only old fridges with latches would trap someone inside. Could it be part of a long hallucination that he has while in Arkham? Possible. The movie lends itself to questioning that at multiple points.
Besides, you know he doesn't die. Unless Batman is fighting a ghost in every other movie.

Good, not great, my thought as well.

The Good:
Phoenix is really outstanding.
You feel the tension of this film, it's uncomfortable.
The violence is shocking at times.
Looks like 70s NYC, great set design.

The Not: I think the creation of The Joker being a combination of mental illness, amongst other factors, felt a little bit lazy in all honesty. Where Batman was a hero created by a man to save Gotham, I always thought Joker should be the complete antithesis, a villain created by Gotham that started as a regular guy systematically broken by the city and its people. He and his mother both being mentally ill just didn't fit for me. I didn't think the Wayne family was at all necessary to even be in the film, it may have been just to ground it in the Batman universe, but the film itself is the same without the Wayne family other than perhaps the them getting gunned down, that's the only scene that should have been there. I like the idea of him being abandoned/adopted, but not trying to have him believe Thomas Wayne was his father.

I had high hopes but the hype is off. Also, people need to calm the hell down that were referring to this film as dangerous. It's a movie, relax.

Has anyone gone back and watched the Kimmel interview aftet the movie? Completely recontextualizes it. Genius!

Biggest October opening with $93M+. And already at $234M worldwide.

Huge.

And it's almost exactly Justice League's $93.8M opening.

Kind of amazing. Crazy to think what was catastrophic for one movie is a massive win for the other.

Brian Earl Spilner said:

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And it's almost exactly Justice League's $93.8M opening.

Kind of amazing. Crazy to think what was catastrophic for one movie is a massive win for the other.

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You can't seriously be comparing the opening of Joker to the opening of Justice League (expectations, budgets, etc.)?

Thanks for explaining.

That's exactly why I'm comparing them. Joker managed to match JL's opening on a tiny budget, with a single character and with a comparatively tiny marketing push behind it.

Goes to show how badly they screwed the pooch with JL. (And how good an opening this is for Joker.)

Brian Earl Spilner said:

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That's exactly why I'm comparing them. Joker managed to match JL on a tiny budget, with a single character and with a comparatively tiny marketing push behind it.

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Any idea on the cost to make the film? I thought it was amazing as far as a film goes. Beautiful cinematography and incredible well acted. But so disturbing from a realistic perspective on mental illness. And so incredibly sad. I really wanted to cry almost the entire time!!! Hit too close to home having been a prosecutor and Judge and defense attorney. And having family connections to mental illness.

55 Million

Google says $55M. Pennies compared to JL's massive $300M.

Thanks!

Goes to show how much original ideas, or even original takes on old ideas are valued and desired in the entertainment world.

I love some of the movie collections. Huge fan of Marvels stuff. And some of the other chains, but I crave uniqueness and this was that. Not saying I'd see it again because of the depressing factor, but it was crazily entertaining.

My $0.02: A weird and creepy actor portrays a weird and creepy character to chilling effect. The film doesn't offer a lot of action but is nevertheless compelling from start to finish.

By the time it ended I was ready to leave, i felt uncomfortable and wanted sunlight. Very dark and nihilistic

I enjoyed the movie. It was very dark and depressing, but they did a good job of causing viewers to vacillate between pity for Arthur and disdain for Arthur. The origin tale seemed like a good on ramp for the psychopath like the Joker we know from 15-20 years after this movie.
I liked the tension in the film regarding: did Arthur become the Joker because of societal neglect and harshness or because it was inevitable with his mental illnesses and impulses?

Overall, I think it shows (again) that DC has better characters with more interesting potential and stories. And especially, the Batman universe has the greatest cast of characters in any super hero canon. Admittedly, I am biased and have always been a Batman over everyone guy.

Shoutout to the composer. Score was amazing. (Same composer who did Chernobyl. I can definitely hear the similarities.)

Brian Earl Spilner said:

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That's exactly why I'm comparing them. Joker managed to match JL's opening on a tiny budget, with a single character and with a comparatively tiny marketing push behind it.

Goes to show how badly they screwed the pooch with JL. (And how good an opening this is for Joker.)

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Gotcha, I misunderstood what you were implying.

I liked it. Phoenix and Phillips made a few choices with the character that went a long way. Also, great look and score.



***SPOILER***
The portion that was odd to me was with the talk show host. I saw the talk show host as liking Arthur and that he was also trying to help Arthur, even if by making him the heel. Second, the Wayne portion all felt off frankly. It makes the characters too intertwined.

Enjoyed it, but not sure I'll ever watch again with how dark it was. I was prepared for dark but really wasn't ready for the final scenes.

I thoroughly enjoyed it. Well done!

I love this version of Joker and would love for them to do a version of the Killing Joke as a sequel to this movie... .... also things that I notice




********* not really spoilers but who knows today **********

Bruce sliding down a pole before meeting Arthur for the first time... nice forshadow of Bruce sliding down a pole as he goes to the Batcave (See old Batman tv show)

The Ace in the Hole Strip club behind the Joker while he stand on the Car during the riot was great and perfect placement.

The fact that it was the Joker trying to solve a mystery about who he was and his history.. seem poetic.. and love the small but powerful images in this movie. .. heck we don't even know if this is Batman joker.. or the guy who inspired him.

Brian Earl Spilner said:

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Did he really climb in the fridge? You can't open those from the inside.

What if he did, and everything after that was his dying hallucinations? Keep in mind that immediately after he gets in there, the phone rings inviting him onto the talk show. Everything starts to go "right" for him after that.

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I thought the same thing.

Joker currently at 9.0 on IMDB and #9 ranked movie of all time.

https://www.imdb.com/chart/top?ref_=tt_awd

That IMDb list is kind of a joke. No one takes it seriously.