Reviews

When I saw the very first trailer for the Joker movie, I was disappointed. At first I thought it was going to be modeled after The Killing Joke, but that wasn't the case. I haven't been a great fan of Joaquin Phoenix before this movie, but I really feel he gave an Oscar worthy performance. He was the best part of the movie for me.

I wasn't really a fan of the trailer for the movie, but going in with low expectations I was pleasantly surprised that the movie was better than expected. I really loved the tie-ins to Gotham City and Batman, but I am not sure if they were meant to add to the story or just to provide some storyline connected to Batman.

Speaking of Batman, how could this Joker be the same one in the Batman storyline? At this rate, the Joker would be a feeble old man by the time Batman came into the picture. There also seemed to be a few messages being made here. Rich people are bad people. Poor people are hated by society. And society in general sucks.

I felt that this movie could have been a character study for any person with a traumatic childhood experience, then having several more bad experiences throughout life that push one over the edge of sanity. I kept asking myself, Is this a movie about the Joker, or any one who has been shunned by society while burdened with family issues.

When the movie was over, I sat in my seat trying to figure out if I liked the movie or didn't like it. To be honest, I am still undecided.

I'm not sure why, but there were people with young children to see this movie. I must warn that it does earn its R rating so please consider whether you want to take your kids to see this film. It is very dark and violent at times.

Overall, I would encourage people to see the movie. Joaquin's performance is so masterful, that it needs to be see onscreen.

I am scoring an 8 for this film because the music was very dramatic and helped create the atmosphere when needed. Also for Joaquin's performance. I gave points for being artful and for entertainment value. But, was it a movie that I would say is "Outstanding"? Sadly no.

I am a fan of the book and also enjoyed the original IT movie. Tim Curry was a great Pennywise and the movie itself had enough creep value to make me not think about the ways it strayed from the book.

However this 'remake' is lacking in several ways. From part one to this film Pennywise is hard for me to watch. The "sing-song" voice of Pennywise reminded me of Winnie the Pooh on a few occasions . I also felt that the CGI presented in this movie of things that were supposed to be scary, weren't. Big, misshapen heads with googly eyes were portrayed in different variations and seemed to be the main horror theme. But, they made me chuckle at the absurdity of them.

The references to the movie The Thing, including a line from the movie also made me chuckle in a scene that should have been more frightening. There's also a Shining moment....

I was excited when the film finally referenced the Ritual of Chud but was then let down. And the ending...the way they defeated Pennywise was lackluster and ridiculous.

I love love love Stephen King books. He is a masterful story-teller, and his books are horrifyingly frightening and delicious. It's sad that for me, only a few book to movie translations remain as 'good' movies in my mind.

If you want to see a few, they are Salem's Lot (some younger people may not even bee familiar with it) and The Shining.

I recommend seeing this film as it has a few moments that make it worth it, and a bunch of Easter Eggs. But see it on video/blu-ray/etc, don't waste a movie experience, it's just not that worth it.

There are so many bad reviews here that say "We kept looping back to "x" point in the movie until we made a different choice..." and for that reason they found it boring, and lengthy, etc. This was not about having the novelty of an interactive movie. That was not the point at all.

The point is that Stefan references so many times that he feels that he is being controlled by some force (which is us). But, all the looping and replaying of scenes if we don't choose certain options is what the movie point is about. We, like Stefan are being controlled. If we do not make the correct choices, we are brought back until we do. We are controlled. Maybe it's Pax, maybe it's not. We are supposed to feel the helplessness that Stefan felt at being controlled by our choices. Now our choices were taken.

I can't believe how many 1 star reviews there are because people simply didn't understand this point of the movie. I actually found it quite clever and when I got it, I smiled. The movie itself isn't the best, but I give it a 9 out of 10 based on the cleverness of it all.

Don't go by the 1 star reviews. See it for yourself and don't get wrapped up in the fact that you can make interactive choices in the movie. That wasn't the point at all.