The Joker (2017) User Reviews

Did not impress me one bit

[Horst_In_Translation · 4/10 · 6 October 2019]

The award-winning "The Joker" is a live action short film from 2017 that now gets some (undeserved?) attention again because of the new Joaquin Phoenix movie thatg deals with the same character. The title is self-explanatory. This takes us to Gotham once again obviously and into the life and world of one of the city's most notorious criminals. But first things first. This one we got here runs for slightly under 20 minutes (including one minute of closing credits) and was written and directed by Kiall Garrett, his first filmmaking credit as the man in charge according to imdb and he has been pretty prolific since then. This one is a British production, which surprises me a bit, not only because British superhero films are still a bit of a rarity (or lets say supervillain films), but also because fan-made movies linked to big film franchises also do not come from the UK too often. Most of the time, it is American. But sadly, judging from the quality here I cannot say I regret that a lot. It wasn't a good watch. Nothing stands out. The film is also really struggling on a technical level. The sound work was sub-par in terms of changing volumes or low quality that made it at times even difficult to understand what the characters were saying. What is maybe even worse is the soundtrack. It did not fit one bit. We hear suspenseful music when the Joker is talking, music that is not only too loud on these occasions, but just felt absolutely not in harmony with the situation itg was supposed to emphasize. Same for the faster music in the last third of the film. Not working either. As for the character, the make-up for both was okay I guess. You can't really go wrong with the Joker these days, so not a massive challenger, but I liked Commissioner Gordon's looks even more. There we already have the names of the two protagonists here. There are more credited, but it is really a two-character piece. If you can even call it that because the Joker is far more dominant in their conversation. The key plot is that Gordon is unhappy with the rising wave of crime in Gotham City and he suspects to be the Joker behind it despite the latter sitting in jail. So he goes there and has a talk with him. Oh well, honestly what happens in there, especially towards the end makes it clear to me why the city is struggling so much with crime if the commissioner is incompetent enough to be attacked like that by a prison inmate. I know Gotham is fictitious, but still a little more realism would have been nice. Also don't watch this if you like Poison Ivy because yes she may be credited, but she is barely in this movie at all. What else can I say here? I am glad it was relatively short, still felt too long for my case because honestly with this etting it was all about dialogue writing and the atmospheric take and both wasn't a good achievement here. The latter I mentioned already why (music etc.) and as for the former well you never get a film where the Joker is included and he does not go one bit over the top, so it is essential to still feel authentic when doing so and the director and actor did not get the bestg out of this context in this movie here. I would say all in all, it is close to failure territory, so 2 stars out of 5 is still relatively generous I guess. Thumbs-down. Not recommended.

This is by far.......

[Krugerharn · 1/10 · 4 October 2019]

The worst fan film I have ever seen. Terrible acting, terrible script and the worst take on the Joker I have seen so far.

Nothing about this film is good or engaging.

Amazing movie.

[adempsey1 · 9/10 · 28 October 2021]

I'm not a marvel fan or superhero movie fan. This was edgy not as expected and totally original.

If you are a fan of marvel movies and the like and you're Expecting this to be similar than avoid this movie because this is not your cup of tea.