The "I just saw" thread

[Halie Satanus]

Avengement.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Not much of a plot, dialog is fluffy, acting is what you'd expect from the cream of British low budget gangster movies. Definitely isn't 'Dead Man's Shoes' but it is brutally violent with an excellent stunt team doing close combat work...

[Kyriakos]

I heard the new Joker movie was a let down. Figures, imo.

[mishkin]

I heard the new Joker movie was a let down. Figures, imo.

You just saw it?

[Aexodus]

My friend saw it and he said it was good. I think a good measure of how much you like it depends on how much you’re into the Joker himself, and Scorcese Taxi Driver style films about a single character.

[mishkin]

I guess it is also a factor to considerad if you like Todd Phillips films.

Maybe we should talk about it in the arts chat thread, not here.

[Lord of the Drunk Penguin]

The Houses that October Built

Solid. 10 out of 10.
I think they achieved what they set up to do.

I like it that the crew are actually the actors.
Now that's low budget for ya!

[Lord of the Drunk Penguin]

The House That Jack Built

Self-indulgent piece of crap.
Like how all the characters are dumb, except the killer.
Why?
Because Lars von Trier is trolling you.

[mishkin]

The House That Jack Built
Self-indulgent piece of crap.
[...]
Lars von Trier is trolling you.

I read something quite similar in some professional reviews.

[Lord of the Drunk Penguin]

Evil Things

Now, I love me some found footage, just like any other guy, for the cheap thrills, know what I mean? but this?
This promised a lot and delivered less.
Kinda like my relationships.

A lot of running and screaming and not much else.
For an independent film maker, the effort is laudable but it's no
Evil Dead...

[Kyriakos]

The Houses that October Built

Solid. 10 out of 10.
I think they achieved what they set up to do.

I like it that the crew are actually the actors.
Now that's low budget for ya!

Iirc I had given it either an 8 or a 9. It was very good, although imo the very end was abrupt. And the sequel shows that it wasn't just a glitch; the sequel is garbage...

[Common Soldier]

Just saw Ad Adstra, and it was bad, well deserving of its 40% Rotten Tomatoes Audience score. Yet the Critics gave it an 83% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, which just confirms my experience with the The Last Jedi that critics just don't know what a goo movie was.

The science, the premise of of the plot, and the space ship designs were all poor.

[Kyriakos]

The Joker movie has imo various issues, but come on, that scene near the end -with Deniro becoming open-minded- is one of the best in recent times
Good enough to build a sequel upon anyway.

[Diamat]

I usually hate all superhero movies, but I have to admit that this movie was great. From the beginning until the end, I was totally immersed. I suppose the action-super-hero-movie crowd did not enjoy this.

[Ishan]

We need more dark themed DC stuff. Always preferred DC over Marvel in that aspect. Wolverine is perhaps the only exception but the X-men series also got meh over the years.

[Kyriakos]

I usually hate all superhero movies, but I have to admit that this movie was great. From the beginning until the end, I was totally immersed. I suppose the action-super-hero-movie crowd did not enjoy this.

I wouldn't call this a "superhero" movie It doesn't have Batman doing anything. The movie has imo a few flaws, but also a couple of memorable scenes, and overall is good. I like that the Joker here is similar to the Bane story in DKR (which clearly was a superhero movie, with stupid martial arts) ^_^

Also, while Gotham=New York isn't new, I was still surprised when Joker mentioned "Wall street".

[Diamat]

What were the flaws, exactly?

[Kyriakos]

What were the flaws, exactly?

Others may not see them that way:

-the delusion angle was not presented that well, I mean this angle has been there in so many movies that if you are going to have it front and center you may as well have something more memorable to present?
-we don't get to learn that much about the protagonist (and then he descends into madness due to not being on his prescribed drugs)
-"7 different drugs" sounds very excessive. I am not sure if it was realistic. People with (eg) psychosis usually take 2-3 drugs, AFAIK.
-Most of the characters aren't fleshed out. They exist to say or do something, just so the plot progresses. Eg Wayne and his inflammatory statement against more than half the city.

[Diamat]

Others may not see them that way:

-the delusion angle was not presented that well, I mean this angle has been there in so many movies that if you are going to have it front and center you may as well have something more memorable to present?

I thought it was really well done. I got goosebumps during many of his delusional or socially awkward scenes.

-we don't get to learn that much about the protagonist (and then he descends into madness due to not being on his prescribed drugs)
-"7 different drugs" sounds very excessive. I am not sure if it was realistic. People with (eg) psychosis usually take 2-3 drugs, AFAIK.

It's a superhero movie. Since when is realism an issue?

-Most of the characters aren't fleshed out. They exist to say or do something, just so the plot progresses. Eg Wayne and his inflammatory statement against more than half the city.

That's a fair point. The whole movie is truly centered on the joker character. All characters serve his story. But I don't think it is done in a poor way. The movie was supposed to center on him, so in that sense, I don't think it detracts from the experience. For instance, having a background story for the mom or the black neighbor girl would have served no real purpose. It was good that the movie didn't go off on useless tangents.

[Cookiegod]

I think that's a perfect example for the fact that this movie isn't for everyone. What Kyriakos criticises I see as some of its core strengths:

• The other characters couldn't be more fleshed out because of the narrative style: Which is third person limited. So fleshing out others would have been possible only by losing out on the development of the protagonist. The only time the movie actually leaves him is right at the end, when Thomas Wayne is killed. And that only to illustrate how the Jokers and Batmans origins were interlinked. All the rest of the movie the Joker was basically front and center.
• The same goes for the delusion. The movie went with realism over relatability. I actually had some trouble to buy into it, because I expected it to be a cheap action movie and the mental issues to be merely a plot point serving to get us to the action. When that didn't happen, I kinda experienced a 180° turn. "Holy... This movie is actually doing it?!"
  So "something memorable" would have made it better for some but most certainly also much worse for me.
• I stumbled over the 7 medications thing as well. Especially since it was right at the beginning of the movie. It's not the number of medications that make a difference, but the dosage. However, speaking in absolute numbers ("7") is far easier to understand than "50mg of Sertraline, 15mg of Ritaline, 25mg of diamaline". Such details are where realism can be a bit excessive and even detract from the actual point the movie was making, which was: Joker takes a lot of medicine. It doesn't help.

Quite honestly, I loved this movie for finally respecting me, the viewer, and not thinking of me like a total idiot. That's especially glorious given that the maker is the guy who made Hangover.

The plot really reminds me of Dostoyevskyi's the double: Which is also a story where you in third person limited follow a protagonist in his journey into ever more madness... Again: This from the guy who made Hangover?!

And the deeper twists on the overall story, with the Gotham universe turned upside down (the benevolent billionaire vs evil street thugs thing is kinda stupid) and Jokers story still being one of selfrealisation. He's become a homicidal maniac, but personally he's still become a freer and happier man. I love it.

Also note that the end somewhat implies that the entire plot of the movie was made up by him to that woman across the table (before she's presumably murdered and he walks out with red footprints). A good callback to Heath Ledger's Joker making up a different origin story every time he tells it.

[Kyriakos]

I think that's a perfect example for the fact that this movie isn't for everyone. What Kyriakos criticises I see as some of its core strengths:

• The other characters couldn't be more fleshed out because of the narrative style: Which is third person limited. So fleshing out others would have been possible only by losing out on the development of the protagonist. The only time the movie actually leaves him is right at the end, when Thomas Wayne is killed. And that only to illustrate how the Jokers and Batmans origins were interlinked. All the rest of the movie the Joker was basically front and center.
• The same goes for the delusion. The movie went with realism over relatability. I actually had some trouble to buy into it, because I expected it to be a cheap action movie and the mental issues to be merely a plot point serving to get us to the action. When that didn't happen, I kinda experienced a 180° turn. "Holy... This movie is actually doing it?!"
  So "something memorable" would have made it better for some but most certainly also much worse for me.
• I stumbled over the 7 medications thing as well. Especially since it was right at the beginning of the movie. It's not the number of medications that make a difference, but the dosage. However, speaking in absolute numbers ("7") is far easier to understand than "50mg of Sertraline, 15mg of Ritaline, 25mg of diamaline". Such details are where realism can be a bit excessive and even detract from the actual point the movie was making, which was: Joker takes a lot of medicine. It doesn't help.

Quite honestly, I loved this movie for finally respecting me, the viewer, and not thinking of me like a total idiot. That's especially glorious given that the maker is the guy who made Hangover.

The plot really reminds me of Dostoyevskyi's the double: Which is also a story where you in third person limited follow a protagonist in his journey into ever more madness... Again: This from the guy who made Hangover?!

And the deeper twists on the overall story, with the Gotham universe turned upside down (the benevolent billionaire vs evil street thugs thing is kinda stupid) and Jokers story still being one of selfrealisation. He's become a homicidal maniac, but personally he's still become a freer and happier man. I love it.

Also note that the end somewhat implies that the entire plot of the movie was made up by him to that woman across the table (before she's presumably murdered and he walks out with red footprints). A good callback to Heath Ledger's Joker making up a different origin story every time he tells it.

Hey, I liked the movie too. And yes, it is third person limited, which is fine (I mean that is what Kafka ALWAYS does, and arguably he is one of the greatest authors). The Wayne getting killed part didn't annoy me (since I mentioned Kafka, there the third person limited is abandoned for longer, although it is abandoned because the protagonist dies-- The Metamorphosis).
I didn't mean "fleshed out" as in presenting every characters POV or thoughts. I meant that this movie could have had one more hour (as it stands it is less than 2 hours; 1 hour 50 min iirc) and use that to make the other characters a bit more believable. Even Deniro was 1-dimensional imo.

By "something more memorable" re the delusion, I meant that it was done in a rather rough manner in the movie. It was far better in (eg) The Machinist. Of course the revelation of the delusion was the sole point the whole Machinist movie was leading to, but this doesn't mean The Joker didn't present this in a rather sketchy way, in my view