I've had a change of heart.
If the creative minds at Warner Brothers will be making the decisions about future DC projects without the creative direction of Zack Snyder, I'd rather they didn't make Man of Steel 2. WW84, as another reviewer below noted, is a cartoon, from start to finish. The problem is it's a bad cartoon. It's like they took a bunch of plots, tossed them into Christopher Nolan's Inception machine, and whatever came out was filmed and put on the screen.
Say what you will about Zach Snyder but, good or bad, at least the man had a vision.
I don't know what to say about this mess other than if you don't have HBO Max, save yourself the time and aggravation.
If you like cartoons... well, there are better cartoons.
4/10
While not wholly irredeemable, this movie was an incomprehensible mess. I enjoyed the cast. However, the story was ridiculous. While there are certainly elements in the story you can recognize from the "Fast & Furious" franchise, this story has little to do with the characters from it.
Vanessa Kirby is the new addition to the "family," with an appearance by Helen Mirren. Eden Estrella, who played Hobbs' daughter in Furious' 7 and 8, has been inexplicably replaced by Eliana Sua. Also, there are a couple of uncredited yet substantial cameos by Ryan Reynolds and Kevin Hart.
There are several mid-credits scenes and a post-credits scene, but if you haven't walked out by now, what's stopping you?
Todd Phillips and Joaquin Phoenix team for an unconventional comic book movie about a man and a city’s descent into madness. There has been some discussion that this isn’t a comic-book movie, but it undeniably is. It is an origin story.
Arthur Fleck is a devoted son. He lives with his mother, but he is not dependent on her. Rather, he takes care of her, and he does it by working as a clown for hire. His job takes him to various places: for example, a music store going out of business and a children’s hospital. Arthur also suffers from a (real-life) condition, which causes him to laugh uncontrollably at inappropriate times. So much so that he carries a card that can explain it to people when he cannot.
The construction of the story is masterful and subversive, and it requires the audience to think and deduce some of the action going on before them. Phoenix’s performance is nuanced and skilled. It captures some of the cartoon-like nature of The Joker without it being cartoony. In some form, you respect Fleck’s struggle, and then he shocks you with his behavior. In a sense, Fleck has a code, and until the very end of the film, he never violates it.
To tell you more would spoil the experience.
Rated R by the MPAA for strong bloody violence, disturbing behavior, language and brief sexual images, Joker is the best comic book film with that rating since Logan. I highly recommend it.
At one point in this "movie", a character asks:
""Why aren't you in a more entertaining scenario?"
Exactly.
Rating: 4 out of 10
From 2009: Judge for yourself.
Batman v Superman The Ultimate Edition is far superior to the theatrical release. Take a bathroom break. Line up your snacks. Settle in for a three-hour film experience that is a worthy successor to "Man of Steel."
