The Good, The Bad, and The Joker

The suit distracts from the face…

Starting tonight, the new Joker film is going to be out in theaters. People are probably watching as we speak and I for one am interested in seeing the film as well. However, it does come with some controversy. From the director’s complaints about the “death of comedy” and the depiction of violence to the increased police patrols, this movie is a big believer in bad publicity is good publicity.

Fear and timing really come into play for most of the controversy. Three mass shootings in the month of August are fresh reminders to people of the dangers of people dealing with mental illness and/or dangerous thoughts and attitudes. The film also brings back horrible memories for Aurora shooting victims and they have even written a letter to Warner Bros about the movie.

These are concerns are valid and should definitely not be dismissed, but perspective is still needed. The Joker, since around 1988, was a dark, dangerous, evil, and even charismatic character. People don’t just cheer for Batman’s success; they also root for the Joker’s disturbance. A film about the Joker was inevitable as he is one of DC Comics premiere characters.

And as much as society doesn’t want to take credit, culture has influenced this rise in villain movies as well. The two leading factors: Comic book influence and anti-heroes.

DC and the Dark

The whole gang’s here…at least the evil ones are.

The growth and expansion of morally grey, anti-heroes has lead to movies such as Nightcrawler, Drive, Deadpool, and Venom, and these movies have gotten progressively darker and darker. Movies with anti-heroes isn’t new by any means, but its acceptance has grown substantially.

DC Comics has always had a darker, grittier edge, which lends perfect to anti-heroes. A perfect example would be Suicide Squad. It was literally villains saving the day. Birds of Prey is next on DC Comics list and with Suicide Squad starting production, DC is going to lighten up anytime soon.

Having a movie about Joker, the most well-known and popular villain of all-time (regardless of medium), should not be a surprise. It was inevitable.

And with the growth of comic books becoming movies and expanding influence and recognition in today’s culture, this rise of Joker was not only predictable, but asked for.

And this can be a good thing.

The Good - Social Discussion

Sometimes, movies are meant to challenge you. This movie is going to tackle difficult topics. Whether it’s successful or not, movies should sometimes challenge us. I don’t often feel challenged by Marvel or DC movies. This could be an interesting opportunity to see a movie that challenges the way we perceive people, or society, and or ourselves if we really want to get deep.

The Bad - A Fearful Experience

Not going to a movie out of fear is disappointing. Fear should not dictate our decisions, but in reality, it can. I urge people to not give in to fear and be open to watching the movie. If you don’t want to go to the theaters, that’s fine. But I hope you aren’t choosing not to go because of fear or controversy. That being said, the movie is still predicted to make almost 90 million dollars.

The Joker - What to Know

The Joker is played by Joaquin Phoenix (Buffalo Soldiers, Walk the Line, Signs) and he lost over 50 pounds to play the role of Joker. The film is directed by Todd Phillips, known for adult comedies such as The Hangover and Borat. Other great actors in the movie include Robert De Niro and Zazie Beetz. The movie took inspiration from the comic book, Batman: The Killing Joke, and Martin Scorsese’s films that focused on a character study approach that was popular in the 1970’s. This is probably useless information, but in case you are going to the movies with complete newbies, it might be fun to talk about.

On Saturday, I hope to provide a review of the film to let those on the fence know if the movie is worth watching, waiting, or skip all together (It would have to be pretty bad for me to suggest the last one, I’ve watched some real sleepers).

In the meantime, don’t dress up as a clown until Halloween.

- J.J.

NOTE:

As people are leaving the theater and others eagerly waiting to go in, please be respectfully of each other. A movie experience shouldn’t be popcorn, soda, and fear of death. It should be safe and fun. Also, if you are not of age to watch the movie, please don’t. Wait until you are.

For parents, please don’t take your kids. From my understanding, this movie will be more drama than action and character study films are not exactly Spiderman thrills. It’s for adults and should be treated as such. This movie is rated R, not PG-13.

Comic Book Review - Green Arrow

Happy Free Comic Book Day! Hope everyone has enjoyed reading comics on this great, lazy Saturday. 

If you can't figure out who today's comic book review is on, I suggest reading some DC comics. You should be able to find him quickly. It's also rated T for Teen if anyone cares.

Anyways, this comic book review is on the April 2016 Green Arrow comic titled, "Primal Instincts"

BACKSTORY:

I will keep it brief: He's got Werewolf AIDS after being bitten by biker gang leader, Dolph "Big Bad Wolf" Marrock. The people infected are called Warg's, which is ironically the just another term for wolf. Green Arrow was bitten by Marrock has contracted a Lukos infection that causes him to act out with wolf-like primal instincts, hence the name. If you want more details, check out this article by Dan Avery on NewNowNext.

STORY:

The Patriots, a rebellious, KKK looking group (not the football team), had just been cleared by the courts of any wrongdoing at a recent Midnight Parade attack that targeted Wargs. Oliver Queen (Green Arrow) is frustrated with the decision, knowing they let a dangerous group walk free.

Storyteller: Benjamin Percy, Art: Szymon Kudranski, Colorist: Gabe Eltaeb, Letterer: Rob Leigh, Cover: Szymon Kudranski; Variant Cover: Neal Adams, Jim Lee, and Alex Sinclair; Group Editor: Brian Cunningham; Editor: Harvey Richards

The story jumps to a restaurant where Oliver is conducting a business deal for researches on developing carbon nanotubes. Oliver lets his business partner do most of the talking, distracted by a Korean gangster known as Kraken.

Kraken leaves for the bathroom and Oliver follows him just as he is starting to lose control of himself. Queen attacks Kraken, tackling him out a window onto the dining room floor. Kraken shoots back at him and runs to the back alley to escape, his limo patiently and predictably waiting for him.

Before Oliver can chase after him, he is suddenly shot with tranq arrow...by Emiko. Emiko, his sister, takes him back to their base of operations and injects him with Lukonex to settle the symptoms.

Meanwhile, at the New Christian Church and Outreach Center, the Patriots begin to plot on how to get Dolph Marrock out of solitary confinement and allow him to cause havoc in the city.

Oliver, having a renewed sense of determination, readies for war with Dolph upon hearing word he just escaped from prison.

IMPRESSIONS:

I thought the story was okay. It wasn't my favorite and sort of misleading. the cover alone (a sweet Neal Adams variant cover) had me thinking it was going to be a Green Arrow vs Green Lantern fight. There is no Green Lantern in this story at all.

The overall story also seems to be a rather safe interpretation of the KKK and white supremacist groups vs a liberal (or even LGBT) society. The Dan Avery article above brings some interesting insight into that and although I don't fully agree with the every point, I do feel the story was chunky. Not bad, but it could have done more build in the beginning of the story to impact the ending better. That being said, I probably should have read the first one in the series.

The art by Szymon Kudranski in combination with Gabe Eltaeb color work and Rob Leigh's lettering really made the story visually interesting. Especially with the montage escape scene of Dolph. I think the story does more good than bad overall.

I'll give the comic one scared Green Arrow. Even though he is on a war path, part of me feels he would be somewhat scared.

Again, sorry for the late review. I just passed my drone test this week so I have been behind on basically everything. Will try not to do that again and maybe next week I will do a small article on drones. They are pretty cool! -J.J.

COMIC BOOK GIVEAWAY!!

It's giveaway time! For the people who have been subscribed to the newsletter, they already had an idea a week ago.

Starting today and ending September 28th, anyone who posts a comment to my blog posts (about comic books) or subscribes to the newsletter will be entered for opportunity to receive 14 free comic books!

I picked a variety of random comic books ranging in publishers from Vertigo to DC to Marvel. The picture below shows all the comics, but a few are tucked away to add a bit of mystery.

If you can guess the comic book third from the right, I will throw in another comic book for the comic book giveaway winner! Post in the comments or @Jjlahr

Quick Writing Update: I recent received an honorable mention from Writer's Digest in their annual writing competition for my short story, Love Came Down. I will be entering it to a few more publishers to see if they are interested in publishing, but if not, I will be posting the full short story on my blog. I also have some additional projects in the works that I hope to have ready to share by November/December. Stay tuned and thanks for all your support!

Suicide Squad Review - Better Than Critics Say It Is!

Yesterday I had the opportunity to watch the latest DC universe film, Suicide Squad, and I wanted to offer a more balanced review than what I saw on the internet prior to its release.

As everyone may know by now, Suicide Squad has received quite a bit of backlash from critics (currently sitting at 27% on Rotten Tomatoes). However, I feel that the critics may be overreacting on the film’s perceived mistakes and shortcomings. This review will spoil the movie so proceed at your own caution.

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The movie does not ease anyone into introductions and jumps right into the characters and uses flashbacks to develop the character’s origins. Although I was thrown off guard by the approach initially, I actually liked it and felt it was fitting for the tone of the movie. Deadshot (Will Smith), Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie), and Amanda Walker (Viola Davis) were by far the most interesting characters in the movie for me. Will brought a cool, hitman energy to the character that I felt was in line with the comic books. He is definitely the star in this movie, but Margot almost stole the show. Her portrayal as Harley Quinn was near perfect, hitting both the Brooklyn accent and fun attitude of the character. Her performance alone should be worth a look by producers as a potential spin-off with real potential. Viola Davis’s performance as Amanda Walker was chilling…and in a good way. Now that I reflect back on it, Viola Davis may have had the best performance of the three.

The Villains in their graphic skull glory....well maybe not glory.

The character that was most hyped coming into this movie was obviously the Joker. The stories of Jared Leto's interactions with cast members and his method performance was what people thought would be a major character in the story. In reality though, his role was really more of a cameo, but an important one to the film. Joker did move the story forward in his quest to retrieve Harley Quinn and it put another unique element to building Harley's backstory. For fans of the comics, they already knew that Joker's participation in the movie would be limited as he is not an official member of the Suicide Squad. So, due to his lack of participation in the movie as a whole, I think it is hard to truly judge Jared Leto's Joker performance to harshly. It was cameo performance and should be treated as such.

Spooky!

The other characters each had varying importance within the movie and having that variation wasn’t bad. The character I feel was actually most important to movie was Col. Rick Flagg. He’s kind of the center piece of this whole movie in a way. His girlfriend, June Moon (A.K.A. Enchantress) is actually the main villain and the one person Col. Rick Flagg doesn’t want to lose. Amanda Walker manipulates this relationship to have Enchantress do her bidding. That is until Enchantress goes off the reservation and escapes the watchful eye Amanda Walker. I could go on and on about the story from here, but I would rather not spoil the whole movie. What I can say is the movie was simple and straightforward, which I found to be somewhat refreshing. The movie did try to over reach and become something it wasn't meant to be. It was not meant to complete against Marvel or do better than Superman Vs. Batman to justify DC movie universe. It told a story about a bunch of villains, when backed into a corner, can come together to defeat a greater evil.

ADDRESSING CRITICISM: FILM STANDPOINT

Here I will be addressing some of the major film criticism that I heard from critics, but I will be talking a bit about the David Ayer's approach to the film. I feel it is important to note before judging a movie too harshly.

Being a fan of both comic books and general cinema helped me appreciate what the director, David Ayer, was trying to do with this movie. Each director has a different style and David’s style is definitely more character focused; something that was mentioned also by Jai Courtney and other cast members. He wants to see strong performances and give the actors that room to deliver the performance. Overall, I feel like his cast did accomplish that goal.

Sipping espresso and reading film criticism....the good life!

David (and the cast) also brought more empathy to their characters. Deadshot's backstory involved his daughter, Harley Quinn's backstory revolved around her complex relationship with Joker, and Diablo (Jay Hernandez) also focused around his family. Other characters in the movie (Captain Boomerang, Killer Croc, and Katana) are not as well developed, but it doesn’t make them bad characters by any means.

As many could gleam from the trailer, this movie was going to be an ensemble piece in a similar vein as the Avengers, except it’s in a different universe and the main “Protagonists" are actually villains. Unlike other films similar to Avengers or Captain America Civil War, many of the characters introduced in this movie were first introduced to audiences in this movie. Only fans of the comic books or cartoons would have basic knowledge of what was going to happen. That may be a reason why some critics had a problem with the movie. Marvel has been blessed with the ability to release individual origin stories and then move to the larger ensemble movie. DC simply worked it in reverse.

Other criticism revolved around a thinly written script and poor plot, which I disagree with. To say the plot is poor is hard to justify. I believe the plot was quite simple, but to say it was poor would seem more like a knee-jerk reaction. In terms of writing, especially for film, people need to understand just how hard that is to accomplish. Sometimes writing can be elevated by an amazing performance by an actor or actress. Other times, writing can be element that helped inspire the direction and performance of the actors. Film is a different world in terms of writing since film is a visual medium. Was the writing Oscar worthy? No, but is it really bad? I don't think it is at all! I think the writing was fitting to the story and fit the darker, comic book style that the director initially set out to accomplish.

Overall, what this movie did was give us something different while still fitting within a DC Cinematic Universe. The acting was solid, story was nice and simple, and the action was well done. I can't speak for the critics, but there are no hard and set rules to film criticism. It really boils down to did people like it or not and then justify. From my experience in the theater and among other DC fans, I think people did like it! So, I would recommend checking out this movie if you are a fan of comic books, particularly DC, or wanting to see a different take on the traditional film anti-hero discussion.

These are my thoughts on the movie, but I would like to know what your thoughts are on the movie? Did you like it or did you agree with the critics? Please leave a comment below or share this article with your fellow comic book fans.