The Dark Knight Rises You Have My Permission To Lounge - Part 4

[The Joker]

If the stuff I've been hearing about Letoker's characterization in SS is true, I am going to hug my copy of TDK and be even more thankful for Ledger's Joker.

 

[Tacit Ronin]

Wut u mean?

 

[JackWhite]

Apparently you don't pay for the theater experience of a DC film. You invest money on the hopes that you get a decent edit later. For which you gotta pay again.

 

[JackWhite]

I haven't read much myself, but from what I hear he's barely even in the film. I watched Chris Stuckman's review and he said Joker doesn't have that "Joker moment" that we have had in the previous films in which he appeared.

 

[The Joker]

Wut u mean?

Spoiler

By all accounts he comes across as an emo rockstar Joker fanboy rather than the Joker. His entire story is he just wants his gf back.

 

[JackWhite]

^What's not to love about that? lol.

 

[The Joker]

Oh I don't know....everything?

 

[Tacit Ronin]

From an agent of chaos, from a dog chasing cars to a puppy chasing tail.

 

[JackWhite]

Ugh, I so wanted Leto to nail the role. I tried so hard to not let the look of his Joker bother me too much, thinking the performance would win me over. *Sigh*

 

[The Shape]

Lol, you haven't seen it.

 

[Tacit Ronin]

The crown prince of hot topic, Letoker.

"Do I look like a guy with a plan? I just do Harley. They're schemers. I'm a lover".


"If I am to have a past, it should be multiple Harleys".

"You see, Harley is like gravity. All she needs is a little shove".

 

[JackWhite]

Lol, you haven't seen it.

Oh I know. I was being a little melodramatic just for the heck of it.

But to be serious, this is a real problem for the DC films. I was super hyped for SS, especially knowing Snyder didn't have his grubby hands on it.

 

[JackWhite]

The crown prince of hot topic, Letoker.

"Do I look like a guy with a plan? I just do Harley. They're schemers. I'm a lover".


"If I am to have a past, it should be multiple Harleys".

"You see, Harley is like gravity. All she needs is a little shove".

I'd buy all three of those shirts with those quotes on it.

 

[AnneFan]

I'm tired of all the bonus material or extended cuts being held out for blu-ray releases with these last few DC films. WB/DC need to actually put out a solid theatrical cut for a film that isn't chopped to bits.

This I agree with.

It must be a kick in the guts for the likes of Leto to film a bunch of stuff and to have it largely cut.

 

[BatmanBeyond]

Here's a dude who saw the film in May and then this week.

Spoiler

Wow, I'm saving my actual reaction for after I see the movie, but if this is what actually happened, then that's just sad for DC, the studio intervening and making changes to a perfectly good movie just because of the negative reaction to BvS. It really sounds like they have no idea what they're doing.

 

[BaelaTargaryen]

https://filmschoolrejects.com/when-a-method-man-is-too-much-a-showman-2118094d31f0#.p922lhrvo

"When a Method Man Is Too Much a Showman
Jared Leto’s Joker is a ham and a hog in Suicide Squad.

When Constantin Stanislavski, grandfather of Method acting, started his “system” of representational performance, he was revolutionizing the craft in response to what had been the standard for centuries. Actors were showier, broke the fourth wall, and generally presented their roles directly to and sometimes interacted with the audience. In the century or so since Stanislavski’s techniques were popularized, the norm for acting has become more and more based on naturalism, realism, and internalizing the art. Even actors who don’t fully “go Method” are typically trained for theatre and cinema that’s voyeuristic for viewers rather than involving.
But especially in recent years, Method has become somewhat synonymous with a showier side of acting. One aspect of this is the actual performances being still internally based for the actor but the characters being unbelievably grandiose to the point that they’re stretching if not breaking the fourth wall. They draw our attention in a way that makes us the ones extending ourselves into the scene as opposed to the other way around. It’s not necessarily intentional on the part of the actors, though. For Jared Leto’s Method performance as the Joker in Suicide Squad, however, I think there is a conscious effort to attract the audience’s focus.
It doesn’t help that Leto’s process for his Suicide Squad role has been so heavily addressed by the media and maybe has gotten a push as part of the marketing (yes, ironically this criticism adds to that). He and his on-set stunts supposedly in-character are part of the external narrative of this movie’s production, and it will be on the minds of a lot of moviegoers before they even take their seats in the theater. The funny thing is that for all the publicity and his second-billing credit, Leto is not in the movie for very long. But he feels like a huge presence because of the hype, because of the iconic status of the character, and especially because he’s such a camera hog.
It’s also not a very interesting performance, either in his interpretation of the Joker or on the whole as a movie character. He’s very much at the service of Harley Quinn’s origin story and has a part in defining her personality and motivation and desire. Other than his utilitarian function, though, he has none. Nor does he have any appeal. For all the attention Leto has received for the role, he doesn’t do much with it. He commands our focus and steals scenes, but that is primarily because of his flashy physical appearance combined with what we bring to it, as far as our familiarity and our expectations. He’s a ham, there’s no doubt, but not a juicy one.
And because he’s hogging the movie with his garish presence and not delivering, he constantly takes us out of the movie in a distracting way. That’s hardly the desired result of a true Method actor, even if a lot of them, from Marlon Brando to Daniel Day-Lewis, have given great performances that sometimes seem to float above or beyond or outside the rest of their respective movies. Leto’s Joker is no Don Corleone, however, no Daniel Plainview. And certainly no Heath Ledger’s Joker, which is a greater example of a Method actor both disappearing into his role and being histrionic — of course, his theatricality is the character’s, not the actor’s.

Leto’s Joker does not come across as realistic, even in the world of the DC Extended Universe with its meta humans and caped crusaders. Not that he’s alone there. The same can be said for the actual main villain of Suicide Squad as well as Jesse Eisenberg’s Lex Luthor in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. If anything, top-billed but downplayed star Will Smith is the true standout actor in the movie, and while he’s always just Will Smith playing a sharpshooting hitman character, that’s surely all he means to be and it works. Whereas Leto may want us to only see his Joker but he’s really always just Jared Leto playing the Joker character. So what was the bother?"

 

[Spider-Aziz]

The Rotten Tomatoes score thread lasted a bit longer than I anticipated.


You might have fun reading the last bit.
And maybe the Bat computer one.

 

[BatLobster]

Had a great time seeing Mask of the Phantasm at Alamo Drafthouse last night. It was an original 35mm print, one out of only 2 in existence. Pretty cool. Even had the old trailers attached (We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story and Three Ninjas LOL). That alone was such a trip, it added to the nostalgia of the experience.

All in all, it was wonderful to finally see it on the big screen. Even though it was an old print with some blemishes, it was still as impressive as I've ever seen the Timmverse animation presented, and hearing Shirley Walker's score it surround sound really did it justice. The whole thing is just so cinematic, but you all already know that.

Seeing SS in 9 hours, so regardless of how that turns out for me at least I've already one great 'Batman' experience in theaters this week.

 

[The Chris]

Oh god I would love to see Mask Of the Phantasm in Theaters. The first Great Batman film IMO.

 

[shauner111]

Mainly about the deleted scenes. I'll quote someone who watched two cuts of the film. This is irritating.

Spoiler

What the hell happened to the Joker scenes?? In the test screening, there was a FULL flashback to Joker and Harley having a little "couple fight" with her pointing a gun straight at his head during an argument then him smacking her hard in the face. Basic gist of the scene was Harley was angry at Mistah J leaving her. Joker then explains, quite gleefully/manically of how he wants to "show you where I was born". This leads into ACE Chemicals where they have the "chemical wedding". A TON of Leto's scenes that actually ****ing explained why Harley keeps coming back to him are just shafted. It was quite jarring to watch this final cut with ALL of that missing. Most of all, the important scene with Joker and Harley in the helicopter was butchered to pieces. That could have made for an amazing emotional catharsis for Harley's character but instead is just a side moment. Also cut is the Joker subway scene where he talks to his gang and intimidates them with a Batman story. Oh and the "I can't wait to show you my toys" line from the trailer? From my memory, it's been deleted as well. With all that gone, the Joker is what the Scarecrow was in 'The Dark Knight' and 'Rises'. Glorified freaking cameos. Think about that for a second.

 

[Pfeiffer-Pfan]

Oh god I would love to see Mask Of the Phantasm in Theaters. The first Great Batman film IMO.

I would love to see Mask of the Phantasm on the big screen.

Maybe WB will finally give it some respect for it's 25th anniversary soon.

 

[redfirebird2008]

Had a great time seeing Mask of the Phantasm at Alamo Drafthouse last night. It was an original 35mm print, one out of only 2 in existence. Pretty cool. Even had the old trailers attached (We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story and Three Ninjas LOL). That alone was such a trip, it added to the nostalgia of the experience.

All in all, it was wonderful to finally see it on the big screen. Even though it was an old print with some blemishes, it was still as impressive as I've ever seen the Timmverse animation presented, and hearing Shirley Walker's score it surround sound really did it justice. The whole thing is just so cinematic, but you all already know that.

Seeing SS in 9 hours, so regardless of how that turns out for me I at least I've already one great 'Batman' experience in theaters this week.

That's awesome. On Sunday, I'm going to see Batman '89 for the first time in theaters since 1989. Going to be crazy nostalgia.

 

[redfirebird2008]

Mainly about the deleted scenes. I'll quote someone who watched two cuts of the film. This is irritating.

Spoiler

What the hell happened to the Joker scenes?? In the test screening, there was a FULL flashback to Joker and Harley having a little "couple fight" with her pointing a gun straight at his head during an argument then him smacking her hard in the face. Basic gist of the scene was Harley was angry at Mistah J leaving her. Joker then explains, quite gleefully/manically of how he wants to "show you where I was born". This leads into ACE Chemicals where they have the "chemical wedding". A TON of Leto's scenes that actually ****ing explained why Harley keeps coming back to him are just shafted. It was quite jarring to watch this final cut with ALL of that missing. Most of all, the important scene with Joker and Harley in the helicopter was butchered to pieces. That could have made for an amazing emotional catharsis for Harley's character but instead is just a side moment. Also cut is the Joker subway scene where he talks to his gang and intimidates them with a Batman story. Oh and the "I can't wait to show you my toys" line from the trailer? From my memory, it's been deleted as well. With all that gone, the Joker is what the Scarecrow was in 'The Dark Knight' and 'Rises'. Glorified freaking cameos. Think about that for a second.

This is going to backfire pretty bad on WB. They marketed the Joker quite a bit and audiences will be expecting him to feature a lot in the film. I predict very poor legs (even worse than BvS). Meanwhile, I'm skipping the theatrical version and hoping we get a director's cut on home video.

 

[The Shape]

That's awesome. On Sunday, I'm going to see Batman '89 for the first time in theaters since 1989. Going to be crazy nostalgia.

I did that a year or so ago. So amazing.

 

[Slade W]

This is going to backfire pretty bad on WB. They marketed the Joker quite a bit and audiences will be expecting him to feature a lot in the film. I predict very poor legs (even worse than BvS). Meanwhile, I'm skipping the theatrical version and hoping we get a director's cut on home video.

Yup. If he appears in the movie as little as people are saying, it is perfectly understandable that people are unhappy, given how heavily he featured in the advertising.