I'm writing this post because it's getting very low ratings. From the reviews that I read, many people say it doesn't meet their expectations of what a superhero movie should be.

I'm not a capeshit enjoyer. I chose to see Joker 2 because Joker 1 had vague themes of "defunding welfare programs is bad". In the first movie, Joker loses access to his mental illness medication because the politicians defund the welfare programs and that leads Joker to start doing crimes.

What I liked about Joker 2 is that everyone around him wants to make him miserable, but instead he chooses to be happy. In my opinion, it is the most pure example of absurdity. The whole world wants to make Joker miserable and he is powerless to change other people, but he can deny giving the world what they want so he chooses to laugh. I find that to be entertaining.

The movie was about 60% musical. Whenever Joker starts to hallucinate, everyone starts singing. I think it was okay, but other people did not like that. You probably won't like the movie if you are expecting it to follow the superhero movie formula.

  • Dr_Gabriel_Aby [none/use name]
    ·
    2 months ago

    I wish people loved musicals. I feel like they somehow became “cringe” to a vast majority of Americans, and if I were smart I’d make this a much bigger post about consumerism and alienation.

    • the_post_of_tom_joad [any, any]
      ·
      2 months ago

      I like musicals but only if they're also comedies. It just a personal preference cuz something in my noodle gets taken out of the immersion when a dance number starts but for comedy the absurdity is fine.

    • Thallo [love/loves]
      ·
      2 months ago

      I don't dislike musicals as a rule, but I feel musical has gone beyond being a medium and now more closely resembles a genre insofar as most musicals are just super campy and the music has a particular feeling.

      I'd be more interested if I felt the music was more differentiated or more to my tastes. I like concept albums that tell a story over the whole album. That's basically a musical, but I actually enjoy the music.

      • Dr_Gabriel_Aby [none/use name]
        ·
        2 months ago

        I’ve thought a lot about this and yes. I want musicals to be made about times that would actually feel appropriate for song and dance. So modern viewers can get their “grit and realism” the desire from every single genre. A Joe Hill movie specifically comes to mind.

          • koberulz@lemmy.ml
            ·
            2 months ago

            I don't care for music as an art form, I can't stand musicals, and I loved Once. Didn't even realise it was a musical until reading up on it later.

            • the_post_of_tom_joad [any, any]
              ·
              2 months ago

              "Once" was so amazing to me cuz of how it shows me that a musical can integrate into a story seamlessly. Well and also the music was dope and i like romance a lot

    • Belly_Beanis [he/him]
      ·
      2 months ago

      I don't like musicals because most of the songs just annoy me. Heavy Metal (1981) was partially a musical and is one of the best movie soundtracks of all-time. Shame it's so problematic that even contemporaries ripped into it.

      Sound and the Fury by Sturgil Simpson is like a better, improved Heavy Metal but only features one artist. Luckily he's great and decided to get weird, making up like 7 new genres of music nobody's heard before.

    • MonsterRancher [none/use name]
      ·
      2 months ago

      They were always cringe. Disney was the only thing that makes them even partially appealing to people and people like me still hate and hated them.

      • Dr_Gabriel_Aby [none/use name]
        ·
        2 months ago

        Being cringe is being human.

        You only see musicals as cringe through the modern eye, someone who can pull up any song on Spotify, or learn new dance moves on Tik Tok. We live our life terrified of being recorded on camera being cringe, or doing something cringy. Musicals were popular in the era of packed theaters and experiencing something new together.

        Calling musicals cringy is presentism.

    • whogivesashit@lemmygrad.ml
      ·
      2 months ago

      I think musicals are fine, but the music has to be genuinely very very good. You can make a mediocre movie and still have it be somewhat enjoyable. I can't listen to mediocre music and feel the same though.

      I also just think they come across better on a stage than in a movie. It feels so weird to me sometimes for a movie to have this incredibly close in depth feeling to it, just for it to zoom out to a cast of people dancing and singing and shit.