Joker - 4K Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

Joker



Movie:
4K Video:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:


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Movie
Batman has a massive rogues gallery at his disposal, but there is none more iconic than the clown prince of crime himself, Joker. There are enemies like Bane and Riddler who are just as brilliant as Batman. There are some like Ra’s al Ghul who can fight the vigilante to a stand still, and others who are infinitely more wealthy and resourceful. However, there is one villain that stands above them all. A villain who has nearly driven Batman to madness, and even tempted him to the point of breaking his one rule above all others, not to kill. Yes, you guessed it right, the Joker. The Joker is truly one of the most in depth, evil, and twisted super villains in all of Batman’s Rogues gallery, and the one who is probably the ying to his yang, the arch nemesis to his super hero. Joker is probably the only villain I can think of who has honestly gotten under Bruce’s skin and almost broken him mentally. He’s such a complex mixture of evil, mental insanity, and pure brilliant unpredictability, that he haunts the Batman to his grave. So you can be more than assured that I was instantly curious when trailers for Joker hit the internet and theater screens last year.

I was honestly a bit put off by the bizarre, almost lurid, trailers. We’re so used to the over the top and flashy villain that he becomes, that a story about his start in such a morbid looking fashion seemed out of place. Even when it was in theaters (sadly I never got to see it on the big screen) I was skeptical even though positive word of mouth was coming through. The big controversy about how the movie made you empathetic for the sickness and evil that is the Joker seemed to back up my initial thoughts that this was a morbid misstep for Warner Brothers. However, after the abysmal Jared Leto performance in Suicide Squad I figured anything was a step upwards.

The story is deceptively simple, yup painfully to the point. Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix) is man at the end of his sanity, literally. He’s been in a psych ward for a mental breakdown before, and his many mental illnesses keep him coming back to a public services psychiatrist for his medication, and he’s attempting a sad attempt at being a stand up comedian. To make matters worse he’s struggling to keep a smile on his face for his aging mother Penny (Frances Conroy). His social anxieties and neurosis cripple any attempt at happiness he has, and even when he attempts to be funny, this chronic hysterical nervous laughter turn him into a laughing stock. The only peace and happiness he actually has is a relationship with a young woman down the hall from him named Sophie Dumond (Zazie Beetz) who centers him in the absolute insanity that is Gotham City.

I won’t tell you the rest of the story, but needless to say it’s a surreal nightmare that can only be described as the world through the Joker’s eyes. Arthur is most certainly pitiable in some ways, a result of the sort of social outliers and mental abuse to an already fragile mind that happens to so many people in our world. This actually works to the benefit of the film though, as it makes the audience distinctly uncomfortable when they realize how much they’re empathizing with the soon to be clown prince of crime. You know he’s utterly evil and twisted, but you sympathize and empathize with the pain that aided in his creation. To make it even MORE uncomfortable, the people he ends up killing in the film aren’t exactly people you’re rooting for either. But this is the twist see. It’s seeing the world through the eyes of a madman. You may think that he’s worthy of empathy in some ways, but if you stand back and watch what’s going on you realize how much of your empathy and how much of what you THINK is going on, is nothing but fantasy. A warped reality as seen through the eyes of a warped person. Even when the ending rolls around (and that last 15 minutes is pretty epic, ending with one of the most iconic Batman scenes ever. The one that creates Bruce into who he will become later on in life), you’re not actually sure if what you saw was real or just the delusions of the Joker himself. It’s a fantastic bit of cinema trickery, leaving you to wonder what’s real, and whether we have an unreliable narrator spoon feeding us his own version of the truth, much like how Joker views the world when he is the crime leader he becomes.

Joaquin Phoenix is kind of a nutty man in real life. A bit of a kook with some crazy interviews and ideas over the years. However, there is no other man who can play a crazy person so well as Phoenix. H e is absolutely the star of the show in Joker, stealing every scene and absorbing himself into Arthur sooooooooooooo much that you honestly can’t see Phoenix at all, but rather only the Joker. His tics, mannerisms, and subtle movements all mirror the very essence of what makes Joker who he is, and his descent into murderous madness is mesmerizing. There are some good performances by DeNiro and Zazie Beetz, but Joaquin just stands head and shoulders above everyone else, making a solid script and direction into a legendary performance, both as Arthur, and as the Joker at the end. Honestly, I loved Caesar Romero as the old 1960s Joker, and who can forget Jack Nicholson hamming it up in the 80s. I even thought that Heath Ledger did a fantastic job (although I’m going to commit a sin here. I’m going to go against the grain and say my opinion. Heath was great, but he wasn’t THAT great. I think much of the legendary status he gets for playing the Joker is amplified by those paying respects to it being the role that ended his life more than him turning in THAT legendary of a performance), but I have never been so visually entranced by a Joker performance until this movie. I desperately wish that Joaquin had been able to play the Joker instead of Jared Leto’s crazy performance, and while this isn’t a canon DC movie (at least in the serialized films), it most certainly is one of the greatest Joker presentations I’ve ever seen.




Rating:

Rated R for strong bloody violence, disturbing behavior, language and brief sexual images




4K Video: Video:

Joker was filmed with a variety of Arri Alexa cameras, and given a native 4K transfer for home video that is amazing. The Blu-ray was already pure demo worthy, but the 4K UHD disc takes it up a hefty notch and brings forth one of THE most impressive comic book movies to screen, and not in the typical way. The grading is bathed in sepia tones, with hints of green and amber throughout as well. It’s almost hazy in a way, giving off a very palatable sense that this was taking a cue from films like Taxi Driver and King of Comedy. The digital film is still a razor sharp image, with deep luscious blacks, and the intimate details of close up facials of Arthur, or the grungy and horrible conditions that he and his mother live in. Bright splashes of red from his clown outfit, or the gushing of maroon blood contrast against the grimmer and duller colors used throughout, and even the white face paint is gorgeously rendered against the sepia backgrounds. This is a stunning looking 4K UHD image, and a big step up over the already incredible Blu-ray.








Audio:

Joker’s Dolby Atmos track is no less stunning as the video score is, giving us a completely encompassing sonic experience that just cocoons the listener in the audio. Vocals are crisp and clean, from the whispering and agonized mumble of Arthur, to the piercing sounds of his maniacal anxiety ridden laughter. The score just permeates the entire track, filling with classic dance songs, melodramatic love songs, and all sorts of odd choices that just fits with the harsh and glaring nature of the film itself. The Cello driven underpinning to the score is melodic and hypnotic, and even the odd choices of music for some of the more popular numbers seems to fit in the chaotic trappings of the movie. The rest of the film is just as intense, with the craziness of Gotham rumbling around, with tucks slamming into police cars, gunshots going off, and the roar and bellow of a subway train adding more than enough weight to satisfy low end fans.







Extras:

• Joker: Vision & Fury - Featuerette
• Becoming Joker - Featuerette
• Please Welcome… Joker! - Featuerette
• Joker: A Chronicle of Chaos - Featuerette

Final Score: ​

In a world dominated by flashy super hero movies with over the top villains, Joker takes a near 180 degree turn and crafts a carefully woven and visually grim character drama of Batman’s most iconic villain. You see glimpses of who he will become in the future, but this isn’t some superhero or supervillain story. Instead it’s a quiet character drama that creepily entangles you in the web of mental illness, bitterness and anger that makes the Joker so incredibly terrifying in comics (lets face it, even in The Dark Knight, the Joker has never been as terrifying as he’s portrayed in the comic book and graphic novel world). It’s a stunning film on both Blu-ray and 4K, and a fascinatingly dark watch for those who were expecting something a bit lighter and more “comicy” in nature. Either way, the 4K UHD is a great disc, standing head and shoulders over a stunning Blu-ray release and well worth grabbing if you have the equipment.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Robert DeNiro, Zazie Beetz, Frances Conroy, Brett Cullen, Shea Whigham, Bill Camp
Directed by: Todd Phillips
Written by: Todd Phillips, Scott Silver
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 HEVC
Audio: English: Dolby Atmos (Dolby TrueHD 7.1 Core), English, Spanish, French DD 5.1
Subtitles: English SDH, French, Spanish
Studio: Warner Brothers
Rated: R
Runtime: 122 Minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: January 7th, 2020

Recommendation: Great Watch

 

[Todd Anderson]

Great review... can't wait to give this one a spin in the HT!