Castle's Chessboard

Die With a Smile / Joker 2 Review

There was a special Newsfeed challenge today asking for writing inspired by the below video:

"Note: 48-HOUR CHALLENGE : Media Prompt Deadl..."

The first time I heard this song was on the radio where the DJ was talking about this new duet between Bruno Mars and Lady Gaga. The DJ mentioned that Lady Gaga was starring in the new Joker movie and the initial thought most people had listening to it was that song was intended to be part of the new film. Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars however denied that saying it was done just for fun on their end.

When I was listening to the song I couldn't help thinking "oh yeah that it totally fits in with the film". You can see a fan version of the song where fans have added clips from the film below here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XtN4esu65_Q

It is a beautiful song. I love both Lady Gaga's and Bruno Mars music so it was really cool to hear a duet between the two of them. The song has sort of a bittersweet feel to it where there's a romance in the apocalypse vibe to it. However I really identify with caring about someone so much that you would be happy spending your last moments with them. It is a nice thought.

I actually watched the new Joker film a couple of weeks back. The film didn't do well at the box office and it was pretty divisive among critics. I thought the movie had its moments though. Warning I am going to go into some spoilers discussing this because my biggest complaint was about the ending of the film. The film is very dark but that is in line with tone the first movie in the series. For those not familiar with the original film, the series gives an alternate reality take on the Joker character from the Batman comics and attempts to humanize the character. In the series, the Joker is portrayed as a person suffering from mental illness who winds up taking on the Joker persona. The newer film had a few musical numbers (dream sequences) in it taking advantage of Lady Gaga as a co-star. She actually made a great Harley Quinn (in the film she goes by the nickname Lee). As a musical fan I liked the dream sequences a lot. The songs were all classic older song i.e. Frank Sinatra's That's Life so they were fun to listen to.

The actor who played the Joker (Joaquin Phoenix) really committed to the part and he delivered some great performances. What I didn't like was that the film decided to kill off the Joker at the end of the film. After following the character for two films, I felt he deserved better than the shock value death he received. It resulted in killing the movie for me. It is also a shame that they didn't use the "Die With a Smile" duet in the film. The movie probably could have easily gotten an Oscar from it.

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498 Words