Joker movie review - SPOILERS

Ok so I saw the Joker movie with Joaquin Phoenix last night (it’s just after 1 am as I am writing this). I was very skeptical about this movie to begin with, and I walked out of the theater feeling disappointed. I’ve heard so much praise for this movie that I just had to go see it for myself and see what all the buzz was about. Friends have said that it’s very dark and extremely violent. While yes, it was dark and yes, it was violent there is so much worse in other movies that it felt semi-tame if that makes sense. Basically this movie was about a man with an obvious mental illness that spirals out of control. In essence society is against him which causes his violent outbursts, but I just don’t buy into, I’m sorry I don’t. Plenty of people in society have a difficult time. I don’t see Arthur Fleck as being relatable in that sense. Sure he loses his job, but that was his own stupidity. Sure rich people have better lives and live them to the detriment of most others in Gotham City. Fleck killing those Wayne Enterprises Wall Street bros wasn’t about that. Others saw it as that and he jus kind of rode that wave. During the talk show scene Joker talks about how he would be overlooked if dead on the street as his motivation, but I don’t believe that as his true motivation. Circumstance after circumstance had left him feeling broken and shamed, but this was due to the high class of society. This was the same everyday people living around him. I’ll move on from that. Zazie Beetz’s character, Sophie was a wildcard in this for me. Their relationship felt very misplaced and with good reason since you know, it wasn’t real in the first place. I actually really did enjoy how this played out on screen. The thing that probably bothered me the most in the movie was watching the Batman origin for the millionth time. It’s as if we have to watch Thomas and Martha Wayne shot and killed in front of Young Bruce in an alley. It’s a nice nod to the comics sure, but I just feel like it’s not necessary after all this time. While talking about Thomas Wayne, did he really have a relationship with Penny Fleck????? The movie leads you to believe he didn’t and that it was all in Penny’s head, but I actually am leaning towards it being real and that Thomas fabricated it all and made it seem as if Penny was crazy. The evidence to support my theory, Alfred Pennyworth was shocked to find out that Arthur’s mom was Penny. He said, “you’re her son.” That leads me to believe he was aware of him the entire time as Thomas’ son. The other thing was the picture of Penny with the written note saying, “love you’re smile” or something to that effect having the initials ‘TW’ on the back. That’s makes me believe the relationship was in fact real.

There are all kinds of videos you can watch about all the Easter eggs in the movie so I won’t go into them. Take away the fact that this movie is based on DC characters and you have a solid movie. Joaquin Phoenix is a terrific actor and I would expect nothing less than the amazing performance he gave us. But for me, the movie dragged and felt long. Was it a terrible movie, absolutely not. Was it a perfect movie, absolutely not. Would I watch it again, nope. I rate the movie 6/10. I know I’m probably going to be in the minority on this, but it just didn’t work for me. Plus, the Joker laugh I found extremely annoying, but I understand that was part of his character.