A Sad Joker

Rating: 8/10 (1 February 2020)

I gave this Movie a fairly High rating. But I didn't enjoy it all that much. it got the high rating because Joaquin Phoenix's performance was Oscar worthy stellar and we finally found out why one of these super villains was the way they are. I was very satisfied with his backstory.
But I couldn't help think this was not the Joker I wanted. I had the issues with the fact that he was so pathetic damaged you could not Envision him actually becoming a supervillain other than the fact people did follow him. He just seemed to challenged to be able to fund & carryout big crimes in the future. I also thought it would have been better had they made you care more for him instead of just feel sad and sick for him. That would have made what we know to be his eventual complete descent into madness and crime understandable and it would have been heartbreaking. I think some flashbacks to his childhood traumas when he was reading the file at the hospital would have bonded us more to this character.. Though they did make you feel a lot of empathy for him, they just could have really sent us on an emotional roller coaster had they tried a little harder.
The Joker I would have rather have seen would have been a continuation of Jared Leto's Joker. I like many others would have really liked to have seen inside that version of the Joker. another version I would have preferred would have been someone to have been the young Heath Ledger Joker. one of the Hemsworth brothers or Charlie Hunnam would have been perfect for that. I'm not quite sure why every version of The Joker is so completely different from all the previous versions. It makes for a complete lack of continuity and it makes it seem like it's not the same character.
But that was just my opinions. Being what it was the movie was obviously exactly what the creators meant to be. it was hard to watch because of how pathetic and sad the Joker's character was, it felt realistically true, visually gritty, ugly, pathetic and Phoenix's acting Was spot-on every second of the way.
I do hope there are sequels to this movie. And that in those that they endear him to us a little bit more.
Small spoiler alert - though the movie was hard for me to watch I'm glad I did if nothing else to see that the Joker gave Society many chances, tried to do the right things, and was eventually let down by everyone including the one person he thought truly loved him. This sad joker's story was a true tragedy. And ironic tragedy in the Greek sense of a character flaw and not an Alanis Morriset's Murphy's Law way.