Negative backlash makes you enjoy the film that much more

Rating: 7/10 (4 October 2019)

I saw Joker today, and rather than just speak only on the film itself I want to talk about the negative criticism it is receiving. *skip to my last two paragraph's if you don't care about my thoughts on this to read my actual review.*
First and foremost I walked out of the film thinking just "meh", but the actual negativity surrounding the film has done the opposite of what bad reviews are intended to do, and that is instead of swaying me to not see the film it actually makes me want to view the film again.
If there was ever an example of film critics feeding into controversy, mainstream cinema, and the crappiness that is society this is the film. The film that is studied on college campuses in film school and journalism for those reasons. I mean it almost seems these film critics are going over the top with the negative superlatives just for the sake of it. Just don't listen to the negativity surrounding this film, but please read a few after seeing the film for yourself to understand what I am saying.
At the same time I feel that director Todd Philips accomplished what he set out to do. He wasn't looking for that 100% score on Rotten tomatoes or 10 out of 10 on IMDB he wanted people to think, and that is better than any 100% review you can get. He also wanted to do something different with a fictional character that slowly descends into madness.The only difference being that this fictional character happens to be in the mainstream among society and has a coat of paint on them. I think if you took away the paint it might get a little more positive praise because the naysayers think that comic book characters inspire people so much.
Joaquin Phoenix is brilliant in this film regardless if he is playing our favorite clown prince of crime or just another day average Joe. The trailers don't give you his performance away at all, and I like the fact they only tease not spoiling the film by not giving you really anything at all. The score goes wonderful with the tone and pacing of the film and the cinematography is fantastic.
Go see it for yourself. Original score 3 1/2 stars but changed it to 4 because the haters made me actually enjoy the film that much more not because I wanted to boost the actual score.