An average Joke

Rating: 5/10 (10 October 2019)

I'll show you a magic trick and start on the positive note:
"Joker" is filmed well partially, and you can admire some good - though no memorable - shots here and there.
There are 1-2 scenes that blend in quite well with the Batman canon, making the Batman and Joker fans hearts beat faster.
"Joker" lives most of the time on his main actor Joaquin Phoenix. Phoenix is doing really well; he has always been a special actor. But in the end his performance is just that: good, not phenomenal.
Due to the script he cannot give the character of the joker a new facet or add something new to it.
The Joker's personality remains superficial most of the time and the screenplay unfortunately causes him to stumble along increasingly redundant, predictable and stereotypical plot-points, as we have seen too often.
Both the movie and the joker remain empty and superficial and are hardly ever substantively enriched. The transformation of the mentally disturbed clown is surprisingly harmless and the pathology of his psychic nature terribly trivial and flat. But that's also due to the other leading actor in the film: Gotham City.
One hardly notices the mostly just indicated sinfulness. Like the rest of the movie, it stays on the surface, but does not even scratch it.
This is a pity and wasted potential, the old rule "show, do not tell" should have been followed here. It is never tangible to the viewer, this allegedly abnormal city and its supposedly so disgusting people. The city is on fire and burning - completely unnoticed by the audience barely shown through some piles of garbage, that can be found on New York City's streets on every given workday. Yes, this Gotham can be uncomfortable, as well as some characters in the movie. However, the Joker's inner diabolical pain is never shown in them, they are simple templates without really testing the limits of social and cinematic cruelty and the resilience of tried-and-tested viewers.
Constantly one wonders whether this Gotham is so brutal or is it the Joker who is mentally too unstable. Or is it just me who has seen too many movies? Ok, I confess. The latter was a joke. No joke: The film wants to be provocative without being provocative. But what does it really want?
Even with the portrayal of graphic violence, the movie is holding back so much that you really must wonder if Warner Bros. even launched the media-hyped reports of people fleeing the cinemas out of sheer horror itself.
It would be possible because compared to thematically similar or visually related films like "Fight Club", "Seven" or even "The Dark Knight" - "Joker" is not a journey into the heart of darkness, but a journey into unimaginativeness. He's not that beast, not a monster, not even - and the joker itself would love that - chaos.
Maybe the creators wanted a superficial film about a superficial society. At least that would be kind of Meta after all. And in a way funny. Because one way or another one would have achieved the goal: The film "Joker" is a Joke. Unfortunately, an average one.
Redundant, superficial, pretentious, despondent.
Ta-dah!