Best DC movie since The Dark Knight Rises

Rating: 10/10 (15 October 2019)

DC can STILL give us a compelling movie. Wasn't quite hyped about it, I mean, an origin story of a villain made by the director of Hangover movies; what could I even expect? Then, the reviews started to drop. Still wasn't sure if I would like it. And after I saw it, it was way better than I thought it would be. I won't call it a masterpiece, but it definitely is on my top 3 DC films of all times!
Good : There's hardly anything bad about Joker. Joaquin Phoenix does a great job of bringing the character into life. Rather than a typical superhero/supervillain origin story, we get to see a psychological drama + horror, and thank God, we got that. I love the genre, I love films like Infinity War, Days of Future Past, Endgame and Raimi's Spider-Man. But occasionally, it's really good to take a break from such films. It's, kind of, in the category of films like Unbreakable. Basically, the movie is (no spoilers ahead) Arthur, being tormented by the society and being a mentally unstable loner, loses his mind after the constant torment and after that, all hell breaks loose. That's all the movie shows. It would be quite difficult to give a really good story for a plot like this, since there are many movies with this kind of plot (awfully crappy ones included). I completely liked this movie, means the screenplay and direction worked for me. You can feel for Arthur, whenever the movie asks you to. You want to root for Arthur, but you know that it will mean some incredibly terrible things will happen. We see him slowly transition into Joker, and when he completely turns into the Joker it is worth a round of applause. We feel good as well as terrified with the actions of the Joker whenever he snaps and crazy stuff happens. Without getting into spoilers, I would say - in short - that it has many quotable lines and each of them make sense. Whatever Joker (a psychopath) says is more realistic than what a sane person says. And obviously has some sick, terrifying and gruesome Joker moments that a proper Joker movie should have. If it's not clear by the trailers, there's no Batman here. But (again, no spoilers) it does have some Batman references to support the movie. It could've created a mess and might have felt like a shoehorned plotline, but it plays out as a proper support for the main story and the transition of Arthur into Joker.
Mixed : It is a good thing that the movie has a 70s psycho horror vibe to it. But, it could've been more original. Like many others have pointed out, it's similar to Taxi Driver by Scorsese. While it wasn't a copy and paste of Taxi Driver, but some parts make it obvious that the movie was inspired by Taxi Driver. Not necessarily a bad thing, the movie has the elements as a homage-ish way, but looking at how well made it was, it could've been slightly more original. And, it may feel a bit slow for some people, though it's worth your time.
My take on the controversy : It can happen that some morons might watch this film and cause violence. It can happen with any violent movie. But, even though it justified the Joker's actions, it doesn't show them to be right. Speaking of violence, it's just psychologically compelling horror. It's less violent than Deadpool, but feels more violent as it's a serious movie. So, glorification and siding with a psychopath is a complete and total nonsense.
Conclusion : It's a must watch. You don't need to follow any of the DC movies to understand it. But do not expect it to be a typical superhero action film with CGI battles and a spectacle. Wrong expectations might ruin the experience. Else, I found it to be better than The Dark Knight Rises. And TDKR is one of my favorites in the genre. If a Nolan movie is replaced by another movie in my list, you may consider it to be great. One last thing, people causing violence because of Joker would be equivalent to The Good, The Bad and The Ugly inspiring three people to have a gun duel for some gold.
Rating:
Score : 10/10
Grade : A+