It's not a comic book movie

Rating: 10/10 (13 October 2019)

"Best comic book movie to date" If you go in expecting this movie to be another flashy, over the top feel good movie then you will be disappointed, and completely miss the point of the film altogether. He is a character from the comics, and that's where the ties end.
There's been lots of comparisons/rankings between all of the Jokers that have appeared on screen, ie Ledger and Nicholson, which is a slap in the face to all actors involved. Each actor does an impeccable job with the character in their own right, but Joaquin Phoenix had the task of doing something that hadn't been fully done on screen yet: he had to become the Joker. We catch a glimpse of Jack Napier in Batman becoming Joker, but that was chemically induced, and he was greed and revenge driven. This Joker is the result of a lifetime of abuse and disappointment and neglect. I had always wondered what could have happened to him that would cause him to be so crazy. The fact that it took 40 years for him to snap and not before is incredible. This results in the completely insane and destructive Joker that we have all come to expect to see.
I was expecting a blood bath from the little bit of headlines that I accidentally paid attention to, and that was not the case at all. There is violence, but it's appropriately used, and not so completely over the top that it over shadows the rest of the movie. Critics are just playing along with the over sensitive nature of the world as of late, don't pay any attention to them, or you will miss out on an amazing movie.