While not a bad movie, it was a little disappointing

Rating: 7/10 (9 October 2019)

After all the high praise this movie got, I went to the movies with high hopes. The movie wasn't in any way bad, but not great either. Let's talk about the good.
Joaquin phoenix did a great job with his performance. Without him the movie probably would have been pretty bad. The story itself and the idea behind it was pretty good too. The acting was good of everyone and the character development wasn't bad either.
The problem with this movie is that, like most comic based movies, is aimed at an audience that, let's say, goes there without wanting to think about it much. There is little to no subtility. It isn't a dramatic movie in which things happen that build up little by little until it becomes too much. It aims to be, but does so by going so far over the top it loses most of it's believability. Horrible stuff happens. One after another. One thing would be almost enough to push someone over the edge, but because it may not be apparant enough, there have be like 10 horrible things to make it clear that's what going on. Certain small twists are in in this movie that made me think: Hm, not bad. Sadly... the directors felt the need to show a lot of scenes to... make it clear there was this small twist, which ruined the twist for me. This movie has a lot of moments where it could have been better. It could have made the movie great, even. But sadly it goes so over the top that the majority of things make you sigh and think... no one would ever behave like that.
Again, by no means is this a bad movie. But it shows that even a great actor cannot make a movie great if it is so dumbed down even my 3 year old would understand it