Should have been called "Arthur". This is not the intelligent Joker we have loved for over 70 years.

Rating: 5/10 (27 December 2019)

When I first saw the trailer. I was confused. Is this the joker from DC or something else? Learning it was the DC joker. I was immediately disappointed that this wasn't going to be what I hoped. A serious comic book like movie about a joker similar to Heath Ledger's joker. Let me explain... and why this is important for the joker character, because what we saw. Was a character definitely not capable of becoming the joker.
Joker was a decent movie but a bad joker movie. It was slow and boring most of the time for me. It felt like your average horror movie. Slow, jump scares, mystery reveals, final act. Joker was slow, violent moments, mystery reveals, final act. It felt so average to me. I was hoping the whole time the joker character would start doing something joker like. You know... something intelligent. I wasn't impressed at all throughout and was glad it was finally over. I watch a lot of violent movies/shows. So none of the violence surprised me at all nor bothered me. There's some funny moments and some romance, but it all felt so generic. Stuff you see in so many films and shows. I didn't find anything unique about this movie whatsoever. When it came to the mental illness aspect of the movie. It was meh. It wasn't an accurate representation of mental illness at all as some people have claimed, yikes. This part of the world as well his life in general did feel like it came from some off story DC comic book the masses never heard about. This entire movie felt like it was trying to be a real to life movie, but was over dramatized and unrealistic in many ways that I don't want to spoil for anyone actually reading this. Hopefully you'll see this movie differently after this review.
The good things to say about this film is it's beautiful film work and editing. The camera work and color grade is what really helped the audience get sucked into this world, in my opinion. Not the actors nor the score. The score was very clean and worked great for what was presented to us. Joaquin Phoenix's performance was great, but not the best acting I've ever seen like so many reviews have said. Sigh... There's just so many great performances similar to his. If not better. A recent example off the top of my head would be Split starring James McAvoy. He did an excellent job as that character. The Joker story was meh, but the way they went about it was pretty good. Letting the audience ponder on what was real and what wasn't is something that will be argued until the film is forgotten 60 years from now. I do enjoy movies that screw with the audience like that. Like the ending of Inception.
To the final part.. Arthur... he could never be the Joker. He's not smart enough to be the Joker. Think about all the jokers before him. All the insane calculated plans. All the times he gets away. Do you really think this Joker could be one of Batman's greatest enemies? Lol. No way in hell. He would get caught by batman within the week the moment he exposed himself to the Gotham people. Are you still wondering why I'd say that? Then your not a true Joker fan and just liked a movie called Joker. The Joker has always been this evil chaotic mastermind that Batman has rarely been able to catch and put away. Just watch/read every popular film/comic that the Joker is in before you disagree. Arthur's decisions throughout the movie were emotionally simple. Not calculated. He never thought twice about his actions. He just did them. He didn't plan a single thing in this movie except maybe the last act. Everything happening around him. Wasn't because he planned it. He just so happens to be in it.. At the right time. Everything fell in place for him. He didn't put things in place. Like all jokers before him have. Another thing is he's old. 45 years old. How many people do you know who can change that drastically at the age of 45. You are set in your ways for life once you reach a certain age and he is definitely past that. Tell me I'm wrong. Another thing is Bruce is still a kid in this movie. Joker would be in his 60's at least before Bruce becomes batman. How does that make any sense? A dull minded 63 year old man as batman's arch nemesis? Getting into fist fights with a nearly 30 year old batman? Lol. Please.
To conclude, this isn't a bad movie. Just a really bad joker movie. I will never watch this movie again. It should have been called Arthur. With some more action and characterization in it. With an additional 30 minutes added to the film length. Those changes would have had me rating it much higher. I'm worried this films success will forever alter the joker. The intelligent, funny, psychotic joker us true fans know and love.