A movie with a strong idea, but missing a few key points and doesn't fully close it off.

Rating: 5/10 (16 November 2019)

Before I talk about the movie, I went into this thinking it was a big middle finger to media and how media tells everyone what to think. Though, its fairly true. Its not as I thought. I thought the movie would really tackle that idea given the political climate we are inside today.
First off, the acting and production value was great and top notch. But I rarely have to worry about those things for big budget movies like this. What I really focus on is the writing and directing. The writing is nothing to write home about (No Pun intended) and though it may be deeper than many other movies in theaters, I still found it very flat and meaningless. With that being said, the character development in this movie was very put on a pedestal showing what Joaquin Phoenix is capable of. He did a great job. But because of the camera angles and face zoom-ins, I felt this was a long audition or a character study. I felt nothing about the universe, his influence on the universe, his part in the world, and felt nothing in the movie that placed me in Gotham City. That may have been the idea all along, but if it did, then he made the movie useless to even have an ending.
I gave the movie a 5/10 because even though it was trying to portray a deeper meaning, it was actually quite shallow. Some people will say it was slow, but I believe that is due to the directing and not the unraveling of The Jokers character. They went for a very 70's Scorsese vibe of storytelling and missed out on full long shots and putting the character in the world. Too many face shots and very rarely any interaction with the outside world which I feel is necessary to show how the character is adapting.
The movie was tolerable for majority of the movie and I felt as it came to a close, it forgot what it needed to do to add a period. As it drew to a close, it didn't know what to do and many things leading up to it felt forced. So for that, I do have to agree it is very hyped.