Joker (2019): Why So Divisive..?

One of the best films I watched last year was Joker (2019).

I’ve been a huge Batman fan since I was a kid so naturally I’d be excited about a Joker origin story right? Wrong!

I saw the trailer for it at the beginning of another film I watched at the cinema and my reaction was “no no no no NO WHY?!!”

I’ve said on here before that I hate when Hollywood feels they have to explain a character’s origin. More often than not the mystery of a character’s past is part of what makes them so interesting and that’s never more true than with the Joker. However, when I finally got round to watching this movie I was blown away!

The Joker (character) is sadistic, psychotic and brutally violent but he’s also a criminal genius. To be so unhinged, a number of things must’ve happened to him to make him that way and I thought this film did a great job of putting that across. A lot of people didn’t though....

This post isn’t a love letter to the movie, it’s more a case of me asking those of you who didn’t like it, why?

I’m genuinely interested since this film really divided fans.

Was it too violent? Did it ruin the mystery? Did you think Joaquin Phoenix was mis-cast as the clown prince of crime or has Hollywood simply cemented in our minds such a solid idea of what a comic book movie “should be”, that the seriousness and dark tone of this movie is just too different to what we’ve become accustomed to?

Rant your hearts out for and against in the comments.👇