Joker: Two Hours of Snoozing

JOKER

In Gotham City, mentally-troubled comedian Arthur Fleck is disregarded and mistreated by society. He then embarks on a downward spiral of revolution and bloody crime. This path brings him face-to-face with his alter-ego: “The Joker”

★★☆☆☆

Alright, I think I’m about to have a very unpopular opinion: I wasn’t a fan of the new Joker movie. I know, I know. Everyone loved it. Even the people I saw it with all loved it which made me think “what did I not get?” Frankly, I still can’t really get my thoughts together on this one, but I’m going to give it a shot anyway (I haven’t reviewed an individual movie in a while).

To be blunt, it felt like one big pity party, a very long pity party. It clearly was trying to convey a message but focused so much on that message that it lost its entertainment value. On the topic of the movie’s message, this might be spoiler-y: I know there is controversy surrounding making Joker a sympathetic character (personally, I did not feel sympathetic for him but I know some people got that feeling) but it also attempts to make the protesters and their cause sympathetic.

The actions of Arthur Fleck (Joker) result in a following of this mysterious clown that spills into the unrest of the people of Gotham. Frankly, I didn’t feel sympathetic to the protesters either because 1. the movie never really shows how anyone other than Fleck lives and 2. they were violent protesters with signs like “kill the rich” while burning their own city.  I definitely understand what the movie was trying to convey, but it just didn’t sit right with me that that sort of extreme violence wasn’t challenged either. So, it was kind of a double whammy of controversial topics that were left unchallenged and made to be things the audience was supposed to relate or sympathize with (the latter being for people that we barely got to see). On the same token, I get why they do it – it is a movie about the Joker – not Batman coming to save the day. So, I’m a bit torn there.

Enough of the heavy stuff, though. Overall, I just found the movie boring. I nearly fell asleep. The same “woe is me” attitude Fleck had could have been accomplished with just a few of the bad things that happened to him, but apparently the writers were like “how bad can we make his life, let’s throw everything we’ve got at him“ and stretched that for 2 hours. By the end of it, it actually doesn’t really bring anything to a conclusion. Nearly everything is left up to the viewer’s interpretation. What do you believe? What do you think happened? Leaving some of the origins of Joker still a mystery. (Apparently, this is how his character has always been – mysterious – so it just depends on what you expect from this movie I suppose.)

Long story short, I’ll just go watch this Joker instead…

As always, these are just my thoughts and opinions. If you loved it or maybe saw something in a different light, I totally respect that! Let me know your thoughts below – I’d love to have a discussion 🙂