Joker emerged in late 2019 as a true phenomenon, a must-see superhero movie that reached an audience that even Marvel’s mega-hit Avengers: Endgame couldn’t reach, grossing a total of $1.074 billion worldwide. Certainly not entirely innocent the numerous controversies that accompanied “Joker” – from arguments over the film’s quality to reports to baffled viewers to the fear of imitators.
If you want to know why there was such a fuss back then, or if you just want to see ‘Joker’ again, you can now watch the film with a streaming subscription. “Joker” is now available on Amazon Prime Video at no additional cost:
Much noise about nothing
The shocked public quickly turned out to be a storm in a teacup: While it was widely reported around its theatrical release that there had reportedly been a mass exodus from the audience at “Joker” screenings, most of these reports were due to a few social media posts where people reported such isolated instances.
And the fear that the portrayal of a man with mental problems rejected by society could lead to imitators or even murders in the cinemas turned out to be unfounded.
“Joker”: nonsense or masterpiece?
However, the debate about the quality of “Joker” continues. At the 2020 Oscars, the film was nominated for a total of eleven Academy Awards, including all major categories. Finally there were two Oscarsfor Joaquin Phoenix for Best Actor and for composer Hildur Guðnadóttir for her captivating score.
Also many fans on the internet, on social media and on sites like Reddit were absolutely thrilled with “Joker”.which is also reflected in the user ratings on various movie sites, either here on FILMSTARTS (average rating: 4.11 out of 5 stars!), on IMDb or on Rotten Tomatoes.
However, if you look at the press review, it looks very different, because “Joker” is only in the upper center field here. The review aggregator MetaCritic calculates an average value of 59 out of 100 points from 60 reviews, with many positive and some very negative reviews. Rotten Tomatoes considers 68 percent of the 590 reviews to be positive, with an average rating of 7.3 out of 10.
The official FILMSTARTS rating of 2 out of 5 stars isn’t particularly good either, but it is In the FILMSTARTS editorial staff, there is a sharp line between “Joker” fans and “Joker” despisers with only a few mediocre ratings.
“Joker” is about the unsuccessful comedian and clown Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix), who has always made life difficult for his fellow human beings. When one day he kills three men harassing a woman and beats up Arthur on the subway, he inadvertently starts a protest movement in Gotham City – and a whole new side awakens in Arthur…