“Joker” became a bona fide phenomenon in late 2019, a must-see superhero film that reached an audience that even the Marvel megahit “Avengers: Endgame” couldn’t, grossing a total of $1.074 billion worldwide. They were certainly not entirely innocent the numerous controversies that have accompanied ‘Joker’ – from arguments over the quality of the film to reports from disturbed viewers to the fear of imitators.
If you want to know why there was such an uproar at the time or just want to see ‘Joker’ again, you can still watch the film with a streaming subscription. “Joker” is available at no additional cost on Amazon Prime Video until October 20:
A lot of noise about nothing
What happened to the shocked audience quickly turned out to be a storm in a teacup: Around the time of the film’s release, it was widely reported that there had been massive crowds at screenings of “Joker,” but most of these reports were based on a few social media posts where people reported such isolated incidents.
And the fear that the portrayal of a man rejected by society and struggling with psychological problems could lead to imitators or even attacks in cinemas ultimately proved 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 film score.
Also Many fans on the Internet, social media and sites like Reddit raved about “Joker.”which is also reflected in the user ratings on various film sites, whether here at 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 here “Joker” is alone in the upper midfield. The review aggregator MetaCritic calculates an average score of 59 out of 100 points from 60 reviews, with many positive and some very negative reviews included. Rotten Tomatoes considers 68 percent of its 590 reviews to be positive, with an average rating of 7.3 out of 10.
The official FILMSTARTS review isn’t particularly good either with 2 out of 5 stars, but that’s it In the editorial staff of FILMSTARTS there is a sharp line between “Joker” fans and “Joker” despisers with only a few mediocre reviews.
‘Joker’ is about failed comedian and clown Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix), who has always been let down by life and the people around him. When he kills three men on the subway one day who harass a woman and beat Arthur, he inadvertently starts a protest movement in Gotham City – and a whole new side awakens in Arthur…