Originally Posted by
theimage13
Finally saw this, and my overall takeaway is: what's all the hype about?
Phoenix's acting was fantastic. I will not deny that for a second.
But the movie itself just did absolutely nothing for me. For what it's worth, I'm not a superhero movie person and couldn't care less about Marvel or DC or whatever "universe" this is. So I went into this for the sole purpose of just seeing a highly acclaimed standalone movie. And I finished without understanding what was so amazing or groundbreaking about it. A lot of people have praised it for taking a deep look at mental health, but I don't get it. Sure, the main character has a mental disorder. And they show that he's losing his support system. But they're doing so in a highly unbelievable way in which he gets away with murder, gets invited on TV for no reason (the reason they gave was nonsense), then once he finally gets arrested he gets saved by bunch of vigilantes who apparently steal an ambulance, follow the police scanner, track down the ID and location of the car transporting him, t-bone it without killing him, and then celebrate him like a hero? None of this makes the "mental health" angle of the show mean a thing to real life, because it's all a fantasy world.
So ignoring that part and just focusing on the overall movie, it just didn't do anything for me. There was nothing groundbreaking about the general concept of "guy is outcast, guy snaps, guy kills people". It's a tale as old as time. Sure, Phoenix's acting is Oscar-worthy, and I liked the direction (directing?). But the story itself just didn't grab me at all. It's not like this was an awful movie; I just don't understand the level of popularity and hype it received