Why Was Leto's Joker Poorly Received?

[FishyZombie]

Really terrible writing and make up/design. Bad acting, sure- but that's far from the grit of it. He came off as this weirdly pretentious actor in this big mess of a Hot topic commercial.

summed the whole thing up better than I could, in 3 sentences.

[Lightning Rider]

What about the writing is so off-putting? I found nothing in his lines at all that were somehow jarring or out of character or badly written.

[Danileriver23]

Oh, you know, just a few reasons...

1: Terrible Character Design
2: Terrible Writing
3: Over the top acting (He sounded like Nixon from Futurama)
4: Confusing Character Motivation's
5:...Annoying?

[Cowtools]

Even without comparing him to past Jokers, he just came off as a generic gangster with a vague clown theme. The most offbeat thing he did was have those goons in animal masks (for some reason).

But I just can't take Leto seriously at all now that the Honest Trailer guys pointed out how similar his performance is to Jim Carey as Ace Ventura!

[Kuwagaton]

I don't really have a criticism since I didn't see the movie, but from the YouTube extended DVD scene I saw with him telling Harley to go away... I guess it's amusing. Like it's so forced and awkward that it comes around to making me chuckle. Reminds me of a low budget Nic cage movie.

[FishyZombie]

What about the writing is so off-putting? I found nothing in his lines at all that were somehow jarring or out of character or badly written.

Well his relationship with Harley is written terribly, it seems like he's as obsessed with her as she is with him, even though it takes away from the stockholm syndrome angle and it just ends up coming off as an emo romance.
Just like a lot of the movie, there is no such thing as subtlety (this is after all the Joker who has "DAMAGED" on his forehead.) Like he needs to tell the audience that "he's an IDEA! and a STATE OF MIND!!!" Rather than the Ledger version who just came off as a force of nature by actually doing awesome stuff. And since Leto never does much to back that up, it's hard to take him seriously.

[marvelprince]

The rewrites to change the Harley and Joker dynamic really messed up Joker in particular. You're trying to figure out what he's actually doing there, Leto is trying really hard to sell you that he's ....weird? I dunno.

[Lightning Rider]

Well his relationship with Harley is written terribly, it seems like he's as obsessed with her as she is with him, even though it takes away from the stockholm syndrome angle and it just ends up coming off as an emo romance.
Just like a lot of the movie, there is no such thing as subtlety (this is after all the Joker who has "DAMAGED" on his forehead.) Like he needs to tell the audience that "he's an IDEA! and a STATE OF MIND!!!" Rather than the Ledger version who just came off as a force of nature by actually doing awesome stuff. And since Leto never does much to back that up, it's hard to take him seriously.

I think the romance could have been more fleshed out, but I think there's a clear difference between their attitudes. He tortures her, he abandons her for his escape, he nearly lets her drown in the tub before changing his mind, and sees her as a possession. He can abuse her but he also has to want to keep her around for one reason or another.

[Shadowcat]

He had a much better showing in the Extended Cut. It made me like his portrayal a lot more.

[Korath]

I found Leto's Joker far better than Heath Ledger's Joker. Ledger's was more a common terrorist with a Clown disguise to me, but Leto's... I don't know, he gave me the creeps, as if he was a totally insane person pretending to be just a common gangsta. I found him far more creepy and "Joker", but that's personal taste. And he did not managed to save Suicide Squad, sadly.

[Drz]

His limited screen time didn't have anything that would scream "classic" or "awesome", none who saw the movie could recommend someone else to see the movie based off the Joker scenes alone, where as Rogue One used Vader in a good way, you could have some fanboy recommend Rogue One based off the Vader scenes alone.

[Confuzzled]

Behind the scenes antics attracted a lot of press, both good and bad. So the expectations were even higher than they were post-Ledger. And then he ended up being all kinds of awkward and uncomfortable in the actual movie, which would have been fine without his inclusion.

[Sirzechs]

Even without comparing him to past Jokers, he just came off as a generic gangster with a vague clown theme. The most offbeat thing he did was have those goons in animal masks (for some reason).

But I just can't take Leto seriously at all now that the Honest Trailer guys pointed out how similar his performance is to Jim Carey as Ace Ventura!

So basically he was Joker from the animated series ?

[Frontier]

So basically he was Joker from the animated series ?

Leto's Joker wishes he was that memorable and entertaining .

Unless he was going for Young Justice Joker...

[The Kid]

He was just a generic and unmemorable character.

Ledger was a genuine force of evil in his movie. He was legit scary and had some really laugh out loud moments. Leto's Joker was neither scary nor funny