Joker Folie à Deux was released in early October and fans are not happy about it.
After premiering at the Venice Film Festival in September, Joker Folie à Deux received a series of neverending negative reviews. Many believed that it was an unnecessary sequel that didn’t tell its own story but just retells the story of the original 2019 film. This was mostly due to the courtroom drama portion of the film, where many of the supporting characters give their testimony of the events from the previous movie.
Another big reason the film has performed so poorly is the musical aspect. While a Joker musical may sound interesting, the execution was extremely flawed. Instead of creating their own songs, the filmmakers decided to repurpose songs from older musicals. The musical sequences also felt extremely awkward and unnatural, like
they were crammed in at the last minute to extend the screen time.
One of the major controversies of the film was misleading marketing. The trailers showed scenes that never made it into the theatrical cut of the film. For example, there are several shots of Joker and Lee (Harley) dancing on courthouse steps with people watching and cheering them on, but there were no scenes in the film that involved anything like that. This led many to believe that the scene was shot just to make the trailer more engaging.
Joker Folie à Deux also alienated many fans of the first film and just DC fans in general. Some people even believe that the film was made to provoke and enrage fans of the Joker. The story moves away from Arthur Fleck becoming the iconic super villain and instead separates the Joker persona from Arthur. In the third act of the film, it is revealed that Arthur isn’t even the Joker of his own film.
For many people, the movie was a huge disappointment and did not live up to its predecessor. The film has become the lowest-rated comic book movie of all time, earning a D rating on CinemaScore and 32% on Rotten Tomatoes.
Joker Folie à Deux has bombed hard at the box office. It has lost Warner Bros. roughly 150-200 million dollars. Warner Bros. has also pulled the film out of many theaters early, so they could release the film digitally for people to buy or rent.
The film obviously has its flaws, but there were certain aspects of the film that many agree were handled well. For example, the performances were all fantastic. Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga, Joker and Lee, both knew how to bring madness and insanity to their respective characters. Also, the cinematography (the way the film was shot) was incredible. All of the musical sequences were colorful and visually striking.
I am part of the minority of people who actually enjoyed Joker Folie à Deux. Sure, the film was chaotic and messy, but isn’t it supposed to be? This version of the Joker is mentally ill and large portions of this film and the 2019 film were just the character’s fantasies and dreams. In the first Joker, the protagonist, Arthur, is dancing and hearing music in his head, so doesn’t it make sense that this music would eventually come out? I wasn’t expecting to enjoy it as much as I did. I had seen some early reviews of the film and was expecting to come out of the theater, hating it, but I really enjoyed it.
I do believe that people should go to see it and form their own opinion on Joker Folie á Deux.
