Review: Joker: Folie à Deux (2024)

DC's Looney Tunes Musical.

★★

With movie sequels, they're either good or bad, better or worse than the first, and so on. Joker: Folie à Deux is nothing but a bad sequel, which is disappointing because the first film was really good. However, I wasn't upset by this because I didn't get my hopes up too high, which is something I avoid whenever I watch movies.

The problem with this sequel is that it's a musical. The reason the first film was so good was that its story was character-driven, emotionally charged, and psychologically intense. Here, it feels like the development of Arthur/Joker and the story was thrown out the window. Instead, the film focuses on turning this into a Looney Tunes-style musical cartoon. If someone were to edit out the Looney Tunes and musical elements, the movie might have been tolerable, at least.

There's nothing wrong with Joaquin Phoenix's performance—he was one of the biggest reasons the first film did so well. However, in this sequel, he’s not given much to do, and it shows. As I mentioned earlier, the first film gave him all of his character development, which is lacking here. It’s as if they forgot who this well-developed character was. In the first film, he was a two-dimensional character; now, he feels one-dimensional. On the bright side, at least I wasn't underwhelmed by his performance.

I'm not going to touch too much on the singing in this film because if I do, I'll probably go crazy again. But I will say that the singing felt like it was ripped straight from Tom and Jerry: The Movie (1993). Another issue I had with this film was the casting of Lady Gaga as Harley Quinn. My goodness, that was a big mistake. Her character is supposed to be Joker’s partner in crime and chaos, but here, she just uses him, only liking him because he’s “The Joker.” I also felt like Lady Gaga wasn’t putting much effort into her role—she just phones it in. She even lacks chemistry with Joaquin Phoenix. Others may have caught onto their chemistry, but I sure as hell didn't.

If Harley Quinn wanted to escape with the Joker, why didn’t she blow up the courtroom like his followers did? That felt like a missed opportunity. This way, he could have avoided saying, “There was no Joker,” and run off with her. Isn’t that what they both wanted? Let’s not forget that this is The Joker we’re talking about. He’s famous for his clown-like appearance and twisted sense of humor. The Joker was originally presented as a small-time criminal who suffered physical disfigurement and went insane due to a chemical mishap. He was shown with vivid green hair, ruby-red lips set in a devilish grin, and chalk-white skin. But I guess they wanted to make this a depressing art film instead. Oh well.