Director Todd Phillips is back with Joker: Folie A Deux, and boy was this an odd direction for this story to take.

 

We find ourselves back in Gotham with Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix) sitting in a jail cell at the Arkham State Hospital awaiting trial for the 5 murders he committed during the first film. While we wait for the trial to begin, we watch Fleck get treated poorly by security guards and he collapses back into his less confident self like the the beginning of the first film. He has given up the Joker persona completely, but then he runs into Lee Quinzel (Lady Gaga) while walking by a choir class for mental health patients. This ignites something in Arthur, and he starts to fantasize his relationship with Lee as a musical that continues throughout the film. Sometimes it is a fantasy and sometimes they're just randomly singing in real life to one another. Lee's purpose in this film is to help Arthur keep the Joker persona alive so people don't walk all over him. Then, he can be a hero for the little guy that gets screwed over by the law. For the back half of the film, we watch Arthur go through his trial to avoid the death penalty by using the Joker to claim a not guilty verdict. It's really a half musical and half courtroom drama, which makes for a very weird premise.

 

To say I'm disappointed in the outcome of this film is an understatement. I am a huge fan of the first film because it was a unique take on the Joker character. It did a great job paying homage to the comic books. Now, we have a film that is a romance turned musical and courtroom drama that undoes all of the development that took place in the first film. How is it that Arthur immediately reverts to being his less confident self after being in jail for only a couple of weeks after fully taking on the Joker persona? I just don't understand why that wasn't continued on.  Instead of implementing a musical aspect to the film they could have made it some type of Shawshank Redemption escape film where Lee and Arthur cause chaos at Arkham. Unfortunately, none of that happens and you as the viewer must sit through a 2 plus hour film with an ending that could have been tagged on to the first film. The only positives that came out of this movie were Phoenix's performance, the cinematography, and one scene that really hit hard emotionally. Other than that it was just a waste of $200 million to make a sequel.

 

The verdict, wait till this film comes out on one of the streaming services. Do not waste your time or money on this long boring musical that undoes everything that made the first film so great. This is why Todd Phillips is known for making bad sequels like the Hangover Part 2 and Part 3.

 

Rating: 2 out of 5