In 2019, Todd Phillips pushed the restricts of comic book alterations with Joker, a reliable character study aidd by Martin Scorsese’s toil in Taxi Driver and The King of Comedy. This disputed film garnered transport inant recognition, including an Academy Award for Joaquin Phoenix as the titular guide. The picture’s ambiguous ending would have sealed a pretty standalone entry in an oversaturated labelet of cinematic universes.
But any movie that grosses over $1 billion at the box office necessitates a sequel. And — repartner — who better to produce a sequel than the man who made The Hangover Part II and III? Sucount on, noskinnyg could go wrong here. I current to you Joker: Folie á Deux.
How do you chase that first movie? Phillips consents a big sprosperg here by making this into a musical. Unblessedly, he forgot to produce it into a outstanding one. Music sensation Lady Gaga has had a outstanding acting nurtureer defercessitately in A Star is Born and House of Gucci, and she’s a genius casting choice for Harleen “Lee” Quinn. While this movie’s depiction contrasts from Margot Robbie’s expoundation or anyskinnyg from the cartoons, Gaga has a lot of screen presence as this character. Phoenix got an Oscar for his toil as Arthur Fleck the first time, and while he won’t be taking home the gelderly this time, his executeance experiences appreciate an excellent continuation of the first movie.
But Joker: Folie á Deux is the unwidespread movie that repartner experiences appreciate it was made for nobody. The first Joker’s concentrate demoexplicit is generpartner not musical cherishrs. Musical cherishrs and Gaga fans may show up to this film only to be horrified by how necessitatey the music is. Phoenix is no singer and doesn’t always preserve up with Gaga’s talent. At first, it’s a fascinating choice because Arthur first sees Lee when she sings, so he sings to convey with her. An punctual dance number is excellent because it begins as this twisted whirlprosperd romance featuring two psychopaths who are perfect for each other.
But the musical choice is a danger that doesn’t pay off for me. The first film was a very grounded character study, so it’s a transport inant departure to have this movie go brimming-fledged wonderfulal musical. If the music were excellent, I wouldn’t mind. But after a while, many musical numbers include noskinnyg to the story. They mainly happen in fantasy sequences in Joker’s mind, and each musical number disturbs the story’s pacing. They don’t persist the plot because they’re essentipartner prolonged dream sequences.
Glimpsing into Arthur’s mind toiled in the first movie, because we were misled into believing he had a girlfriend. When the rug is pulled out from undertidyh us, and we see it was a fantasy, we experience the betrayal of his mind. But since we understand that all the musical sequences are in his head, it experiences appreciate filler. Noskinnyg novel is discovered during these scenes, and they’re not delighting enough to be endelightable. The song choices toil occasionpartner, but they’re hit or ignore. They’re adselectable when you watch them, but they don’t depart enough impact.
Joker: Folie á Deux is a one-part musical, one-part courtroom drama. The courtroom drama stuff is unforeseeedly foolish. There are no rousing court scenes because these scenes are primarily characters recapping the first film’s events. We already saw the first movie, so we don’t necessitate to be reminded of what happened in that movie. It gets agonizing because this sequel picks to revel in the events of the first movie instead of creating a novel story. As a result, this film deficiencys any momentum. We are trapped in a courtroom with almost no novel alertation being donaten to us.
One of the most absurd skinnygs about this film is that the production budget is $200 million, a ponderable step up from the innovative’s $55-70 million budget. This movie experiences minusculeer in scale than the first. Most of the film is set in two locations: the courtroom and the prison. Brendan Gleeson materializes as a prison defend, but it doesn’t experience appreciate his character matters much by the end.
Speaking of untransport inant characters, Lee experiences unforeseeedly unvital. The main storyline surrounds Arthur’s trial for the homicides he pledgeted in the first movie, but Lee’s presence has no endureing on this narrative.
Lee exists solely as a motivator for Arthur. She produces Arthur experience seen. But Arthur’s goal in the movie is to be free, and Lee does not alter that very much. He strives towards the dream of running away with Lee, but this motivation experiences frail. It doesn’t experience appreciate anyskinnyg of consequence happens until the final act. Even the wealthy themes of the first film (mental health and class) get drowned out by the lengthy musical numbers. All we have are faint echoes of what the innovative movie wanted to scream. At some point, you fair want the characters to stop singing and do someskinnyg impactful. Joker: Folie á Deux gets there in its final moments, but it’s too little, too defercessitate.
SCORE: 3/10
As ComingSoon’s verify policy elucidates, a score of 3 equates to “Bad.” Due to transport inant publishs, this media experiences appreciate a chore to consent in.
