Joker: Folie À Deux | Official Trailer HD | Warners Bros. Pictures
The much-anticipated sequel to Todd Phillips’ billion-dollar hit Joker has been released in cinemas. But does Joker: Folie à Deux live up to the hype, or is it yet another disappointing sequel?
The main storyline is essentially a courtroom drama, which focuses on whether Arthur should be held criminally responsible for his actions in the first film or whether the Joker was a split personality from him. I found this conflict to be quite underwhelming, as it mostly involved repeatedly recapping events from the first film with no real depth to Arthur’s character. The dialogue is also surprisingly flat in these sequences, making them feel drawn out and frankly boring.
The main storyline is essentially a courtroom drama, which focuses on whether Arthur should be held criminally responsible for his actions in the first film or whether the Joker was a split personality from him
The other main dimension of this film is that it is a musical, but unfortunately, that aspect was also misused. The musical sequences are not very creative and don’t add much to the characters or the story, therefore they feel unnecessary to the film more broadly. Ultimately, they end up slowing down the pacing even further.
The film also criticises the idolisation of the Joker character from fans, primarily as a reaction to certain fans’ responses to the original Joker. This is an interesting idea; however, it is executed poorly, and it means that, by ‘learning his lesson’ towards the end, Arthur doesn’t feel like the same character as in the original. I feel like the same message could have been communicated by having Joker continue to do bad things and have his actions condemned by the film as a whole. Ultimately, by changing his character too much, the film fails to give a satisfying conclusion to his story.
One aspect that can’t be faulted is the performance. Joaquin Phoenix is genuinely captivating at times as Arthur Fleck, Lady Gaga has some fun moments as ‘Lee Quinzel’ (I’m not sure why they can’t just call her Harley Quinn) and Brendan Gleeson gives a good supporting performance as an abusive prison guard. Where the actors are let down is in how their characters are developed, which doesn’t give them interesting material to work with. The cinematography is also great throughout, and the score from Hildur Guðnadóttir is very creative.
Overall, this is a discouraging sequel. It has some good aspects, but unhappily it is split between too many ideas and ends up disjointed and dull.
