Joker: Folie à Deux - Spoiler Review

Joker: Folie à Deux has enraged audiences and critics alike. I break down all my spoiler thoughts.

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[ep]

Reviews like this is why I’ve been following Dan since screenjunkies. My taste in movies only overlaps with his maybe 60-70% of the time, but I really like how Dan’s analysis of movies gets me to re-evaluate scenes and the characters in even movies I hated watching

[Reebert]

Dan, never ever change. The world needs more calm, intelligent, and balanced reviewers like you. You are SUCH a welcome change to the more toxic bro-reviewers.

When I heard Harley Quinn was going to be in it, I thought they were going to go down a “Natural Born Killers” crime spree route that would solidify Joker’s place on the national stage, inspiring Bruce Wayne to counter him and become Batman.

[pikasalsachu]

The story reflects exactly what is happening to the movie. People wanted "their Joker" but they got Arthur Fleck.

[qpxhkyt]

I'm new here but Dan is quickly becoming my favorite reviewer. I feel like we always come away from movies with the same thoughts but he's better at putting it into words

[duckywinks]

I think I could’ve gone along with what this movie was trying to do if it wasn’t so damn boring. In execution, it’s just a recap of the first movie with it constantly poking and nudging going, “Hey, did you know The Joker is actually not supposed to be a cool guy?” And the musical elements were so lackluster that they couldn’t pull me out of that repetitive funk. It’s like the movie exists just to explain the point of the last movie.

[RonyH]

First of all, I do think sexual abuse happened to Arthur by the guards, so I don't believe it was handled well. You can say the joker was abused out of him, and that's a terrible message.
Other than a few standouts, the musical numbers detracted from the film. They don't add much and literally pause the actual plot.
Overall, I didn't like this movie. It just seems confused.

[karencoyle]

It seems like people want the big, powerful villain - not the sad little crazy person underneath.
But I'm pretty sure EVERY big villain has a sad little crazy person underneath.
I thought it was an interesting and uncommon take; I give them credit for that.

[michaelkennedy]

You know, years from now, I think that people will look back on the backlash to this film and think: 'why so serious?'

[alkirehomevideos]

I remember after the first Joker came out a lot of comic book fans were mad because it didn’t feel like Arther Fleck could ACTUALLY be the joker. He seemed too pathetic, weak, too stupid, etc.

My guess is the audience for Joker Folie A Deux wanted to see the sequel finally develop Arther into the comic book genius villain that they believe the joker should be. Instead, the creative team doubled down on comic book fans original opinion of Arther from the first Joker - that he never was and never had what it would take to be the comic book maniacal villain version of Joker.

[kmn]

this movie is so meta lol just like everyone leaving the court once Arthur drops the joker persona just like everyone who hates the movie

[plato]

Arthur at the end of the Joker (2019) is the Joker. The last scene of him in the hospital shows how he completely embraced Joker and is laughing about the joke “you wouldn’t get.” It’s not the Arthur that started the film. It’s a completely new person who tipped over the edge and even killed again just because. The bloody footprints show that. The woman he is talking to didn’t bully him or ruin him like the people he killed in the movie. He just does it because he is mad.

Joker 2 introduces Arthur as if he is the Arthur from the start of Joker (2019) and he straight up isn’t. He is a different guy now and he wouldn’t be questioning anything about a shadow. There are not two different people in one body. It’s one person now in one body.

[chrisretzlaff]

Thank you for finally saying it...the moment he turns his back on being the Joker, Harley gets up and walks out and tells him he is nothing. That essentially happens with the audience at the same time. Mildly brilliant IMO

[ravengreven]

I hate how every movie musical since Anne Hathaway won that freaking Oscar now has to have at least one song where characters sing quietly with their voice quivering and breaking. Except this movie is that stretched out to fill two hours.

[boilderrik]

I think i'm pretty forgiving as to how Arthur got where he ended up. I think the movie did enough to convince me. Very much appreciate your thoughts here Dan. You've helped me understand a lot of my feelings on this film and why I liked it so much.

[jameszetterman]

At this point I think that "The Joker" is the most volatile role in popular media to cast and play... it may as well be Macbeth in clown makeup.

[MysteryMii]

Charts on Monday is gonna be a wild one

[lemonysnick]

I'm getting pretty frustrated with the dog pile from movie reviewers on this film. I thought it was different and interesting. Good luck getting WB to take more risks after this one!

[williamfeliciano]

In the first movie we saw Arthur Fleck BECOME Joker and at least for me it played as a warning saying that people and society should be kinder otherwise we'll create monsters like The Joker. That's why I expected to see Joker, NOT Arthur Fleck, meaning the character we saw at the epilogue of the first film who didn't have any makeup but you could tell was a different person than Arthur Fleck. I wanted to see THAT guy have a negative psycological impact on other people like Harlee BECAUSE society hadn't learned the lesson of the first movie therefore the madness and desperation continued to spread.

[Billmao]

Saw it getting a D on Cinemascore, that has got to be one of the steepest drop from original to sequel.

[Themoomabides]

I can honestly say I agree 100% with your assessment of Joker 2. The AMC Burbank crowd I saw it with was filled with young men hoping they got a violent action film and couples hoping they’d get a Harley-Joker cosplay inspiring film. People want Joker to do the evil they can’t. And then there’s the film nerds liking it for being a musical lol