Joker: Folie à Deux should not exist... | Video Essay

In this Joker 2 Video Essay, we take a look at Joker Folie a Deux. The sequel to the 2019 billion-dollar Joker. Joaquin Phoenix is back as Arthur Fleck alongside Lady Gaga as Harley Quinn for a sequel that defies belief. Joker 2 is one of the worst sequels I have seen in a long time. Considering the high quality of 2019's Joker, Joker 2 falls flat in almost every aspect by comparison. Todd Phillips was seemingly not happy with how audiences embraced his own movie, and it seems the sequel is nothing more than a slap in the face to those who enjoyed the first movie. We dive into the good, the bad, and the ugly of Joker Folie a Deux.

Joker: Folie a Deux (2024)
Joker (2019)

Timecodes
0:00 - Intro
2:19 - Part 1 (The Good)
5:25 - Part 2 (The Bad)
12:02 - Part 3 (The Ugly)

[A.I.WarFare]

I used to think that my life was a tragedy, but now i realize it's a musical.

-Arthur 2024

[WaylanderLloyd]

Joker 2 definitely feels like "Noooo you got the wrong message from the first one. You weren't meant to like it. You don't understand, Arthur is bad. Fine I'll make it clearer"

[KrytoRift]

In what world would any judge let a defendant wear clown makeup in court?

[ThePenitentSquirrel]

If Arthur getting gang graped and then stabbed to death by the 'real joker' isn't a sign the Director hates his first film, its success and you then what the hell is?

[nicholasfruin]

Arthur Fleck was turned into such a sad sack of shit by the end of this movie that I felt absolutely nothing for him as a character at all.

[sophieamandaleitontoomey]

The fact that Arthur isn’t even the real Joker means that the entire first movie was a complete waste of our investment and our time.

[SpammytheHedgehog]

Not only this movie was terrible, but it was also a "bad romance." 😂

[kenthehobo]

I don't get why make it a musical. It felt like the producers were daring people like me not to watch it. Ok producers, you win, I won't watch it 🤷🏻‍♂️

[President_Mario]

I'm so glad I let you spoil it for me because now I'm saving my money.

[archythewienerdog]

This is definitely one of those

"We don't talk about the joker sequel".

[StefunnyStrange]

I just got back from watching this & didn’t want to believe the poor reviews but I now agree that this movie was made for everyone who hated Joker 1. All the critics & people saying Joker 1 was praising incels (which isn’t true & wasn’t the point of the film)… Joker 2 was made for those people. You guys will be very happy with the way the film ends. The other 90% of the audience, however, will be pretty damn upset & frustrated. Because it’s not just a bad movie that ruins Joker 1 but it also does damage to Heath Ledger’s Joker canon as well which I didn’t think was even possible before watching the film. I don’t understand why lately Hollywood seems to write with complete spite & hate for their fans!

[patrickthurston]

I think the Director is just trolling everyone

[crow-bl]

If Todd Phillips and Joaquin Phoenix felt so strongly that the original JOKER was a one-off and wasn't meant or needed to have a sequel, they should have refused to participate. They couldn't resist the $$$big bucks$$$ the studio offered them. Both of them have no integrity.

[Michael-lgwz]

I'm not paying $25 for a director to spit in my face and laugh with dollar signs for eyes. I half expected this but still, very saddening

[MarvinPowell]

The guy at the end is supposed to be the "real" Joker, who Arthur inspired and will go on to face Batman countless times.
But I do suspect like with the Matrix reboot, this movie was intentionally sabotaged to screw over the studio and the director just took the paycheck and trolled everyone.

[woodrowgodshyne]

It broke my heart. We saw the first film 6 times. We would hit the bar and go on for hours about all the symbolism.

I just paid 20 bones for a director to give me the middle finger.

[sumsumplays]

Worst part is it could of WORKED. Like could of had the focus on joker breaking away at harleys sanity, abusing her ect then eventually leading them to break out ect ect. We haven’t really seen a psychological type of thing on how Harley and joker happened and that focus could of been fantastic and bare in mind harley is a psychologist so I genuinely wanna know wtf did he do to manage to break her.

[HailToTheMeep]

This reminds me of the last installment of the matrix franchise. The creators had moved on and clearly didn’t want to do another sequel so they trolled everyone in the last one.

$20 million... thats what he saw in the contract... for sure he does it 'for the craft'...

[m.hreels]

Finally, somebody genuinely agrees with how I feel about that ending being undeserved and not being earned. I actually saw several people walk out of the movie theater too when that happened. Some people were just in complete shock, and other people were completely disgusted. Yeah, I don’t know why they had some random dude who we know nothing about kill him so mercilessly. It didn’t make any sense. It was drawn out, and it was way too gruesome. It was just not a good sendoff for the character.