Joker: Folie à Deux picks up two years after where the first one ends. Struggling with his dual identity, the film finds failed comedian Arthur Fleck meeting the love of his life, Harley Quinn, while incarcerated at Arkham State Hospital for the killing of 6 people. While the film has been heavily marketed as a musical love story, the film is even more focused on being a courtroom drama as Fleck tries to prove his innocence.

This film was easily one of my most anticipated of the year. I really enjoyed the first, and with news coming out of who was being cast and what it was going to be about, it sounded like it could be really good. Needless to say, my friend and I walked out of theater frustrated and disappointed. We both haven’t felt that way with a film in quite some time. I initially told him I was just going to stick with my Instagram review. As I have thought about it more, I decided to talk about this more in length.

First off, I do want to commend everyone who clearly worked hard to make this movie look and sound good. The trailers clearly show the phenomenal camera work, but it doesn’t do the film the justice it deserves. There are some lengthy one-take shots that I know wasn’t easy to pull off. The colors that are used also show the imagination of Arthur Fleck and how he still looks at the world, even when the world has been cruel to him. Watching this in a Dolby theater really heightened the sound design between the musical and courtroom scenes. The production and costume design is also quite impressive. The people behind this helps bring this world to life that makes this world so interesting.

Lady Gaga gracefully brings her own version of Harley Quinn to screen that feels unique and worth exploring. She has become quite the actress that shows range and her vocals brings so much quality to the film. I wouldn’t say she is the best version of Quinn, but she still easily makes every scene she is in work.

As I sit on this film longer, the themes really makes me feel things. I feel mostly frustrated, but that is Todd Phillips’ intention. He isn’t setting out to make an easy movie to digest. He makes you see different perspectives of mental health. I hope, if anything, this will get people talking about it more. I am not exactly sure if this is a positive, but I will say that Phillips make this film so pointless that proves why it didn’t need a sequel in the first place. I truly hope this will prove to studios to STOP making sequels that are not necessary.

The first act actually starts off pretty strong. I enjoyed the set up between the location and the relationship with Fleck & Quinn. After that, the film quickly nosedives in quality. I knew this film was going to be more of a courtroom drama than what the marketing made us to believe, but I never expected it to be as bad as it is. I am no law expert, but I know there are scenes here that are highly implausible. The things that characters are able to get away with is so laughably bad.

To make these scenes worse, they are treated like a clip show of the greatest hits from the first film. It’s the equivalent of the Seinfeld series finale. It’s redundant and adds nothing new to the story that we didn’t already know. Musical set pieces are springled throughout to help us look more into Fleck’s mindset and seeing what is helping him feel better throughout all of this. The problem is that they are awkwardly edited into the film that hinders the pacing and tone of the film.

I really loved Phoenix’s performance in the first one. While the first one should have been a one and done, I can also understand why he would want to come back to the role. He won an Oscar for his performance! Unfortunately, I felt nothing here with his performance. He tries to do too many different things that do not land with me. There’s a lot of moments where he isn’t doing much that I honestly forgot about his laughing condition. His impressions when he represents himself feel out of character for him. Even his musical scenes didn’t do much for me. I won’t put all of the blame on him here as this requires good direction and writing, and I think he does the best that he can with what he has.

Director Todd Phillips needs to stop making sequels. Instead of rehashing an exact replica like he did with The Hangover Part II, he goes for something completely different and subverts expectations. When I heard this from early reviews, this got me excited. I love when a film subverts expectations. The problem here is that he does it to the point where it feels like a slap in the face to the people who enjoyed the first movie, especially with what he does in the last 30 minutes of the film. Instead of going in one direction, he goes in another that acts completely out of line with these characters.

There are hints of Phillips trying to establish thematic messages that get people talking. but at what cost? I won’t get into the graphic spoilers here, but there was a scene that truly made me mad. They don’t show exactly what happens, but I knew. My friend didn’t catch it when I brought up to him. When I looked at the wiki plot, I couldn’t believe I was right. What the film does in this scene is so unnecessary and added nothing of value to the plot.

As for the runtime, the film does go on 20 minutes longer than the first one, which is crazy in hindsight when so much of it is just telling you things that we know happened in the first. Unfortunately, we get a plot involving a prison guard played by Brendan Gleeson that was not necessary. We get little to no background to Harvey Dent, played by Harry Lawtey. The guy is a great actor, but I could consistently hear his British accent slip. At least there was a cool little Industry reunion with actor Ken Leung. There are three too many musical songs. I think if the story focused more on advancing the story, it could have been tons better. The film also needed more focus on the Bruce Wayne character that was established in the film film.

Overall, Joker: Folie à Deux has moments of greatness in its production value, but made me beyond frustrated and disappointed with the direction of its story. As a Batman fan, there was so much more potential to make this better than what it was. I think the film will hopefully spark important conversations about mental health. If you are like me and will still go see it even with the mixed reviews, I get it. I will always support people to go see whatever they want to see. I can just already tell a lot of people are walking out of the theater with the same thoughts as me. I will personally never watch this again. I will do my best to erase this from my memory and act like there is only one from 2019.

VERDICT: 2/5 (Bad)