“Joker: Folie à Deux,” a musical sequel to “Joker” (2019), is a movie that has just been released in theaters and was definitely not what watchers expected. The musical aspect was unlikeable, and, much like my popcorn, left a bitter taste in my mouth. Some musical pieces didn’t really align with what was happening seconds later. Also, with the musical pieces they felt forced and out of place. With the movie being two-and-a-half hours long, it felt like the directors were dragging it along. The plot may interest people, but it never made me sit on the edge of my seat. When we think of a musical we think of “Mamma Mia” or “High School Musical” not Batman’s enemy, the Joker.
The movie started out bland and uninteresting. It initially showed the Joker’s normal day routines, which made it extremely boring and repetitive. After 30 minutes, I finally heard Arthur Fleck, the man behind the Joker sing, which became horrendous as it went on. There was background music in some scenes, but it was never coming from Fleck. I was amused by his singing at first, but, as time flew by, I got more and more annoyed. The film would have been better if it was shorter and had less singing.
Personally, I do not think Lady Gaga was the best person to play Harleen Quinzel. I would have loved to see Margot Robbie reprise the role, but Gaga’s version of the character was OK. It was nothing amazing, but I can’t say it was really bad either. We find out in the movie she is faking being mentally ill to get close to Fleck, but she does not do a good job at convincing me of that. She just looks tired, which made it hard for me to take her as a character seriously. I do believe that if Gaga did not play this role, the movie would not have been a musical because the only enjoyable scenes were the ones where Harley sang since Gaga has a beautiful voice and Joaquin Phoenix (Fleck) is not as talented a singer.
I would say the process we saw while Fleck was on trial was the most interesting. We got to see more into his past and how he has developed as a character, excluding the singing, which is more than what this movie’s predecessor showed us. Reviews of this movie that mention musicals give them one star reviews and name it as overall choppy. You can get very confused if you space out, which happens to me often in a movie theater.
In my opinion, the ending was the best part of it all. Even though I had a hunch of how it was going to end, I still enjoyed the scenes leading up to it. Additionally, I think it could have been summed up in 10 minutes, not 60. It was obvious to me that everyone in the theater did not like this movie. People walked out in the middle of the showing, and, when it was over, many were complaining. I joined in on the complaining, because it was overall a huge waste of my time and money.
