We all remember the crazy hype Joker (2019) created back in the day. Along with its box office success (grossing over $1B), the movie created a sort of cult around Joker. Not to mention, Joaquin Phoenix won the Oscar for his remarkable performance as the lead actor in the movie. Overall, Joker was a huge success with both critics and audiences. All of this happened because it was such a great film. But I’m afraid that I cannot say the same for Joker: Folie à Deux (2024), the sequel to Joker (2019). The movie was slammed by both critics and the audience for not being able to come anywhere near the previous movie’s standard. In this article, I’ve selected 7 reasons why Joker: Folie à Deux turned out to be a disappointing movie for everyone.
Joker: Folie à Deux (2022) is a sequel that no one asked for, at least not the fans. But I’m not sure if Warner Bros thought the same way. Since the first movie made a ton of money despite all the odds against it (being an R-rated movie, not being released in China, exceeding expectations, etc.), we all knew that WB would try to squeeze more out of it. And when they did, it turned out to be an unwanted disaster.
Joker (2019) was applauded for its excellent writing, Joaquin Phoenix’s outstanding performance, its social commentary on the lower class, and more. But another thing that made the first movie stand out was its thought-provoking narrative and the ambiguity between fantasy and reality. The movie left a blurred image, leaving it to the audience to decide or imagine what was actually true and what was Joker’s imagination.
Making a sequel out of movies like this kind of destroys the very fun element that made the first movie so special: its vagueness. In the sequel, the magic of uncertainty is supposed to be gone. Knowing that, the entire fanbase was against the idea of making a sequel to Joker (2019), and now that Joker: Folie à Deux is finally released, it has completely ruined the fun experience of the first movie.
2. Epilogue of the first film
The objective of a sequel is to expand the storyline, deepen character development, and introduce fresh conflicts or elements. Also, the story needs a compelling reason to continue. In that case, Joker: Folie à Deux failed, big time. The movie felt more like an epilogue to Joker (2019) than a sequel. It doesn’t bring anything we didn’t already know. All it talks about are the five people Joker killed, his traumatic childhood, how society treated him—things we already saw in the 2019 film.
With a relatively bigger budget and great actors alongside, director Todd Phillips made a sequel that doesn’t serve any purpose, doesn’t explore more of the character(s), or add anything new to the story.
3. Pointless
Let’s quickly go through the story of Joker: Folie à Deux. After being caught for five murders, Arthur is kept in Arkham Asylum, accepting his fate and leaving the Joker persona behind. Lee Quinn appears in the asylum and manipulates him into becoming Joker again. So, Arthur puts on the clown makeup and becomes Joker once more. He fires his lawyer and decides to run the case on his own. Later, he realizes that being Joker hurts people like Gary. So, he confesses his crimes, stating that there’s no Joker anymore, and, surrendering to the law, he accepts his fate.
See, he starts as a weak, pathetic, lonely guy in prison at the beginning of the movie and ends exactly the same way. So, what’s the point of making the sequel if there isn’t any further development in the story?
Also, the ending of Folie à Deux reveals that Arthur is not the real Joker. Rather, the guy who kills him will become Joker. So, if this was the story to tell, why spend such a long runtime babbling about those six kills?
I’d call that a ‘pointless movie’ that wastes 2 hours and 18 minutes of the audience’s time.
4. Connection with Comics
If I consider Joker: Folie à Deux as a comic book adaptation, I’m pretty sure it will be one of the worst of its kind. It’s clear that the movie has little to do with the source material. It feels like they are just borrowing the characters’ names from the comics. And director Todd Phillips was pretty open about that too. However, Joker (2019) worked extraordinarily well despite having minimal connection to the comics.
In the sequel, we finally learn that Arthur is not the real Joker, which makes Folie à Deux a movie about one of Batman’s villains, without any Batman or his actual villain in it. How ironic is that?
And at this point, asking for well-written character development for Harley Quinzel in the movie seems like too much.
5. Musical: WHY?
I don’t understand why exactly Todd Phillips decided to make Joker: Folie à Deux (2024) a musical. Whatever the reason, it turned out to be a mistake. Well, the musical numbers are kind of enjoyable. Alongside Lady Gaga, Joaquin Phoenix sang pretty well too. The mesmerizing performances from Gaga and Phoenix, along with extraordinary visual presentation, made those musical sequences fun to watch. The problem is, almost none of the songs drive the story forward. Instead, they serve as a narrated version of what’s happening in that particular situation or what Arthur is thinking. So, the musical numbers don’t really impact the story. If anyone were to trim out all the musical numbers, the story would remain more or less the same.
It was an unnecessary and terrible decision to make the sequel to Joker (2019) a musical.
6. Ending: Aurther is not the joker, he’s the joke
Remember Arthur’s character arc in Joker (2019)? From a ‘mentally ill loner, abandoned by society’ to the ‘Joker,’ it was an incredible journey. The audience felt connected with Arthur’s tragic story and even justified the murders and chaos he caused in the city after all he had gone through. But Joker: Folie à Deux comes out five years later and says, ‘Joke’s on you, suckers, because Arthur is not really the Joker.’
In the third act of the movie, Arthur realizes that being Joker isn’t something he wants or that anything good can come from it. So, he confesses his crimes in court and announces that he’s not the Joker anymore. Then, he gets stabbed by the ‘real Joker’ at the end.
At this point, I’m not sure who the bigger clown is—Arthur or the audience for wanting to see more of this character. Either way, the ending is terrible.
7. Plot holes
Joker: Folie à Deux suffers from several plot gaps. Some of them don’t add up at all. Take the number of people Arthur killed, for instance. Throughout the whole movie, it is established that Arthur killed five people, six including his mother. Let’s count again, shall we?
He killed three bullies in the subway, his mother in the hospital, Randall in his apartment (in front of Gary), Murray Franklin on his own show, and finally, the psychiatrist from Arkham Asylum. That adds up to six kills for me.
Another example is Lee sneaking into Arthur’s cell by bribing the guard. I don’t understand why on earth any guard would ever let her in with Arthur, especially when Arthur and Lee tried to escape the prison not very long ago. Not to mention, he is a convicted murderer.
There are some other issues as well that I cannot really call plot holes, but they are certainly not properly aligned with the story logically.
