With the first Joker being popular among many film buffs, and fans of the Batman cinematic run made the disappointing release of “Joker: Folie a Deux,” even more stinging. The movie was filled with drawn out plotlines and scenes, corny attempts at being dark and troubled and an awful addition of a musical element.
The film’s predecessor “The Joker,” ran with a budget of $60 million, was released in Oct. of 2019 and was revered as the highest grossing R rated movie of all time. Whereas “Joker: Folie a Deux” was given a budget of $150 million released Oct. 29, 2024 and has so far been struggling in the box office.
The new film delves further into the topics set up in the first film, with the Joker being held in the Arkham Asylum. At said asylum he meets the focal point of the movie, Dr. Harleen Quinzel, or Harley Quin. The movie goes on to chronicle their newfound bond, as they delve into madness together.
Overall the movie just feels a bit over-achieving. The shift to being in a musical format felt like a half-baked effort to be “artsy.” It distracted from the dark, psychological themes and elements set up by its prior. Along with this, the pacing in this movie slaughtered the tension and intrigue that the first movie mastered. And on the note of pacing the runtime (a whopping 2 and a half hours) was not at all justified by the content. The depth and narrative completely lacked, leaving me with the feeling of “Why did I just waste 2 hours on that?”
The only part of this movie that was not lackluster and disappointing following its predecessor was the ingenuity in Harley’s character dynamic with the Joker. Typically in any telling of the joker’s story, Harley is set to be a ditsy side character, or a manipulated puppet of the Joker. However in this telling, she ends up with the upper hand over the Joker.
If the previous movie was not the sensation it was maybe this movie would seem as terrible, however following what for many was a rebirth of the DC Comic movie franchise, with whatever that movie was left all parties disappointed and wishing for quite frankly – less.
