Joker: folie a Deux movie – we didn’t want a musical. It is everything you don’t expect and didn’t ask for.
It’s a musical first. It’s a good musical, making use of known songs rather than new ones. Lady Gaga is simply divine with her singing and passion. But they fail to make use of her acting talent – she is not permitted to much else but sing in the movie.
It’s a prison love story second. The whole of the movie occurs around the prison with the court case at the end. The lack of action is important because a Joker movie is by default a thriller and action movie, this one is purely a jukebox musical.
Two hours in a prison with the build up of the love story is slow to follow. We watch the two of them plotting stuff and singing songs largely about their love for each other. So where is the real Joker story in this?
Apart from when the Joker sacks his lawyer in the court case and escaping when the bomb goes off – both happening towards the end of the movie – there is little else that points towards this is a Joker movie.
The fundamental disconnect for me is what on earth possessed them to make this sequel into a musical. Yes, he goes to prison and has a court case, but beyond that, there is no follow on. I was expecting him to break out towards the beginning of the movie not at the end. The opportunity to build a plot against Batman never happened.
The first movie was so dark and malevolent I didn’t like it at first, but with further viewings it grew on me. It was an origin story that actually works because it is actually gritty and challenging to watch. It was disturbing. It was tense and sinister. The sequel was supposed to build on that, grow him into a the full Joker character. It didn’t do any of that. Apart from a few flash backs it never progressed from being a generic lover story. At one point he even doubts himself as the Joker.
As a musical it alienates the original audience – because we didn’t want a musical. It’s obviously a passion project that should have never been agreed until after the third movie had been produced and it could have been pushed as a side project.
