This text accommodates main spoilers for “Joker: Folie à Deux.”
Todd Phillips’ “Joker: Folie à Deux” is an interesting animal. It is sluggish, depressive, turgid, and much too lengthy at 139 minutes. It is a musical, however the musical numbers really feel lazy and disinterested; nobody appears to be moved to ardour by the songs they’re crooning. And but, it involves a fascinatingly deconstructionist conclusion. On the finish of the movie — to not give something away — Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix) involves a reasonably bleak conclusion about being the Joker, discovering that his chaotic clown fantasy is not all that interesting. That is galling to his would-be girlfriend Lee (Woman Gaga) who’s all too desirous to turn out to be a prison clown herself. Phillips appears keen to tear down the parable of the Joker, and superhero cinema generally. Greater than ever earlier than, it feels just like the style is at an finish.
As of this writing, “Folie à Deux” is tanking on the field workplace, having made a mere $40 million domestically on a $200 million finances. Plainly “Joker: Ménage à Trois” isn’t going to manifest. Additionally, in keeping with a brand new article in The Hollywood Reporter, the unique, meant ending for the primary movie was even darker and extra violent, and would have modified the trail of “Joker 2.” Somebody accustomed to manufacturing stated that there was a scene whereby Arthur confronted his many unintended followers and acolytes, and used a razor to mutilate his personal face, giving himself a everlasting smile.
Facial self-mutilation, it must be acknowledged, is a grand custom for the Joker. The character, as he was depicted within the TV collection “Gotham,” sported vicious facial scars, and a latest storyline within the Batman comedian books noticed the Joker peeling off his personal face and stapling it again on. Most notably, the character, as performed by Heath Ledger, bore smile-shaped scars in Christopher Nolan’s 2008 movie “The Darkish Knight.” Plainly when Phillips needed to incorporate his model of a facially carved Joker, Nolan really put the kibosh on the thought. Just one cinematic Joker, he felt, ought to have smile-shaped facial scars: his.
The Joker, sans scars
Nolan, in fact, now not works with Warner Bros., however his three Batman movies — “Batman Begins” from 2005, “The Darkish Knight” from 2008, and “The Darkish Knight Rises” from 2012 — did large enterprise for the studio and had been critically lauded. Nolan additionally produced a few of the DC Comics-based motion pictures within the so-called Snyder-verse continuity; he has credit on “Man of Metal,” “Batman v Superman: Daybreak of Justice,” and each variations of “Justice League.” He additionally made a number of different motion pictures with Warner Bros., and his movies tended to be hits. So, even by 2019, Nolan nonetheless carried loads of clout and management, giving him the ability to nix Phillips’ face-slicing concepts. Alas, with Nolan out of the image, “Joker 2” incorporates a completely different character carving a Glasgow smile into their face, albeit out of focus and just a little off-screen.
The Hollywood Reporter additionally famous that, for a quick interval, “Joker: Folie à Deux” was meant to be a Broadway present. Whereas that may have been fascinating, it seems like a misguided thought for the stage; who may neglect the debacle that was “Spider-Man: Flip Off the Darkish?” Finally, a movie manifested, and Woman Gaga got here on because the Harley Quinn character.
Whereas “Joker: Folie à Deux” solely made $40 million in its opening weekend, nonetheless, that quantity nonetheless appears amazingly excessive for a downbeat, 138-minute musical concerning the deterioration of superhero lore. Maybe the movie was profitable by itself deserves, even when it is not gratifying to look at. On the very least, the performances are good, Phoenix is dedicated, and the message is sound. There is no motive, nonetheless, that it ought to have value $200 million to make.
