The Joker sequel is looking increasingly like a disaster
The original Joker movie might have been a rehash of some Martin Scorsese movies, but it was well received by critics and won Oscars for Best Actor and Best Original Score.
The movie also raked in over $1 billion (£764 million) at the box office, so you’d think a sequel bringing Lady Gaga into the fold would basically be a licence to print money.
However, that’s not exactly what happened as it has been panned by critics and audiences alike.
Joker: Folie a Deux is currently sitting in the not so pretty position of having just 33 percent of critics approving of it, according to Rotten Tomatoes, and the audience rating is similar.
Some viewers have said they’ve been walking out of the cinemas part-way through the movie because it wasn’t their particular cup of tea, with the movie having a plethora of musical numbers seeming to be a point of contention.
Joker director Todd Phillips has said he’s done with DC movies after the sequel and, according to the Metro, it lost about $70 million (£53 million) due to a poor opening weekend, so the chances of getting the band back together for a third film don’t seem great.
Some review sites have even rated it lower than Madame Web, as it got a CinemaScore of D to the critically panned Spider-Man spin-off’s C+.
The new Joker film is so bad, some fans are wondering if that was the point (Warner Bros.)
Madame Web had been dubbed the ‘worst film of 2024’, though while it enjoys a better CinemaScore rating than Joker 2, the percentage of critics who liked it is a dismal 11 percent.
In the aftermath of Joker 2’s difficult opening, some fans have cooked up a rather wild theory that the movie was made to be ‘intentionally bad’.
The Independent reports that some fans reckon Phillips specifically made the movie to go for fans of the original who idolised Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix).
The original film was controversial and did pick up a number of fans who probably shouldn’t think as well of a man with mental illness who goes on a killing spree that incites further violence as they did.
That’s got people thinking the sequel was made deliberately bad as a response to fans of the first film, though that seems rather outlandish.
Some reviewers have picked up a ‘go f**k yourselves’ vibe from the sequel towards fans of the original (Warner Bros.)
A number of reviewers picked up on the vibe that Joker 2 was in conversation with the perception of the original, with Rolling Stone’s verdict saying the movie’s message to fans of the original was ‘go f**k yourselves’.
The Independent also reports that despite the derision the film does have a certain core of supporters who think the movie really is designed to target fans of the original and are all for that.
Perhaps Joker 2 will end up becoming a cult movie for those who think it’s really good, but it seems as though the majority of audiences aren’t liking what they see.
If all of that didn’t put you off, Joker: Folie a Deux is in cinemas now.
Featured Image Credit: Warner Bros.
