I loved the first movie, the message it had and Arthur’s character development, it was good.
This movie is a movie that could be great, that has some ideas but that ends up being a complete mess because of some really odd choices, that on paper do not sound bad but when you see the movie you can only appreciate the terrible execution of these ideas.
The idea of Joker being a musical was obviously a big risk and an odd choice that doesn’t pay off, the songs all sound the same and they don’t get stuck into your head after you see the movie (if you want to see a great musical go and watch Chicago), especially the ones at the beginning of the movie those are just awful.
The idea of Arthur slowly realizing that people still don’t care about him and that even his followers are just interested in him being the joker and not him being who he truly is, is actually really good, but the problem is that it all seems confused and redundant.
Another thing that I have noticed is the lack of Arthur constantly laughing, which was probably the character’s most iconic feature.
I feel like this movie could have been good but its execution and how its final message seems to be: “follow the rules, don’t rebel even if you are being oppressed” kind of destroys the meaning of the first movie and makes it a bad experience, still if you liked this movie good for you, but personally I do not recommend it.
Plus the first movie ended in way that you could choose if it was all real or just in Arthur’s head, the sequel obviously destroys it.
Spoilers!!!!!
These are some of the other things that I didn’t particularly like and are obviously spoilers so if you don’t want me to spoil the movie for you stop reading!
Some of the biggest problems that I had are related to the subplot of Harley being pregnant, it felt like it came out of nowhere and felt so fake, plus the idea of Harley lying about his origins and then revealing that she’s the daughter of a doctor, and that she went to Arkham just to meet joker and have a love story with him was just bad, she felt like a casual cult follower who wanted to meet his idol.
The ending is another thing that felt terrible, let’s be clear it was obvious from the start how the wanted to kill Arthur, but the way he died was just awful, like he is killed by an inmate, after the guy tells him a joke that ends with the iconic phrase: “You get what you fuckin’ deserve”, and then the inmate cuts a smile on his face like ledger’s joker? What is this?!?!!!! And Arthur sings while dying!?!? Why!!!???? It would have much rather preferred if Arthur was killed by a bunch of his followers who Ike me became sick of the musical idea