Brady Wilson

The first Joker movie was one of my favorite films of all time. Everything from the cinematography, acting, script, and overall plot, was nothing short of spectacular. I saw that film 5 times in theaters and multiple times afterwards. That being said, this sequel was a huge letdown and didn’t need to happen. We all knew that a sequel was inevitable based purely on the profit that the first movie brought (over $1 billion). However, that movie wrapped up the story of Arthur/ Joker perfectly with the viewer feeling closure at the end of a well told story. There was simply no need for a sequel. The Bad: Other than 2 musical numbers, these musical scenes were a huge waste of time and added nothing to the story. I understand they wanted to show Lady Gaga’s voice, but we didn’t need to see that every 10 minutes. I felt relived when the normal dialogue picked back up and we could progress the plot forward. Todd Phillips also seemed to want to unravel the entire story he created from the first film. Arthur was back to his old pitiful self, with only glimpses of his “Joker” side. He clearly had these evil tendencies shown in the first movie and they could’ve played on this much better. SPOILER ALERT!!!! WTF was that ending? Was that really the best way for him to go?!?! The good: The acting and cinematography were superb. This is the one redeeming quality of the film. There were a few scenes that stuck out, such as the courtroom scene with Gary, that added more substance to events that happened in the first film. Overall, I’m sad to have seen this film ever come out. I held back my skepticism when I heard it was being made into a musical, but this still didn’t help. Nobody asked for this sequel and Todd Phillips should’ve just let the first movie be a the perfect standalone film that it was. I’m hoping I’ll be able to watch the first film again without having it ruined by what happened in the sequel.