Welcome to an opinion piece about Joker: Folie A deux. A movie that I admittedly haven’t seen, and I definitely have an opinion about. Right now, Joker 2 is a box office bomb. No one seems to like it. The score on Rotten Tomatoes is 33% from critics and 31% from audience. No one likes it. People are leaving the theater saying, “What the f*ck is this?” So, it’s a flop. An expensive flop. I think I know what happened with Joker 2.

I’m going to trust the people online who are recommending fans of the first film don’t watch Joker 2. I believe them when they say it sucks as a movie and the ending is terrible. Okay. Here comes my take.

As always, I never blame the actors. They are talented people and it’s not up to them to edit the movie. I also have a lot of respect for the choice of making this movie a musical. I think that is one hundred percent ‘on brand’ for joker. So that ain’t the problem.

The way I see it, there are 3 possible choices for what happened to Joker 2. One. It’s just a shitty movie. Two. We, the audience and fans of the first movie are being punished for liking the original. Nerdrotic has a moment in his review where he reminded me of all the hand wringing from the media. They were worried about the Joker inspiring violence. The media seemed to think that the Joker represented the everyman in America and people being tired of being pushed around would go all ‘Joker’ and start a rampage. I actually think that was a big part of the Joker’s success. People are tired of a constant stream of bullshit, and they can (in a way) identify as the Joker. That’s a big part of why the first movie worked so well.

Everyone is struggling. Arthur Fleck is that struggle on screen. We can’t descend into madness, but it’s kind of cathartic to watch him do it. And that, I believe is what horrified the filmmakers. They saw the success and were shocked, so they had to kill it. One could argue the whole movie did what it set out to do. And bonus? It’s a tax write off. Time for Warner Bros. to call the insurance company and get some money back. They’re hurting for cash. It could work.

Lastly, Joker 2 can be seen as the second part in a trilogy. Part 3 picks up with someone new putting on the makeup and becoming the Joker. They were inspired by Arthur Fleck’s Joker and now that he’s gone, they’ll do the real crazy Joker stuff. That’s a long shot, but it will give the writer and director a ‘way out’ at meeting. Todd Phillips can say it was part of the plan all along and he knew people wouldn’t like his choices… blah… blah…blah… Again. It’s bullshit, but it would get him through and awkward dinner. I don’t think anyone wants to see a Joker 3. Not if that is the road map.

It’s not about a crazy person doing crazy shit. It’s about people being driven crazy by a world that doesn’t care about them. At all. That’s the movie. That’s the first Joker. That’s what resonated with people. And I don’t think they liked that one teeny bit.

PS. It’s already started! LOL! The ‘You didn’t understand it’ bit. Good call, Todd. Good call.