Joker: Folie à Deux First Reactions Are All Saying The Same Thing

Have you ever danced with the devil in the pale moonlight? Early viewers of "Joker: Folie à Deux" did — and it sounds like they had a pretty terrible time. "Joker: Folie à Deux" made its world premiere at Venice Film Festival in early September ahead of an October wide release. In the sequel, Joaquin Phoenix's Arthur Fleck is joined by Lady Gaga as Lee Quinzel — aka Harley Quinn — who becomes Fleck's partner in chaos and crime. But "Folie à Deux" isn't striking the same chords with audiences as the first one did. Early reviews are trickling out, and a lot of viewers of the film just weren't hearing the music.

Taking to X, one person wrote: "#Joker2 is a shallow mess. It may be beautifully shot with great performances from both Gaga & Phoenix but it's all wasted on a story actively wanting to put off fans of the Joker. The musical numbers are awkward & drag the film."

Issues with the many song and dance numbers were a recurring theme. Another person agreed when they said: "The musical scenes felt like they were there to pad out the runtime. You could edit out all the musical scenes and the movie would be shorter, but also flow better without issue. You wouldn't even notice."

One reviewer flat-out said: "If you liked the first Joker, you will not like the sequel. If you did not like the first joker movie, you will outright hate and despise Joker 2."

Director Todd Phillips has always shied away from outright calling the film a musical in interviews, despite admitting on the "Fresh Air" podcast that the sequel is "the very definition of a musical."

After the film's Venice world premiere, Lady Gaga also talked about the role the music played in building the characters of Fleck and Quinn, telling the audience: "I think the way we approach music in this film is very special and extremely nuanced. I wouldn't necessarily say that this is a musical. In a lot of ways it's very different."

Judging by the reviews, "nuanced" wasn't the takeaway for the majority of viewers. That said, there are still plenty of people who enjoyed the film. One particular highlight of both the positive and negative reviews was the performances by Joaquin Phoenix and Gaga.

But even with all that considered, the consensus seems to be that there was no point to a sequel in the first place. Critics were starry-eyed over the first film, and its grounded, unique approach made it feel like a one-and-done deal. Bringing the Joker back for round two had the potential to double down on that, but the storyline just doesn't elevate the character the way some reviewers thought it should. Variety's review ended by saying that the film had taken away the seething menace that made Arthur so volatile and interesting in the first one: "He's now just a singing-and-dancing puppet clown living in his imagination. Is that entertainment?"