Joker 2 Fan Reviews Are Mixed: “I Wanted a Joker Movie, Not a Musical”

“I’ve got this sneaking suspicion that we’re not giving the people what they want,” Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker remarks to Lady Gaga’s Harley Quinn during a Sonny & Cher-esque variety show sequence in Joker: Folie à Deux. Based on the early fan reviews that started to hit the internet on Wednesday — one day before the film officially opens in the U.S. — it seems the Joker sequel isn’t giving the people what they want. After premiering to mixed critical response out of the Venice Film Festival in September, Joker 2 is receiving similarly mixed word of mouth from audiences following the fan first advanced screenings on Monday night.

Joker 2 currently sits at a 53% approval rating from professional critics on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 74 reviews. It’s unlikely to recover from the “rotten” score, well below the 69% “fresh” of 2019’s Joker, which went on to earn over $1 billion in global box office receipts and received 11 Oscar nominations (winning two: Best Actor for Phoenix, and Best Original Score for composer Hildur Guðnadóttir). 

Rotten Tomatoes has yet to publish the Popcornmeter score (which replaced the Audience score in August), the review aggregator website’s system that awards a “Verified Hot” badge to movies with the highest verified audience scores.

“I wanted a Joker movie and not a musical,” reads a verified audience review rating the movie 1.5 stars out of 5 and adding that the ending is “completely disappointing.” Reads a one star review from user Odysseus 9, “It’s more [of] a musical than a movie. If you enjoyed the first movie, thenyou shouldn’t watch this one.” Jovan J agreed the musical sequences were excessive, writing in a 1.5 star review: “This is not what I expected this movie to be. With Lady Gaga this movie became a musical.”

User Stefan G, awarding the movie 4 stars, praised Phoenix and Gaga, but criticized an “anticlimactic” ending. “The musical elements work for me very well and I am not at all a fan of musicals,” the review reads. Gabriel S, giving a five-star rating, writes that “Gaga and Joaquin shine as The Joker and Harley Quinn.”

Despite Phoenix and Gaga’s performances, there is a consensus that Joker 2 is largely uneventful, with reactions ranging from “tedious” to “pointless, boring, grim, pretentious and extremely stupid.” “Pointless sequel that takes away from the original,” reads a 1.5 star review from Bill S. “I don’t know how you take a movie that made abillion dollars and make a sequel that fans of the first film will hate.” 

Folie à Deux is a “folly of a movie,” says a 2 star review from Jithin K, adding that Phoenix and Gaga “are spectacular with the material they’re given.” Christopher T called the movie “a beautifully filmed middle finger to the fans,” with a half-star review from Mike T agreeing: “If you’re a Joker fan, a Harley fan, or even a DC or comic book fan, then skip this.”

Joker: Folie À Deux stars Joaquin Phoenix as Arthur Fleck and Lady Gaga as Harleen “Lee” Quinzel, with Brendan Gleeson (The Banshees of Inisherin) as Jackie Sullivan, Catherine Keener (Get Out) as Maryanne Stewart, Zazie Beetz (Deadpool 2) as Sophie Dumond, Steve Coogan (the Alan Partridge comedies) as Paddy Meyers,and Harry Lawtey (The Pale Blue Eye) as Harvey Dent.