As a guy who liked the first Joker (had some issues but most of it worked), I was uncertain how to feel about this sequel going in. Word of mouth wasn’t great. And, wow, were my lowered expectations met…. and it’s not just because they turned it into a musical either.

So Joker is in Arkham awaiting trial and being pals with the guards (not really). He meets Harley Quinn (aka Lee aka just Lady Gaga) and they fall in love or something like it. He then goes to trial for his crimes in the first movie… and maybe he’s crazy insane or maybe he knew what he was doing the whole time. Do you care which?

I really hope the script was a musical from the start and they just didn’t hire Lady Gaga and convert it into one for her. Because if they made a musical for Gaga, then it’s just The Lady Gaga Show: Featuring Joker. I didn’t like any of the old timey songs very much nor their productions. I mean, Gaga is fine… this is what she does. But it ain’t what Phoenix does and none of the productions are actually occurring in the movie so they are just wastes of time. You could argue they are extensions of Fleck’s inner life… but why? The first movie wasn’t an all-singing, all-dancing musical? Is it because of Gaga? <sigh> It’s because of Gaga.

But I think the real problem with the film is what it’s even about in the first place. It spends time in prison awaiting a trial that just adjudicates what we already know happened the first time. It doesn’t advance the plot, it doesn’t advance Arthur Fleck’s character… it mostly just seems like an excuse for songs. There’s a sequence near the end of the film that honestly should have been the finale of Act 1 leading into what the movie really should have been about. Whatever that is.

The ultimate finale also felt like Joaquin Phoenix middle fingering the audience and saying that’s all folks (as if the movie needed more Warner Brothers references)! If I’m right in what the ending means, then they could have wrapped up Arthur’s storyline in an hour and gone done something else.

As far as Gaga goes, I shouldn’t complain that her Harley Quinn is not much like Harley because Joker was never much like Joker. But she really just feels like Lady Gaga… no attempt to create a character, much less one that feels like Harley. It made me wish Margot Robbie came back even if she wouldn’t match the grim tone of these films.

Not to mention I didn’t remotely buy her relationship with Phoenix so I didn’t care what her reactions were to the trial or the finale.

I debating being nice and giving this flick a decent score for its production values and acting… but I think its so misguided from the start, that I can’t see why I would. It’s a bad, tedious movie full of boring songs that go nowhere, not advancing the plot or giving us anything to work with. Except maybe a switch-a-roo ending… and I’m not even sure of that.

Score: 69