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Added to Calendar: 10-04-24

Praise : When it was announced that the sequel to 2019's highly successful Joker film was going to be a musical my response was much like everyone else's. Huh? How is that going to work?!? Then I started thinking about a movie musical i liked years ago called Sweeney Todd and if it's like that it may work. As Arthur Fleck
Joaquin Phoenix turns in a good performance slipping easily into song and dance numbers but at least for a moment here and there he's that Joker from the first film. As another Arkham asylum inmate Lee Quinzel a.k.a. “Harley Quinn” Lady Gaga of course handles the role with ease as she belts out familiar tunes. Two broken and traumatized people bonding i was on board with it. The actors have great chemistry. The opening of the movie was very creative and fun and i really enjoyed it. Also Fleck wallowing in misery as he goes through competence hearings to see if he's sane enough for a multiple murder trial appealed to me. Characters suddenly breaking into song ,with tunes from the past was charming.....for about an hour.

PROBLEMS: Phoenix and Director director/co-writer Todd Phillips stated they loved taking on the character and of course the success of the first movie. I can see them putting their heads together saying hey let's make the sequel a musical. This likely appealed to Phoenix because he already portrayed Johnny Cash. But this idea fell apart for me after the first hour. I knew exactly where this movie was going and what bits were going to turn out to be. It really started to feel like a parody of two of the most infamous DC characters. It's really dissapointing because I could see what could have and what should have been done with these characters but they're both watered down here and just doesn't lead up to anything entertaining or involving. It just feels like an odd experiment that ends with the same one note path a writer and Director takes when they sign off from a character.

Scale of 1 to 10 a 5
 
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