Joker Folie A Deux, or Madness for Two from Director Todd Phillips is DC's next and only
big movie release this year, currently scheduled to come out in theatres on October the 4th 2024.
Ever since the announcement of a Joker 2 with Phillips returning as director, Joaquin Phoenix
coming back as Arthur Fleck, and Lady Gaga joining the project as the infamous Harley Quinn,
I've been waiting to see more from the project, wondering whether this could be a comic book
film that turns out to be a genre-defining one. Other than Dune Part 2, Joker 2 is probabaly
my most anticipated film of this year, and while yes I'm excited because it's coming off the
back of a great first film, there's many other reasons why the thought of a sequel to this
actually excites me. Many people have mixed thoughts on there being a new instalment, and
while I think their concerns are mostly justified, I'm personanly looking forward to it. I think
it can go against the trend of samey movies that we've been seeing from the comic book genre,
in some ways similar to how the first Joker gave us something fresh, just this time in a
completely new way. So in this video, I'm going to be discussing why I believe Joker 2 has the
potential to be one of the best comic book movies from the last few years and why I am
particularly excited to see it. Before I get into it though, if you want to see much more videos
on Joker 2 leading up to it's release date, then don't forget to support this video by
giving it a like rating, subscribing to the channel and turning on your
notifications. But without further a do, lets discuss why Joker 2 is so anticipated.
So 2019's Joker film was a project that I personanly loved,
being a seperated character study, giving us an artistic endeavour into the complex
madness behind one of the biggest villains in pop culture. It had an oscar winning
performance, audiences loved it and it became a huge success at the box
office. On a small budget of about $55 million it made nearly $1.1 billion
in returns and that meant it resulted in one of the buggest budget to profit ratios in recent
cinematic history. People loved the original Joker and on paper it seems a no-brainer that
you make a sequel if you were Warner Bros. But we've seen studios before capatilise on
big hits and milk them dry to the point where it becomes solely a business endeavour and not one
directed through trying to make a better sequel with true purpose. For instance, look at what
Disney have done with Star Wars and it's recent sequels. But with Joker 2 we've got quite the
different situation. We have an actor like Joaquin Phoenix who is notoriously known
for only signing up to projects after reading the script and really beleiving that the story and
characters involved can be an artistic endeavour of cinematic meaning. Not in a million years
after watching that original Joker film would I predict that Joaquin would be on board to do
a sequel. But it's happening, and to me, that says that this is more than just a cash grab
sequel if an actor like this is commited. Then you've got the same writters as the original
Joker in Scott Silver and Todd Philips, with a likely return for other oscar nominated production
workers too. Now if we also consider that they added talent like Lady Gaga, an actress
who in her two recent films has prooved that she can actually act and pull off great performances,
then it kind of excites me for a different take on this beloved character of Harley
Quinn. Think about how Joaquin gave us a very unique take on Joker with Arthur Fleck in the
original film and then think about, well what if this new script calls for a unique take like
that on Harley Quinn. She played two vastly different characters in A Star Is Born and
House Of Gucci, and while you may like or dislike those films, I think her performances have stood
out in both as being pretty great. Add on that her singing is perfect and that this Joker sequel
is going to be influenced by musicals, and it seems like the right choice. So just based
on those early points, while Joker 2 on paper as a sequel sounds ridiculous and isn't needed,
it can work if the talent is used correctly and the right creative choices are made.
Now I share some of the concerns people have about Joker 2 and the main one is the need for
a sequel after how the first film ends. It could go very badly if the film is creatively not
that great. But when it comes to idea of comic book films today, I think there's many reasons
to be excited about this over the plethora of other films filling that genre right now.
When analysing comic book movies today, we're currently looking at a time where it seems that
audiences want something different. The universe driven movies seem to be on the fall in both
quality and box office performance, and while I hope that all types of comic book movies
can thrive in the theatrical market at the same time, it's hard to ignore that viewers just want
better made films in the genre. There have been a few standout films in recent years though,
and they tend to be ones situated outside of the universes, whether it be examples like Logan,
The Batman, the original Joker or a few others. These types of movies while different in style,
approach and story, tend to ground their narratives and characters in a more real and
desperate world. There's an urgency or even a relatability in these films from an individual
sense and they don't rely on the tropes of the genre nor narratives that have to build on from
previous movies with varying tones. They can build their worlds onscreen in a single movie
or seperately across a few films, and they really give us the meat of the narrative right from
the get go. Just in my opinion, there's a lot of comic book films in recent times that have sucked
a lot of the oxygen out of the cinematic. I prefer seeing the comic movies that feel
like actual cinema and give us more fresh takes on the genre. And while you could argue that
films like Joker take a lot of influence from other classics of the past, what movie in
general doesn't take at least some influence. For me, it's how you use that influence to create
something unique for the character and genre you're approaching, presenting your story in
a fascinating way for the medium it lies in. I think Joker did that and when looking at what
we might get in a sequel, I think there's an opportunity here to double down. It's been
confirmed that Folie A Deux is being considered partly in the musical genre, building off some
of the scenes in the first film, which had elements of that genre already. We had the
bathroom dance after the murders on the train, we had the iconic stair sequence, and the moments at
the very end of the film where Arthur Fleck embraces the madness that has consumed him.
It was if that film was warming us up to the twisted musical nature of Arthur's physchology,
both in twisted and emotional ways. So now that this iteration of Joker has arrived, it only
makes sense that Todd Phillips and co add more of that musical aspect to it, getting us further into
the heads of Joker and Quinn at Arkham State Hospital, and telling the story through a
fascinating new lens. It can be done in a way that reflects some great musicals of the past,
but also in a way that's new for this genre too. I think of an example like the 2002 Oscar
winning musical Chicago, a film that was mostly set in a prison cell, but a movie that uses
its musical sequences and landscape to elevate the whole story and its meaning. For a Joker
film it could be less on the nose and more grounded and twisting, using its musical numbers
to explore both the psychological themes and also the unreliability of our two main characters.
It can be another unique take on this Gotham world, feel less like a sequel
and more like its own new viewpoint within the frameworks of a whole new sub-genre.
Speaking of that different viewpoint, it's no secret that a lot of that is going to
be thrusted onscreen through the introduction of Lady Gaga's Harley Quinn. While I can go on about
the reasons why I think she's a great actress and musician for the part, the narrative and
settings that are being teased to us in behind the scenes footage and images, are what
really excites me the most. Video of Arthur being chased down the streets of Gotham and
Gaga transforming into Quinn could be a mixture of Joker grappling with his madness spreading and
Harley Quinn being somewhat inspired or struggling with a developing mental illness like Arthur was
in the first film. In turn we could see why Quinn individually decides to embrace her
madness and why that subtitle truly is madness for two. The potential of Joker is that it can
be took in any direction because of the crown prince of crime and Harley Quinn's
physchological unpredictability. And this could feed into the very notion of viewpoints by using
the musical genre. For instance, we might get a musical scene of Arthur dancing throughout
the halls of Arkham State Hospital, in in his twisted mind, he's shooting workers there and
singing in a fragile state about how he is in control of them and how it's not the other way
round. I think this is all going to build on that ending for Joker 1, where some people
in Gotham had been inspired by the Joker after the decline of political matters in the city.
There's already been images released both inside and outside a courtroom, and just from
speculation, I'd guess that this might take place around the consequences of Arthur killing Murray
in the first film. Essentially building on how he sees things after that murder and how others
see him both in a despicable way and in a way of twisted inspiration too. Whatever happens
and whatever musical route it takes based on that, I see this being more realistic,
and like the first movie, relating to our real world in big thematic ways.
So ultimately, I think there's context here for Joker 2 to be yes part unique, but also expansive
in its storytelling too. Through the lens of two characters there's the opportunity to not
just build on the ideas introduced by the first film, but also there's a chance to do it in a
completely new way for a completely different film. This is probabaly less of a comparison,
but remember when each film of Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight trilogy gave us stand-out
approaches in multiple genres. Batman Begins was part a superhero origin tale and part a
neo-noir film. The Dark Knight was also a noir but it had the influence of Michael Mann's Heat
by being a crime thriller. And The Dark Knight Rises was more an apocalyptic epic then the
other two movies were. They brought unique flavours with every film and it ended up expanding
the whole trilogy and giving us a fresher outlook every time. So with the original Joker
being a character study and Folie A Deux continuing that through more of a musical lens,
I think there's the potential for this to be a very unique film in the comic book genre. We'll
have to see what the trailers provide us with leading up to its release to get a better idea,
but the early signs of the film exploring different genres, new characters and broadened
central themes, make me believe that this can be a really special project. A project stands
apart both in shocking and satisfying ways, and maybe even one that becomes better than the
original. There's still a lot of concerns surrounding whether it will actually work,
but hopefully like with that first movie, the trailer can be important in setting a tone.
But they were the reasons why I think Joker 2 could be the best comic book film from the last
few years. Like every movie, when going into Joker 2, I will of course leave my
expectations at the door and judge it when I see it. The points I've raised in this
video are purely from a before seeing the film perspective and listing the reasons why it can be
unique for the genre based on what we've heard and what we saw in that original film. Alongside
The Batman Part 2 it's probably the comic book film I'm anticipating the most and I hope it
can live up to those expectations with a highly unique and satisfying movie. We'll soon find out
this October if Joker Folie A Deux is another meaningful film and whether it can attract
many people just like Joker did before. I'm intrigued to hear what you guys think towards
the potential of a Joker 2, alongside whether you think it's capable of being a genre definining
comic book movie that stands alongside examples like the first film, Logan,
The Dark Knight and so many more. So let me know down below in the comments section.
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