After the massive success of Joaquin Phoenix's "Joker" back in 2019, the sequel looks set to be remembered as one of the worst comic book movies of all time.
The Joker might be used to tough crowds, but reactions to "Joker: Folie à Deux" are worse than anything the clown prince of Gotham has faced before.
Worst comic book movie of all time?
After the massive success of Joaquin Phoenix’s "Joker" back in 2019 fans were beyond hyped when the sequel was announced. Especially once it was revealed that Todd Phillips would return as the director and Lady Gaga would join as Harley Quinn.
But after a disappointing opening weekend, with scathing reviews from magazines and moviegoers alike, it looks like the sequel is on course to go down as the biggest flop in comic book movie history.
CinemaScore, which surveys audience experience on opening nights, gave "Folie à Deux" a D – the lowest rating a comic book movie has ever received. Even 20th Century’s "Fantastic Four" from 2015, which had been at the bottom of the list, received a C-Minus.
And CinemaScore's rating was seemingly on the money, with it later getting a mere 33% on Rotten Tomatoes' infamous Tomatometer.
Why fans hate the sequel
As more and more details about the production of the movie surface, it becomes clear what led to this disastrous outcome. It seems like Phoenix, Gaga, and director Todd Phillips, set out to make a musical, and the result was a self-indulgence that failed to appeal to traditional comic book fans.
Perhaps with the success of the first film, which was admittedly more thoughtful and Bohemian than most comic book movies, they felt they had license to go so completely in the direction they did. But it was clearly alienating for the main stream, and, at least based on a lot of early reviews, it sounds like the film is simply quite boring.
We should have been able to predict this outcome when we began hearing rumors that the movie idea came to Phoenix in a dream, who brought it directly to Warner Bro’s chairman Toby Emmerich. And if not, then perhaps when the Variety report broke, which painted a picture of Phillips as a director gone rogue (apparently, Phillips wanted “nothing to do with DC” during the making of the movie and refused to have any communication with James Gunn, who Warner wants to be their equivalent to MARVEL's Kevin Feige).
Have you seen "Joker: Folie à Deux", and is it really that terrible?