Joker: Folie à Deux (2024)

[thecolorsblend]

I'm wondering how much of this is sincere and how much of it goes back to It's The Current Year nonsense.

At this point, nothing will stand between me and this movie's opening weekend. But the mixed reception is a little intriguing.

[The Dark Knight]

Much like the Burton duology, I honestly don't think some people 'get' what JOKER is all about at the core. I've skimmed some of the reviews and a common thread is them not liking that Folie A Deux is predominantly set inside Arkham and a courtroom. Given how the original ended, those locations seem perfectly logical to me. I long suspected a lot of the musical component was Arthur's mental escapism. I may feel differently when I actually see the film, it could be monotonous, but right now I don't have a problem with this angle in theory.

I'm confident in my assumptions in how the film ends, too. It will depend on how it's done, but I can easily fight a case for it. Again, it will be down to the execution. Underscoring all this is the fact I never took Arthur to be the literal comic book character of 'The Joker' but rather how a 'real world person' with similar traits would be. I remain unintimidated by this initial critical feedback. I see a lot of people saying they thought the original was overrated, and that's when I decide to tune out listening to them. Bring on October.

[Silver Nemesis]

Some sites are reporting that the budget of Folie à Deux is $200 million. For comparison, Wikipedia lists the first film's budget as $55 million. I wonder why the new film cost almost four times as much.

[thecolorsblend]

Mu understanding is that Phoenix was only contracted for the one movie. Plus, Lady Gaga's salary is probably several million dollars above minimum wage.

I can't blame everything on sheer payroll bloat. But if it came out that WB laid out at least $50 million to get Phoenix and Gaga aboard, yeah, that would add up.

[The Dark Knight]

I'm continuing my skim through some of the reviews and I'm picking up a theme. Folie A Deux is going to create conversations about who the character is and his motivations. From my point of view Arthur is just a guy. He's someone who suffered an individual experience of misery and lashed out on television, thus becoming a public commodity. If he inspired people that's on them. That goes for any killer. We as the public project our own imaginations onto subjects, and those may not match our expectations in reality.

In the first movie Arthur doesn't have much of anything to do with the movement other than just living his own life. In the sequel he's on the inside and they're on the outside. I guess he'd be thankful for the support he's getting but does he want to be their leader even if he could be? Seems to me it's really about the spirit of rebellion that Arthur demonstrated against Murray that the followers are excited by. But when the makeup comes off Joker's seemingly back to being angsty self doubting Arthur. I don't think Joker and Arthur are seperate entities per se, but Joker instead being something that activates within him under the right conditions.