I'm writing this post because it's getting very low ratings. From the reviews that I read, many people say it doesn't meet their expectations of what a superhero movie should be.
I'm not a capeshit enjoyer. I chose to see Joker 2 because Joker 1 had vague themes of "defunding welfare programs is bad". In the first movie, Joker loses access to his mental illness medication because the politicians defund the welfare programs and that leads Joker to start doing crimes.
What I liked about Joker 2 is that everyone around him wants to make him miserable, but instead he chooses to be happy. In my opinion, it is the most pure example of absurdity. The whole world wants to make Joker miserable and he is powerless to change other people, but he can deny giving the world what they want so he chooses to laugh. I find that to be entertaining.
The movie was about 60% musical. Whenever Joker starts to hallucinate, everyone starts singing. I think it was okay, but other people did not like that. You probably won't like the movie if you are expecting it to follow the superhero movie formula.
Gaga is a good actor.
spoiler
Throughout the movie, we learn that Harley Quinn is interested only in the Joker alter ego and not Arthur himself. She even tells Arthur to put on the Joker makeup when they have sex. She tells Arthur that if he stops being the Joker, then she isn't interested in him. This hurts Arthur quite a lot.
spoiler
I'm really glad they did that, because I've always felt that the Harley Joker romance was inherently abusive, because even if the Joker loves and respects Harley, she is literally his doctor. It's one of the little explored realms of the Joker and I'm glad that they are taking time to get into it. I will definitely see this movie now.
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spoiler
The conclusion of the movie is that Arthur Fleck is not The Joker. The Joker/Harley relationship that you know is from fiction that isn't about Arthur Fleck.
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