Do you want to know whats crazy? My local cinema for me & dad to go & see this & park on their bargain mondays, is even cheaper than for him to go to Cienworld as a senior citzen to see this. Its insane. So thats what we are doign for Joker 2 (i cant be bothered with the long name anymore, its Joker 2), the local cinema on a monday night after opening weekend.

Now the second i saw the first 2 negative reviews i muted this, i didnt want to go in with prejudgment being so negative, & it took a while to mute it all. But clearly word had got around. Because there were more people in the the studio screening for an indi film then there were for Joker. Yes the other local cinema also does a cheap monday & they might have all been in there but still. I was shocked. Maybe no more than 40 people. Dad was very impressed with my organisation that we literally walked into the cinema as the trailers started, yes pops i own this & know what im doing.

Trailers, Wild Robot (so close now come on Fink), The new Cillian murphy, the juror 2, & then all of their horror season stuff, they have a lot of that, an awful lot of that.

& then the film started… well i have now unmuted & heard everything everyone had to say. & lets just say it was a downgrade, but wasnt as crap as everyone in the world had said it was going to be.

Before we start, im going to be honest. Im still undecided on the first Joker film. It was good but was it oscar & award season worthy no. I appreciated the art & the story & acting but not to the level that others were. & i have watched it since it been out again, including the week before just to check something. So its not like i havent given it the time of day. Maybe being undecided & unsure of the original made this ones disappointment at times not feel too bad.

Lady Gaga was a breath of fresh air. She really was, although it was funny at one point when he asked her to stop singing i laughed a lot at that. A bit too much maybe but its true.

Much like the first film, this one went on about 3 scenes too long. It did there were a couple of clear ending places where it could have happened, which would have been much more impactful, but no it didnt. Think it would have made people accept it more. But that last scene really was a what the hell moment. Someone properly gasped in my screening (it wasnt me or dad).

I really liked the court scenes. I mean it did take me until i got home to realise why i didnt trust his lawyer, she was the mum in Get Out, how can she ever be trusted. But they were really cleverly done. I do love some legal dramas weve not had a good one for a while, so i appreciated that & the references back to the first film in that too. Really good. & then some bits were unhinged for some very good reasons.

I like the musical sections, all the songs were cool & it was well done, but i wouldnt say this was a musical. It also ruled out my theory that all of this was just in his head which i had grown to love from the first one. I think that would have worked more. Also why were some bits of singing in the story & others were a distraction.

We keep trying desperately into Gotham & Batman & DC but this never really does it, especially when he keeps saying hes not actually Joker. Its like are you or arent you mate, tell us please. & of course the other lawyer had to be Harvey Dent.

The mental health story wasnt continued enough through a caring support perspective, it went for the opposite approach which yes this is set in the 70s or 80s & views on them were very different then but still. It wasnt properly addressed.

The film wanted to be all those 4 themes i mentioned above & had too much on its plate to handle. It should have stuck with 2, & left the others aside. It was like someone had taken the 5 best pintrests boards & the top 5 fan theories & thrown them into a machine & it came up with that. It needed to have the balls to be brave which the first one did do at times, but it just copped out.

Coogan & Gleason were nice additions for the few parts they were in. I liked them. Coogan even went aha at one point i believe & me & my dad both poked each other as a nod at that one point.

This film once again had some stunning visuals. I know i love that theatre shot in the first film a lot, but here there were some stunning cinematography that made me go ooooooooooohhhhhhhhh nice. It made the film nerd inside me happy at times.

This really had the potential to be a masterpiece, if it had just worked out where it wanted to go but it flopped around. It should have continued down the mental health part & then picked one more theme. & with the ending how it was, why did he have to be in bloody gotham when its now not necessary.

Sorry peoples you mucked up here, there were some good parts, but even i can see that this has dropped from the first film. You just needed to be consistent. This should have worked but some how it just turned into just above average meh.