Why is Joker 2 so bad? There’s an obvious answer

Joker 2 isn’t just bad – it feels like a total waste of time; a “f**k you” to its fans, and an inelegant punchline for its critics. Here’s an uncomfortable truth: it’s by design. 

Towards the end of the sequel, Joker 2 assaults you with its worst scene: Arthur Fleck being dragged back to Arkham, only to be beaten and – via rape – awoken to his delusions. 

After all, this was the story of Arthur Fleck, the Joker and future supervillain; a mentally ill loner, abused and neglected from his first breath, who ‘went werewolf and wild’ against a force greater than Batman: society. His violence spoke to the disenfranchised not just in Gotham, but viewers worldwide (I loved it, but let’s be real with ourselves).  

It sounds a bit trite when I write it like that – reader, it always was – but at least the first film had dramatic momentum; a grim and thrilling inevitability as a starved soul cackled out of control. Joker 2 doesn’t idolize or even propel his ascent to infamy. It’s a movie built on the foundation of disdain for its predecessor’s arc, and it doesn’t matter if you loved or loathed it, Todd Phillips is showing you the finger. 

Blame Todd Phillips for Joker 2 

Warner Bros.

Joker 2 ends with a croak: Arthur renounces his alter-ego, accepts responsibility for his murders, and settles down for a life in Arkham. In the closing minute, an inmate asks if he can tell him a joke before stabbing him to death, and while Arthur bleeds out, the unnamed assailant carves a Glasgow smile on his face.

It’s not a bad ending to Arthur’s story. The problem is that Phillips doesn’t invest the payoff that U-turn. Everything about the film is non-commital: its identity as a comic book movie, its nods to wider Gotham (Harvey Dent ends up with half his face scarred, a grace note included as nothing more than an Easter egg), and its half-hearted, aggravating musical numbers. 

Phillips knew what the audience wanted (hell, I wanted it): the next chapter of the Clown Prince of Crime’s origins, setting Gotham alight with Harley Quinn by his side. A twist on King of Comedy’s ending; a murderer for a night, a Joker for a lifetime. Instead, we got the coda to the story of some guy, an unlikable weirdo who killed unlikable people and inadvertently inspired an uprising – not to mention the true Joker. 

Speaking to IGN, Phillips revealed: “The first film is called Joker. It’s not called The Joker, it’s called Joker. And the first film under the script always said ‘An origin story.’ Never said the origin story. It was this idea that maybe this isn’t the Joker. Maybe this is the inspiration for the Joker.

“It’s kind of this idea of when somebody becomes an icon, and we put things on that person as a group, as a society, as a media, as whatever. We put things on that person that maybe they can’t live up to.”

Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker, just like Heath Ledger and Jack Nicholson’s big-screen jesters, did become an icon off-screen: half-beloved, half-infamous. In short, he was celebrated by incels and so-called edgelords. Arthur was an outcast who dreamed of fame and love, ignored or mocked by anyone in his orbit – Joker brought him to the fore and made his worst qualities something to aspire to. 

Warner Bros.

It’s the ultimate fantasy for a certain type of person; “In my whole life, I didn’t know if I even really existed. But I do, and people are starting to notice.”

Speaking to Just Jared, Phillips emphatically denied the idea he was romanticizing incels. “I was being painted like this provocateur. Like I was trying to push buttons,” he said. 

“In complete honesty, I’d never even heard that word before. And my movie was certainly not a love letter to that type of person.”

On paper, it’s interesting, a sequel that’s the antithesis of what came before. The reality of watching it is hard to enjoy or even tolerate (something I suspect Phillips and co. knew, considering the movie didn’t have any test screenings). Maybe it was his plan all along: a bait-and-switch with a geek masquerading as a legend. 

In one dream sequence, Arthur tells Harley: “I don’t think we’re giving the people what they want.” Phillips didn’t care what the people wanted, and one thing is certain: nobody’s laughing now. 

For more coverage, find out what we know about Joker 3, who killed Arthur Fleck in Joker 2, and Joker 2 streaming details.