Five years after the Oscar-winning critical acclaim and billion-dollar box office success of Joker, and Joaquin Phoenix returns for a sequel.

This time around the DC Studios Batman spin-off co-stars Lady Gaga as Harley Quinn in this musical psychological thriller.

Following the world premiere at the Venice International Film Festival yesterday, the first reviews are in and they are decidedly mixed for Joker 2.

Joker: Folie à Deux currently sits at 60 per cent on Rotten Tomatoes, right on the cusp of having a green splat.

Check out the range of reactions from the best to the worst below.

Empire
As sweet and beguiling a musical romance as it’s possible to have between two murderous psychopaths. Its kooky approach won’t suit all stripes of comic-book fan, but it finds a strange, tragic hopefulness all of its own.

Hollywood Reporter
Gaga is a compelling live-wire presence, splitting the difference between affinity and obsession, while endearingly giving Arthur a shot… Their musical numbers, both duets and solos, have a vitality that the more often dour film desperately needs.

Daily Telegraph
Folie à Deux can’t quite match its predecessor for dizzying impact. But it matches it for horrible tinderbox tension: it’s a film you feel might burst into flames at any given moment.

Time Out
We’re left with the tragedy of a broken man in a world only interested in sensationalism. It’s a big swing for all involved, but all the better for it.

Independent
Overall Folie à Deux is just as edgy and disturbing as its forerunner, replicating the idea of modern American cities as terrifying powder kegs perpetually on the cusp of explosion.

Financial Times
Joker still has a trick up its sleeve — even a serious subtext. The best moment comes late on in an incendiary scene…

The Guardian
Though it ends up as strident, laborious and often flat-out tedious as the first film, there’s an improvement.

BBC
Depending on how you look at it, this demythologising exercise is either daring or it’s irritatingly smug, but it’s definitely not much fun.

Vanity Fair
It’s startlingly dull, a pointless procedural that seems to disdain its audience.

Variety
Joker: Folie à Deux may be ambitious and superficially outrageous, but in a basic way it’s an overly cautious sequel.

London Evening Standard
Despite its fascinating and complex main character, the film is ultimately dull and plodding, taking us nowhere, slowly.

The Times
Phillips and co smashed back into the self-contained world, shook all the contents out on to the carpet and… had another go. The result? Messy, lifeless, derivative and exactly what you’d expect from a film that simply doesn’t want, or need, to exist.

Joker: Folie à Deux hits cinemas on October 4, 2024.