The film Joker: Folie à Deux has received a lot of criticism from both the public and specialized critics for being in musical format, and even fans of musical films didn’t like this one.
However, this is not the first musical film to be criticized by fans in 2024. The fourth film in the Descendants franchise, Descendants: The Rise of Red, was also not well received by fans and critics and raised the question of whether the era of musical films has come to an end because they are bad, or just very hated.
what is a musical movie?
It’s important to understand that musical films are not films with just one musical moment, no matter how well this scene fits into the whole plot, but rather films in which several scenes with music and choreography are used as a means of supporting the narrative.With the exception of some older musical films, in which the narrative was built on top of an existing song to try to increase the success of the movie.
review of musical films
Many people claim that the fact that the characters start singing out of nowhere, especially when the musical number has already been choreographed, is very unrealistic and annoying, often citing the scene in La La Land, where the characters start dancing and singing in the middle of a traffic jam as an example.
This kind of scene really is a bit unrealistic and wouldn’t happen on a normal day. However, most of the events in action and superhero movies are unrealistic as well, and often more impossible than scenes in musical films, but even so, action fans don’t seem to be annoyed by this fact.
Another growing complaint, but this time coming from musical fans themselves, is the lack of iconic songs from current films, as was the case with Disney’s 100th anniversary cartoon, Wish. In general, fans complained about the lack of memorable musical moments that connected the audience with the story.
joker: folie à deux
This discussion is back in the spotlight after the release of Joker: Folie à Deux, the sequel to the 2019 highly acclaimed Joker movie, which is a case in point. Right from the start, the movie was sold the wrong way, with the director, Todd Phillips, refusing to label his film as a musical in an interview with Variety.
As much as some fans thought there would be musical scenes (after all, Lady Gaga is the female lead in the movie), they thought there would be a few strategically placed ones when the reality was not quite like that.
In addition to the protests about the film actually being a musical, many other fans complained that the film featured too many songs that ended up being thrown into the story rather than helping the narrative.
Joker: Folie à Deux showed the importance of promoting musical films correctly by making it clear in trailers by showing the characters singing different songs, and interviews so that the audience already understands that the film is a musical, and knows what to expect. In addition, the film reinforced the importance of well-placed songs in the plot so that musical films are well-received by the public.
—————————————————————–
The article above was edited by Mariana Aguiar.
Liked this type of content? Check out Her Campus Cásper Líbero home page for more!