“JOKER: FOLIE A DEUX” — RATED R

For starters, it might serve well to recall the origin story for Joaquin Phoenix’s Arthur Fleck, aka the Joker, from the 2019 film in which his alter ego was the titular character who made it known that what he had were “negative thoughts.”

“Joker” presented such a whole picture of Arthur Fleck’s failed comedian, humiliated on a TV show run by Robert De Niro’s host, and day job as a clown who felt marginalized by society, that his complete decline to psychosis and criminal mastermind wrapped up his story to a satisfactory conclusion.

The lure of creating a possible franchise (just ask the movers behind the James Bond films) is irresistible. After all, there is a connection, tangential or more, of Arthur Fleck’s Joker to Batman, but drawing the linkage won’t be attempted here in any significant way.

However, in Christopher Nolan’s 2008 “The Dark Knight” a despicable criminal calling himself the Joker (Heath Ledger) turns Gotham City into such a chaotic mess that Christian Bale’s Batman’s efforts to clean up the city causes many to wonder if the caped crusader is more vigilante than hero.

Arguably, director Todd Phillips may have set out with “Joker” and now the “Folie A Deux” to build upon Nolan’s darker vision of this comic book world where a criminal mastermind was known for terrorizing the citizens of Gotham City, and to that end he seems to succeed.

Arthur Fleck is now in Arkham Asylum where he is awaiting trial for his crimes for killing several people, while also struggling with his dual identity and stumbling upon what he believes is true love with Lady Gaga’s Harley Quinn.

Even though he is a maximum-security prisoner, Arthur is allowed to join a music group in prison where he meets fellow inmate Lady Gaga’s Lee Quinzel, who later becomes Harley Quinn (seems like everyone morphs into a dual personality).

Not surprisingly, with Joker made more complex with the notion that there’s music coming from inside him, along with Lady Gaga’s trailblazing musical career, it’s no wonder that there are so many musical numbers, which ostensibly detract from what’s really a horror show.

Enamored with the Joker’s persona, Lee/Harley and Arthur strike up a musical relationship as they sing duets in the prison harmonic group, at least until an incendiary event brings that to an end.

Once outside prison, Harley Quinn is the femme fatale for Joker that is almost a cinematic cliché, but she does go to bat for him in many ways, injecting herself into the legal proceedings. Lady Gaga is nicely compelling in a role casting her as a force of nature.

In the courtroom, young District Attorney Harvey Dent (Harry Lawtey) pushes for trying Arthur on five counts of first-degree murder, while defense attorney Maryanne Stewart (Catherine Keener) argues the shopworn insanity plea based on his split personality disorder.

Brendan Gleeson acquits himself effectively as nasty prison guard Jackie Sullivan, who oddly turns out to have a soft spot by allowing Arthur to join the prison’s singing group. We have him to thank for a surfeit of unnecessary and intrusive musical numbers.

Both Joaquin Phoenix, as the Joker in the 2019 film, and the late Heath Ledger, in the role of the Joker in 2008’s “The Dark Knight,” received Academy Awards for their roles, the former as Best Actor and the latter a posthumous Best Supporting Actor.

There is unlikely to be a second Academy Award, much less a nomination, in the offing for Joaquin Phoenix, even though he has been nominated in the past for other roles. “Joker: Folie A Deux” may prove to be such dead weight as to sink any consideration this time.

For director Todd Phillips, who was nominated for Best Director, the “Joker” marked a milestone in achievement for a film nominated in almost a dozen categories that raked in more than $1 billion at the worldwide box office.

Given the pedigree of “Joker,” where the audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes was so high that if it was graded like a term paper it was earning nothing less than an A-, you would think a second turn is going to be worth a look, and for some that may be the case.

Notwithstanding the plethora of withering negative reviews of this sequel, the urge to see the film, based on experience with the original, may outweigh any reservations. Admittedly, there are positive reviews, so it is up to the filmgoer to decide whether to trek to a theater or wait for streaming.

Analytically, one can look at the ending of “Joker: Folie A Deux” as closure for the story of a madman so unhinged and detached from reality that continuing his story would be an affront to the world of DC Comics and an annoyance to the legions of Batman fans.

Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.