Samantha Allen: Well, I had a really terrible time. How have you both been?

James Factora: It’s not that I expected this to be a good movie, but I was at least hoping it would be bad in an entertaining way. A Joker and Harley Quinn musical with Lady Gaga? How could this not be at least a little fun? And yet… it was like that not at least a little fun. It was truly one of the most harrowing viewing experiences I’ve ever had. This depressing feeling started when Arthur accidentally kissed that twink and it only went downhill from there.

Fran Tirado: Without exaggeration it was one of the worst films I have ever seen. And I say that as someone who adores Gaga, loves a Batman joint, and was really excited about the initial announcement of this film before its premiere. But as Samantha mentioned, the film is obsessed with the wrong elements of the Joker story and didn’t seem interested in Harley Quinn at all. The film – a musical in the truest sense of the word – had virtually no entertainment value.

SAT: Perhaps most annoying to me was that it looked like that scared be a musical? To make the “songs” seem more realistic, most of the numbers with Gaga and Phoenix began in this breathy, artificially naturalistic, half-speaking register. I think I had about 15 seconds of fun when Gaga really got going, but other than that joker 2 really took one of the most famous voices in the world and forced her to basically hum. Did the “music” even make up for it for any of you?

JF: While watching the film, it occurred to me several times that it somehow felt as if Todd Phillips had only recently become familiar with the concept of the “musical” and directed accordingly. I felt insulted on so many levels as a viewer. My blood pressure is just rising Think about the whisper song. And yet, despite the fact that her actual talents were once again underused, it seemed to me that Harley could be something other than Lady Gaga in this film.