Joker: Folie à Deux: Critics split over ‘daring’ and ‘dull’ sequel starring Gaga and Phoenix

But Hollywood Reporter’s David Rooney, external called the film “frustrating”, saying it was “most electric when Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga sing, dance and romance”.

In Screen Daily, Tim Grierson, external added that the two leads “fail to spark”, and the movie is “without the insight that made the original film so engrossing and unsettling”. But he noted that it still “seems poised for strong box office”.

The Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw, external said the film “spirals out of tune” and called it “claustrophobic and repetitive”.

But he preferred it to the first film, saying: “Though it ends up as strident, laborious and often flat-out tedious as the first film, there’s an improvement.

“It’s a musical, of sorts, with Phoenix and others warbling show tune standards, often in fantasy set pieces, a little in the way of Dennis Potter’s Pennies from Heaven. This gives it structure and flavour that the first film didn’t have.”

In Deadline, Pete Hammond, external said the film was an “audacious and head-spinning follow-up” to Joker, and he praised “production values across the board” as “excellent”, including the return of composer Hildur Gudnadottir, who won an Oscar for the first film’s score.

“With song, dance, comedy, darkness, animation, drama, violence and more, this is a musical – if it even is a musical – like no other,” he added.

But while The Wrap’s William Bibbiani, external called the film “impressively odd”, The Evening Standard’s Jo-Ann Titmarsh, external said it was “depressingly dull and plodding”.