I started this blog right after seeing Joker 2 once and Megalopolis three times. They seem to be a good comparison.

Both are director driven movies, instead of studio driven. Coppola wanted to make his Megalopolis for years and finally put up his own money so he could make it his own way. Joker 2, while the studio certainly wanted another billion dollar movie, was effectively Phillips’ movie. Phillips specifically declined any input from DC, calling Joker 2 not a DC movie but a Warner Bros movie.

That, I think, where the schism comes for audiences. Anyone of the few people seeing Megalopolis are expecting Coppola to do whatever he wants and it ends up being a unique and specific experience. It’s a random, one off movie; something we don’t get very much nowadays.

With Joker 2, people had a lot of expectations. They had the first Joker to compare to, they have the comics to reference, they have the 5 (I think?) other Jokers that will be put up against it. With those expectations, going for a more auteur approach may not be the best answer.

Now, does that mean that Joker 2 should have been a studio movie? No. I do think that nominating Todd Phillips for best director for the first Joker gave him too big of an ego. Much like George Lucas in the prequal trilogy, Phillips should have had some people on board willing to tell him no.

And that’s where we come back to Megalopolis. There is an ego behind the movie, but the difference is, mostly, that he earned it. You get to have an ego after making Godfather, Apocalypse Now, and on and an. Megalopolis comes from an ego, but also comes from experience.

While it is difficult to recommend Megalopolis simply out of its very specific taste it has, I can not recommend Joker 2, which at worst is boring, and best is redundant.