One of the best comic book films ever made

Rating: 10/10 (2 February 2020)

Of course, coming out with a DC film after the reception of both Batman vs Superman and Justice League, there was going to be some skepticism.
The main question coming from skeptics like me was: Will this film be an interpretation of the Joker on-par or if not, better than Heath Ledger's incredible performance in The Dark Knight?
And the film absolutely delivered.
I don't want to compare the performances of Joaquin Phoenix and Heath Ledger as they are both great in their own right and take different approaches to how the Joker is represented as a whole, but I can say that Phoenix's performance as the Joker is definitely as Oscar-worthy as Heath Ledger's Joker.
The film, as a whole does a great job of slowly showing the progression of Arthur Fleck's character and how the city of Gotham and the world around him has affected how he lives his life and eventually becomes the Joker, with a unique approach to his origin story that works very well in an adaption to the comics.
One thing that may people I know didn't like was how they incorporated the origin story of Batman in the film, right at the end. I disagree with them because this reinforces the idea that there is no Joker without Batman - that they must exist together no matter what, that they are the true representations of good and bad and even if Joker remains as a standalone film, I think having that small connection between the origin of Batman and the origin of the Joker is vital.
Joker is one of the, if not, the best screen adaption of comic book material in cinema and deserves huge praise for all areas of it's production.