Batman Movie Villains: 7 Perfect Performances & 7 That Sucked

2. Joaquin Phoenix - Joker/Arthur Fleck (Joker)

While lots of questions obviously hung over the whole Joker Origin movie from the day of announcement, the one that mattered most to fans of the character was whether Joaquin Phoenix was going to be able to outshine Heath Ledger's take on the character. Both are non-canon performances - in that they don't so much as adapt material as adopt a vague shape of it and both were very quickly linked to Oscars attention.

It's hard to say whether he's better than Ledger's Joker. The performance is certainly better, but it's not QUITE a better Joker performance, because there's a fundamentally different dynamic. Phoenix's Joker is more unexpected and wasn't borne out of Batman. He is a reaction to Gotham itself.

But Phoenix's performance is an absolute tour de force and deserves to be considered a worthy Oscar winner when the time comes. Honestly, it's hard to see past him in those terms.