I won’t deny the impact that has had on the character’s depiction in the years since, including Ledger and Phoenix, but in this case it feels like an “over-representation” of the character, that he is and has always been this tragic figure trying to prove a point, rather than an elemental force of chaos that destroys because it amuses him. Besides, the Joker as portrayed by Phoenix is vastly different to the one in Killing Joke, where Arthur was always troubled and mentally disturbed even before he killed anyone, whereas in the graphic novel the character starts out as sane but massively depressed about life.

That’s essentially what it is and I feel like I'm in the minority when I say Joker wasn’t all that good. It got the two Oscars it most deserved but beyond that it’s not that compelling. It is an aesthetic copy of Scorsese thrillers with a shiny comic book movie cover and an overly-edgy fanbase whose only prior knowledge of the Joker character comes from Heath Ledger’s performance in The Dark Knight, and then they think the character is “deep” and “meaningful” in ways that comics and movies don’t even portray him.

Also people like to praise this film for its writing but people forget like half the movie is this weird amateur detective subplot that accomplishes nothing other than comic book nods to characters like Bruce Wayne and Alfred and locations like Arkham Asylum.