"Bold, devastating and utterly beautiful."
Jack Nicholson made us all want to dance with the devil in the pale moonlight.
Heath Ledger watched the world burn as his Oscar-winning take on the Clown Prince of Crime went down in history. Jared Leto, erm, played The Joker in Suicide Squad.
Given the fact that an actor of Joaquin Phoenix's calibre is now taking on the role of Batman's most famous villain, the expectation levels are pretty high for Todd Phillips' origin story and after receiving
a standing ovation at the Venice Film Festival, it appears that the hype is real.
However, what would the film critics make of the gritty and realistic take on the character?
Well, you can't go wrong with a couple of five-star reviews, just like this one in The Guardian:
"Having brazenly plundered the films of Scorsese, Phillips fashions stolen ingredients into something new, so that what began as a gleeful cosplay session turns progressively more dangerous - and somehow more relevant, too."
Elsewhere, Deadline are already talking up the film's Oscar credentials, saying: "Joaquin Phoenix kills it in dark, timely DC origin movie that is no laughing matter. Will he be second Joker to win an Oscar?"
Empire's five-star review, meanwhile, said it's "bold, devastating and utterly beautiful".
"Todd Phillips and Joaquin Phoenix have not just reimagined one of the most iconic villains in cinema history, but reimagined the comic book movie itself."
We'll leave the final words to Nerdist as they feel that the drama is reflective of the modern era, saying that"simply calling Joker a 'comic book movie' does it a disservice; it is a story that feels like it could be about any number of disaffected who are marginalised by the ruthless world in which we live".
At present, the film holds an impressive 75% rating on Metacritic and 88% on Rotten Tomatoes.
We can't wait.
Joker is released on 4 October.
