2. Joker

The Joker has been portrayed by a number of actors over the years – Jack Nicholson, Heath Ledger and Jared Leto in live action movies, Cesar Romero in a live action television show, and Mark Hamill as the voice of an animated version of the character, for example – but none were more highly anticipated than Joaquin Phoenix’s version in this year’s Joker movie.

As it turned out, Phoenix was predictably fantastic in a movie that offered a more realistic and plausible – and completely original – origin story for one of the most iconic villains in all of fiction.

Arthur Fleck’s treatment and rejection by society led him down a dark path that ultimately saw him snap – a stark reflection of many real world events.

It didn’t need Batman or any other major or important characters from the DC universe, because the performance of Phoenix and the development of his titular character was more than enough to make the movie great.

Don’t get us wrong, the movie as a whole wasn’t perfect – some people described it as too derivative of Martin Scorsese’s classic offerings (Taxi Driver, in particular) – but it was simply impossible to take your eyes off the main character and you can’t really ask for more from any character-driven movie than that.