Ledger was a boring, typical Hollywood prettyboy drug addict. He was nowhere near interesting enough as a human being to warrant these sorts of apocryphal stories to make his death more glamorous. He wasn’t Klaus Kinski, for Chrissakes.
I’m not at all a fan of Nolan’s Batman movies. I think that they fundamentally miss the entire tone of what Batman should be - they’re actually too “Dark” in a really hamfisted, obvious, overreaching way that takes its cues from “Law and Order”/Police Procedurals, and they’re aesthetically/stylistically boring as hell. Chicago as Gotham City, actually the most important character, is just wrong - it’s a clean, modern, decidedly un-gothic city that just feels, again, like a modern and slick police procedural. That they’re introducing Bane - one of Batman’s most comicky/absurd/“nineties” villains - into this otherwise realistic/slick/police procedural vibe is just baffling.
I actually think that Burton’s first two Batman movies perfectly captured the mix of comic book noir and detective/procedural stuff, with near-perfect casting. I think that people misremember them as being campy or goofy, when they weren’t - Batman Returns is pitch blacker than anything Nolan has done yet.
This is largely my feeling. I’ll also add that Christian Bale’s Batman is the world’s most monotonous character. Through the entire first movie, every scene was just greater-or-lesser displays of “I’m angry!” In the second movie, he was just nothing.
Ledger did a decent job as the Joker, but mostly because he played the part as it is in the comics, not because he did something new and interesting. That is a step above Nicholson’s version, but lacks the makeup and gizmos that Nicholson had which were in the comic.
Frankly, I think the best Batman was the TV show version. Adam West and Burt Ward–great as Batman and Robin. Cesar Romero, best Joker Ever. Burgess Meredith, best Penguin ever. Frank Gorshin, best Riddler.
Julie Newmar, best Catwoman and hottest woman EVAH.
This sums up how I feel about the Nolan Batman flicks. It just doesn’t do it for me the way Burton’s did. I’ll probably just wait until it comes out on DVD before I see it. I did like Ledger’s performance as the Joker, but the rest just left me kind of blah on it.
I am unworried. Of all the things that worry me, this is not one of them. I simply look forward to watching this, and basking in the pleasure of a great movie. I hope I’m not wrong.
I LIKED Burton’s first Batman movie, but it was a live-action cartoon, and I saw that at the time. Nicholson being Nicholson wasn’t what I wanted for the Joker, and the franchise really went off the deep end with Danny DiVito’s Penguin in the second Burton film. Batman Begins was enjoyable. While it was a bit longish, I really thought Ledger’s Joker was brilliant in The Dark Knight.
OK, now that you mention it, I worry a bit about Bane and the mask over his mouth. I worry that I’ll need subtitles. Dammit, like I needed ANOTHER thing to worry about.
I have to completely agree with this. Other than HL as the Joker, i simply did not like The Dark Knight very much at all, i thought Batman Begins was a far, far better film. I have no excitement to see DKR at all, i will wait for dvd.