Honestly, I’m a little apprehensive about the Joker being part of the real-world film franchise. In short, the character just doesn’t work all that well in real-life. There are some great Joker stories in the comics, and his incarnation in BatmanTAS was probably the best possible. But with real life people, its just a liscence to overact (Nicholson) and the character just doesn’t translate well. I know that he’s sort of become Batman’s signature villian, but there are so many other great Batman stories they could tell that involve much creepier and cinematic villians that don’t chew the scenery. This incarnation of Batman is fit for a real detective noir story: a sort of L.A. Confidential of Gotham. What they need to do is focus on the things that made Year One great. Batman should declare war on the corrupt and powerful. That scene in the comic where declares “your feast is at an end” is perfect, and you go from there. Supervillians, I’m afraid, just highlight the goofy unreality side of Batman. He’s ridiculous enough on his own without goofballs. A villian like Dr. Zazzaz (who I think they already referenced in the first one) or the Calendar killer or even Two-Face are the way to go.
The reason Batman Begins was good was because it a had a real organizing psychological conciet and themes they kept returning to and highlighting new elements of (overcoming fear, identity, etc.) To keep the series in that more intelligent psychological vein rather than blowing it into supervillian slugouts, they need to pick stories and villians with some meat on them. The weakest part of the whole movie was the “master plan” to destroy the city and “Gordon blows up stuff with the Batmobile” It turned somewhat intriguing themes into set-piece goofiness. We want less of that, not more. The Joker is a signal of more, unfortunately.
If they tone down the Joker, and deal with the dynamic of the two characters first encountering each other, and seeing themselves reflected in the other’s eyes, then we will have a very good movie. Otherwise…
Yeah, that didn’t make the slightest amount of sense, did it? The fear chemical is only released when the water is boiled, and they’ve been dumping it in the city’s water supply for weeks - shouldn’t people who work in laundromats or car-washes or kitchens (where water is constantly evaporating) or just schmoes who boil water for their morning coffee be showing the signs?
It’s killer, isn’t it? More comments here and I recommend you also get the “behind the scenes” video, since it contains a lot of interesting and amusing tips on shoestring movie production.
I’d love it if the movie opened with the Batmobile pulling up at Arkham, Batman striding in through a thunderstorm… We’ve all read the Killing Joke, right? Have the same start as that, with the Joker an established character… Batman discovers that he’s escaped, AGAIN. We all know the Joker and Batman are enemies, right? We dont need another origins storyline. Besides, at the end of Batman Begins, the Joker was already a troublesome force in the city. Have the beginning from The Killing Joke, and go from there. And as long as Ledger looks something like THIS (top left corner) and we’ll be alright.
I don’t think anyone in the world believed Ledger, previously thought to be a lightweight hunky type, could pull off the Ennis Del Mar character in “Brokeback Mountain,” but he did. He’s a hell of an actor and I suspect will make an excellent Joker.
Wilem Dafoe (unless he doesn’t want to be typecast as a crazy creepy… eh too late)
I’m definitely willing to wait to see the movie to see how Heath Ledger does. It’s always fun to see an actor in a role you wouldn’t have thought to see them in.
I deeply believe that a man can’t be intimidating if he’s too pretty. The uglier he is, the more intimidating. This is why Jack Nicholson’s Joker worked so well. I’m not saying he is an ugly man, but he is menacing looking ALL THE TIME, not just when he’s in character. During the filming of Hell’s Angels '69, he was supposedly accosted by police and thought to be an actual outlaw biker. And this was when he was a young man. He only got scarier as he aged.
Heath Ledger is a handsome man, wholesome looking, and there’s zero about him that’s scary-looking. I realize that he can act. But his face doesn’t suit the part.
I thought Cilian Murphy’s Scarecrow was horrible, mostly because he wasn’t scary at all. I’m very disappointed that they seem to be making the same mistake again, casting another pretty face in the role of someone who’s supposed to strike fear into peoples’ hearts.
By the way: Christopher Eccleston would indeed have been a much, much better choice.
Look at that face. That’s a face with character. It says something. The gaunt cheeks, strong jaw, long hooked nose, large ears, dark and deep-set eyes, receeding hairline - one of the most powerful profiles I’ve seen. The face is so striking.
(Rats, I can’t find the more eye-brow raising picture I found when looking for reference images; it’s of Batman putting Joker in a painful-looking armlock and the latter looking like he enjoys it. :eek: )
