That’s kind of what I was thinking. In Batman we didn’t get to see what Joker looked like before he was fixed up by the plastic surgeon, so maybe he did look like that.
Hmmm, considering that was the original inspiration for the Comic version it is sort of ok… But I’f you’ve seen Pans Labrynth you can see how utterly creepy a face cut into a smile can look. This looks messy and well unjoker.
This looks like a cheap B movie psycho trying to riff on the Joker Motiff.
He needs to have the clown face as his mask.
It must be merry and cheerful and frightening all at once. It’s that weirdness that makes him frightening. The menace comes from a grinning happy fellow who is completely unredeemingly twisted and evil at heart.
I’ll bet his hair won’t even be green. Sigh… I mean if Nolan didn’t want to do the Joker why bother? There are plenty of twisted deformed villians he could have gone with including Harvey Dent.
Then again I thought the Batmobile wouldn’t work until I saw that in action.
I’ll wait and see.
It’s* one picture*, chosen and dispersed by a viral ad agency, not Nolan. Chill out. In fact, we don’t even know for certain that this is the real thing, the ad hides its trail to WB well enough.
I like it. I don’t mind that they’ve gone for a more realistic mutilation that’s reminiscent of a clown face rather than a chemical bath somehow perfectly duplicating makeup. The Joker is all attitude, really, so we really don’t know if they got him right until more details about the film come out.
Rachel Ray would make a good Joker.
Well, but the reason Conrad Veidt’s portrayal inspired the Joker in the first place was his unnerving rictus. It wasn’t JUST that he was scarred; but rather the fact that his face was warped into a permanent GRIN. That was the whole point!
Ledger ain’t smiling. All the twisty cheek scars and ironic clown paint can’t mask the fact that there is a complete and total absence of smile on his livery lips. There’s no comparison to Veidt. In that image, Ledger is the anti-Veidt. He’s so not Veidt, he’s Bloch.
Let’s review:
Conrad Veidt. “Heee-re’s Connie! Hee-hee-heehh! Yes, yes, check me out, ladies! Notice how much I resemble the Joker? That’s no coincidence, I assure you. Don’t you wish I was around to do pictures these days? Come on over sometime, I’ll throw some tapes in the machine; ** The Man Who Laughs ** and The Bat Whispers, a double-feature, oldies but goodies, it’ll be great.”
Heath Ledger. “Oh… good evening, Mister Batman… how delightful that you’re here to attend my… little party. You’re just in time for my languid, effete Donald Pleasance-style monologue… Please, forgive me; I would smile, but I find it all too unbearably tedious…”
Robert Bloch. “What… why am I even included here? I don’t get this at all.”
She could be Harley Quinn! I’d love to see her squeezed into a shiny red and black latex harlequin costume, that’s for sure.
Um, since the very beginning in the 1930s? Do you actually know anything about Batman comics? From the very beginning, Joker’s face was the result of horrible scarring caused by the vat of acid he fell into…not makeup.
And I think making his face look bizarre and irregular is a good move. It heightens the pathos as well as the horror.
I can’t think of any Joker that reads as effeminate or androgynous to me.
Appearance wise, he usually too many sharp edges to come across as feminine, and as for his personality, he’s theatrical, but in a way that’s wholly masculine.
Riddler, on the other hand, usually comes across as strikingly femme, to me.
No. No, I don’t. Why don’t you tell me about some of the Joker stories from the 1930s? I’d really like to hear about them, since the Joker wasn’t even introduced until 1940. But I don’t know about that, either. I certainly don’t know that his origin wasn’t revealed until 1951.
I don’t know the difference between “deep scarring” and “skin discoloration,” either, which is why I always carve my face with a razor blade when I put clown makeup on for Halloween.
Sorry for the confusion. I stand corrected: the Joker has ALWAYS had deep scars on his face, ever since the character was originated by Jack Nicholson, back in the 1930s. Thank you, Fiver, for fighting my ignorance in this matter.
Frank Miller’s comes across that way in Dark Knight Returns.
That would explain why it didn’t occur to me. I never actually finished that. (I gave it several good goes, I just couldn’t take it.)
Waittaminnit – Harvey Dent is the Joker?! Not Two-Face? The Joker?
And is this Batman flick supposed to be in continuity with Tim Burton’s Batman (in which the Joker was created and killed in the same story) and with Batman Forever (likewise with Harvey Dent/Two-Face)?
No, two separate characters.
Are those two even in continuity with each other, what with Harvey Dent changing from black to white between films.
If I may just say, smackdown.
Daniel
No, this is a sequel to Batman Begins, which had no connection with the Tim Burton/Joel Silver movies.
Well, no wonder he was conflicted.
What, no love for the Dead End Joker?
As for Heath…maybe he’ll look better when he smiles.
(Kinda sad to hear Katie won’t be back in this one…I was hoping she’d end up being brutally tortured, crippled, and murdered onscreen.)
I really like the “I believe in Harvey Dent” on the campaign poster. Just one of those little things from the comics that they throw in to placate fanboys like myself.
I agree that this Joker could go either way, but since Batman Begins, I have some faith in the filmmakers. Also, I liked the viral campaign. Though it does kinda suggest that Harvey Dent is the Joker, though everyone knows that’s not the case. The whole “peel a man’s face off” thing with the poster having the Joker’s face behind it. Kind of the wrong implication. Still cool though.
They gave that part to Mel Gibson.
Wow, after seeing that smile I’m shocked they didn’t have the rictus grin in that teaser picture. I would have thought that he got the part specifically because of his mouth shape, actually. Maybe they’re holding back on the full, creepy effect so it has more impact the closer to release? I’m holding out hope that this’ll be good, considering how well they handled Batman Begins and Ledger’s impressed me with his range before.