Spoiler-free (or at times very, very slight spoilers) here; big spoilers in the reply section.
The first one-third of this movie was very entertaining but a little lacking. It was "very good," but not great. Bruce Wayne was off doing things that while necessary for the establishment of the plot's foundation were somewhat dull and (to the Joker-hungry viewer) irrelevant. Meanwhile the Joker had an onscreen presence under 20 minutes with dialogue of less than 5. When he was on the screen, viewers were excited, but I hesitate to say he had yet stolen the spotlight.
Not until the movie entered its second third did things really take off. The Dark Knight -- and I do mean the Dark Knight we children of the '80s and '90s all grew up with courtesy of Fox's Batman: the Animated Series -- began to be fleshed out both in fights and in dialogue. The Joker was much more frequently shown and each time he was he was impeccable. He was completely convincing as:
1) a madman
2) an anarchist, a seeker of chaos, a defier of laws and rules (and not just the superficial societal laws, either, but the laws of psychology and philosophy as well)
3) a genius, insofar as he was always one step ahead of the game, making apparent failures of his seem like failures until just the right moment when he was ready to reveal that he had succeeded all along and the authorities, even Batman, had played into his trap. (This happened several times!)
Ledger's Joker is far and away the best Joker ever. EVER. Not just the performance (we'll get to patting Mr. Ledger on the back in a second); no, I'm talking here about the character himself, The Dark Knight's interpretation of who the Joker is and ought to be. Fans have often said that they loved Nicholson's Joker best but I think that is only because he was the darkest and most psychotic Joker we had seen previously; compared with Ledger's, he is almost as campy as the Adam West television series' Joker. As a child, I always thought the Fox cartoon's Joker was fleshed out best of all but 25+ episodes that you star in as the main character can do that for a Joker; while he may have been far better written, I still could never quite accept how cheesy, how comical his lines were. The one thing I'll give Mark Hamill is establishing that shrilly psychotic laugh, something which Ledger clearly carried over into The Dark Knight. But as I've never liked campy 1960s Batman much, even Jack Nicholson's Joker didn't stand a chance against Heath Ledger's.
The original Joker was never all that clear on being an anarchist or defier of rules: all he was was a homocidal freak. He wanted to kill all of Gotham. And he wanted to do it in thematically clowny ways like putting a smile on everyone's face using laughing gas. End of story. Big fucking deal (though it is a big deal, yes, to threaten to kill an entire city), how does this make the Joker any different from any of the generic orange shirts in the state penitentiary? Ledger's Joker, on the other hand, was so much more than that. He repeatedly made it clear to the audience that anarchy was the new Joker's guiding principle. Like the cartoon Joker, and unlike Nicholson's Joker, this man was not a petty thug ("Jack" in Burton's film) who through bizarre circumstances usurped the position of kingpin of the criminal underworld. Instead, here was a man who appeared out of thin air (though the movie does indeed open with him in the pseudo-role of a petty thug), a man with no ascertainable record, a man who rises to his position by playing the criminal underworld and the police against one another and fooling them all, etc. It made sense. It was the sort of scheme befitting Batman's nemesis. The genius of it all; the chaos of it all; and best of all that he was doing it all for a good laugh. The sort of thing a joker might do. His methodology was believable. His reasoning was understandable (not to be confused with pardonable). He generated true chaos, if even for the briefest of moments. What was ultimately so damn scary about Ledger's Joker was his complete dismissal of rules -- even those rules he himself had been the maker of. While the villain of New Batman #2 threatened to kill far fewer people in his final act of terror than the villain of New Batman #1, all I can say is that Ledger's Joker was starting to create a Gotham that was a hell of a lot scarier than the ghost town Raz Al Ghul had in mind.
Hmm ... it's hard to discuss this movie without spoiling it. I feel I already am spoiling things halfway. (Not plot, of course, but character? Perhaps yes.) I'll go on hold for now.
7 comments:
Pros:
+ I loved that they didn't kill him off, and believably had him arrested, etc. We had already seen him arrested once before, so we knew he was not a man supernaturally above such things as incarceration. And we had also seen the precedent for him busting out of incarceration, so there, too, we were delightfully handed the hope of seeing the Joker justifiably escape Arkham. (Not to mention the brief cameo from the Scarecrow from Batman Begins which itself proves that people can and do escape Arkham.)
+ I loved that Two-Face gruesomely resembled the Fox cartoon Two-Face and not the lameass ones from other sources.
+ I loved how Batman even moreso fit the role of Dark Knight in this film, both with how he fought (even more brutally and powerfully than before, it felt) and with how gruff his voice was (again, maybe it's just that I haven't seen the first film in a while but man did the gruffness stand out!!).
+ I was caught offguard by Gordon's untimely demise and delighted to see it was a ruse. I knew to expect Commissioner Gordon's promotion but when they killed Gordon off I thought "well shit :( , I guess I can't ask for this movie to be perfect after all." I'm glad the writer redeemed himself not but 10 minutes afterward.
+ Reprised roles were all good (Lucius Fox, Alfred, even Rachel Dawes) while the focus was clearly on the main four people of Batman, the Joker, Harvey Dent, and James Gordon. I was a very pleased panda by this. Writers often find it difficult to appropriately balance main and minor characters. I had been afraid (especially from the Alfred-heavy trailers) that we were going to get an overdose of Alfred; I'm glad we did not, even if I do find Michael Caine to be quite the adorable old man in this role. I really hate Rachael as a character (token girlfriend in both films, pretty shallow character development-wise, and this time around pretty ugly too), but they did a good job with her. Not too much, not too little, great catalyst for both the established permanence of Batman in Gotham City and for Harvey Dent's fall.
+ Heath Ledger's + the writers' interpretation of the Joker = sheer brilliance. Best Joker ever.
+ Heath Ledger's acting = just as amazing. From the constant lip licking to the tones to the "I'm fucking with you right now" mind games he played with Batman and the one cop in the detention cell, it was all so great.
Cons:
- I'm pissed off that Ledger is dead not because I loved him before but because a) it means he cannot reprise his role as the Joker, one which he perfected and performed so well; b) it means that, due to how well he performed, it no longer matters that the Joker (as a character) survived in this film -- 'cause we're never going to see him ever again! Maybe by the year 2020 when another ambitious director and actor decide to give the character a go we might see the Joker in a major motion picture; and even if that were true, I'm sorry, but unless they mimic Ledger's interpretation of the villain then I want no part in it. I can't picture a better Joker to be a foil for the traditional Dark Knight.
- Had Heath Ledger not died, I am now convinced that we would have seen the Joker return to fight Batman in either Film #3 or Film #4. Fans would have demanded it and the Joker is by far the most interesting villain in the Batman universe, now especially so because of the new breath Ledger breathed into the character. Instead, with Ledger dead, the writers will need to scramble around to find a new villain. And the fanbase cannot come to a consensus as to who they want to see. I favor Mr. Freeze (as seen in the Fox cartoon) or the Penguin (as originally conceived, NOT Danny DeVito's oh dear god no); Ben favored Raz Al Ghul returning already; and Andrew kept silent but seemed to show support when I mentioned Edward Nygma. People online seem just as torn, throwing out names like Catwoman, Brainiac (for a nauseating proposal of a Batman-Superman crossover so damn early in both resurrected film franchises' runs), and even non-canonical villains (since most people had no clue who Raz Al Ghul was except for us kids who grew up with the Fox cartoon and of course most Americans still loved Liam Neeson's villain anyway).
- That I have to wait until this comes out on DVD to see it again. That, or spend $6.75 again (as apparently Purdue students get a discount at the Eastside 9 in Lafayette. O_o Who knew!?).
As you can see, I really have very few "cons" and they're all more like congratulations in disguise (though they are of course cons; I am of course furious that we will never again get to see this wonderful portrayal of the Joker in near-future Batman films).
The movie was excellent. My new #1 favorite super-hero movie of all time (easily trumping both Batman Begins and Spider-Man 3 Minus The Last 15 Minutes and Dark Peter Parker's Awkward Dance Number which had been fighting for the position of #1 previously. They can go fight over #2 now while The Dark Knight claims its rightful spot at the top of the list.
It will be a crime if Ledger is not at least nominated for an Oscar (for either Best Actor or Best Supporting Actor) but I don't approve of all the hubbub and fangirlish demands for him to get it. It's a long year yet, and who knows what performances we'll see from other actors. Also, he admittedly didn't have all that much screentime. And while I don't claim to know how the Oscars do things, I think we'd be lying to ourselves if we claimed that Heath Ledger was the main actor in this movie, even if he was both the best actor and the actor who stole the spotlight every damn time he was on camera.
You know what else will be a crime? is if the writers don't at least get a nod from the Academy. Whoever wrote the script for this movie did a great job of both a) introducing necessary plot information as painlessly and quickly as possible and b) writing a convincing yet unpredictable thriller. For me, the scene that particular stands out with regards to this is the Joker's incarceration towards the end of the second third of the film. I honestly didn't picture him breaking out in the manner he did. The scene (shown in the trailers) of him rolling down the PD squad car window and sticking his head out with the wind blowing his greasy hair back was priceless. Best "a madman psychopath killer genius just got out of jail. Fuckin' a" scene ever.
The line that sold me on the joker? "You know what I am, Harvey? I'm a dog chasing cars. I wouldn't know what to do if I caught one. I just *do* things."
My few gripes (relatively minor): WHERE'S MY GRANDIOSE BATMAN THEME? You employ two of the great composers in the industry and all we get is forgettable mood music? I mean, I guess it works, but my ipod weeps.
Also, at times, Christian Bale's "Batman" voice --so deeply gruff-- made me laugh. For such a serious movie, it seems overly cartoonish. Bale's performance in general seemed kind of ho-hum (maybe Ledger is just too much awesome to keep up with). And while I'm at it, I hated the design of his batsuit; in particular, the mask/helmet is too fat.
Oh, also, this movie had a "not-enough-balls-ala-wall-e" moment, which is strange considering the awesome disposal of the Rachael character. The boat full of citizens either should have pressed the detonator and blown themselves up, or there should have been some other solution. I may believe people are, in their heart of hearts, good, but I know my dad, for example, would have jumped up and pushed that button in a heartbeat (if he believed the joker hadn't double crossed him and in my panic I probably wouldn't consider this). Personally, I would have jumped off the boat as soon as possible, either arranging a jump with everyone at the same time, or jumping with the relative confidence that there's no way the joker would know.
...unless the water would be too cold. Come to think of it, the writers should have just had the joker warn about frigid waters rather than the unbelievable threat, "if anyone jumps the boat will blow."
More comes to mind! Gadgets. How can you make a batman without a batarang scene (did I miss it?) More importantly, the Joker needed at least one more gag. I was really hoping the gun he handed Harvey was going to pop out a flag with "bang!" on it. Maybe not original, but to me, an essential Joker gadget.
Funny that you didn't like the first 30 mins... my favorite scene was the bank heist at the beginning!
I disliked the bank heist because a) it was petty burglary and b) it was far too convenient (how they wrote the script). For example, that the Joker didn't die: that the men killed one another off according to plan up until the 2nd-to-last man, and how even that was "according to plan; I mean, puh-lease! I'm all for arguing the Joker is a master chaotician but even Ian Malcolm wouldn't have argued that this situation was 100% guaranteed. It was also a complete plot hole that the one bank employee calmly placed a phone call (presumably to Marconi et al informing them of the heist) and was able to kill one or two of the henchmen pretty efficiently but fucked up when it came to shooting the Joker. What was the difference, I mean seriously? A man's a man's a man, if you can blow one guy's head off you can blow another's off as well.
I liked that line as well, Jay. :)
One of my favorite scenes -- because it showed the comical and psychotic side of the Joker without feeling campy -- was when he exited the hospital in his nurse's uniform and fumbled with the detonator.
My favorite scene is probably the whole incarceration sequence. The Joker with Gordon, the Joker with Batman, how the Joker escapes, it was very entertaining.
Another of my favorite (though really really disturbing and I-was-about-to-cover-my-eyes) scenes was when he killed the black mafia leader. The entire time he had the blade in the guy's mouth I was holding my own mouth and fidgeting in my seat. Creeeeeepy! But I loved it for Ledger's excellent delivery of a dark, maleficent Joker as compared with previous ones, with his "Why so serious? Why ... so ... serious?"
Jay, I liked the criminals' boat scene. It was cool because it (imo realistically) showed how most men do not commit crimes senselessly and do not derive special pleasure from killing people. Even for those who do, they were probably corralled off and restrained by men like the big black guy. But the citizens' boat scene was lame-tastic, agreed. The one guy got on my nerves. And the logic of the captain -- "We're still here [so why should we detonate them if they haven't detonated us?]" -- really pissed me off. That's like arguing "I'm still alive today, therefore there's no reason I should ever have to die. If I was going to die, I would have died already." Ugh. POOR WRITING AND/OR POOR CHARACTERIZATION, I should hope that no boat captain is that stupid in reality as such stupidity would jeopardize his entire crew.
Jay, I forgot to mention, there was one copout moment I detected in the movie which was when Two-Face was threatening to kill one of Jim Gordon's loved ones. Fans of the cartoon know that Barbara Gordon, Jim's daughter, grows up to become Batgirl and also has a pretty strong father-daughter relationship with Jim. So a) we knew the mom couldn't die yet because the movie depicted two sons and zero daughters, but also b) it would have been suitable for the mother to in fact die had Barbara been born already, because it could have established that Jim was a single dad who had the difficult job of balancing parenting with being the police commissioner. I dunno, just a thought I had.
Post a Comment