Ow Ow Happy But Ow!

[naamah_darling]

It was really, really nice to see Heath again. Even as the Joker. And what a performance. Jesus Christ, that was creepy. It was not him. Heath was gone. At no point, none, did he remind me of any of his characters, of himself, anything

Comments

[emsporter]

I liked the way that the suit wore Wayne, in this particular film. It seemed to fit in with the other character conflicts going on.

And I cannot, ever, imagine them topping Ledger as the Joker. I just ... can't.

[naamah_darling]

I think it would be unwise for anyone to try it live action for at least 10 years.

If they think they can bring the Joker back for the next movie, with someone else in the role, the results are not going to be pretty.

[sarynkitamo]

(Note to self, Log in before commenting)

I heard they were thinking Depp, but checking with a lot of different actors...

And as for the movie, I quite liked it. Bale's 'husky' batman voice kind started to grate on me a bit but I understand the reason for it. Just sounded too much like William Adama from Battlestar Galactica, though. Threw off my groove.

Heath was... absolutely fucking amazing though. I kept trying to 'find' him in the Joker, but he really was not even there. A couple times - particularly in the jail scene - I could briefly separate him from the Joker appearance-wise, but even then it wasn't like I was seeing Heath. I was seeing the Joker who'd like... body-snatched him or something. Very eerie.

[lots42]

I think Depp could do an awesome Joker, if they do a film that doesn't try to be the most recent Batman one.

[naamah_darling]

Well, true. Johnny could probably pull off anything.

[coen]

Okay, Heath Ledger made a pretty good Joker. Far more scary and far more realistic than Jack Nickolson.
But did you see Andrew Koening as the Joker in Batman: Dead End(2006)?
Just as scary, just as realistic, but completely different. More like the Joker in the comics.
I would find it very hard to decide who's the better Joker.

[naamah_darling]

Amusing, yes, but really no contest there in terms of actual acting.

[coen]

I am not sure about that.
Heath Legder has a large number of scenes, including both action scenes and dialogues, to make his character come alive. He has plenty of opportunity to make the Joker into a real person. And there is no doubt that he does that very well.

Andrew Koening has just one scene, which combines action and dialogue, and in that one scene he has to express everything that the Joker is, and what he stands for. And he does that remarkably well. I think this is an amazing feat.

I am not an actor myself, but I think that neither of the two jobs is easy. They both have this great make-up, and they both have great dialogue, so that helps a lot. But it's the acting that makes the character come alive.

[naamah_darling]

I'm still not seeing that it's on the same level. Some actors walk on the screen and they own it. They own you, the person next to you, and your dog.

I was getting that off Heath, but I wasn't getting it off the other guy, even given that that was a more camp interpretation. It didn't work for me. The dialogue still sounded very scripted, the acting flat-out wasn't good enough to smooth that over, and there was no menace there for me. Hamill was better on an off day, though anybody beats Nicholson, whose Joker I like less and less as I get older.

It's not bad for what it is, but we're talking high-end fan film and that stratum of actors against one of the best actors in my age group and probably the best screenwriting for that character I've ever seen -- even if you only chose a random 30 seconds, I can't compare it. It's work to put everything a character is into one scene. It's more work to do that in every scene, and do it so well that any scene will tell you what you need to know. And scare you doing it.