Originally posted by Mr Parker
and thank you for showing how you chiidishly belittle others when they dont worship the ground nolan walks on like you do.
I'm not the one that childishly belittles. Neither am I the one that thinks the characters and pages of a comic book can be realistically portrayed on a movie screen unless it's done by mindlessly clinging to the childish aspects of it. What do you want? Do you want the Joker to kidnap Robin and Jim Gordon and tie them to the rocket-powered candles on an enormous birthday cake while he performs a comedy routine, his thugs ensuring laughter at the end of a machine gun barrel?
It isn't that you dislike Nolan, it's that you are going to be unhappy with any movie that you didn't write and direct. And it would likely suck.
I think The Joker is a very hard character to play well. Judging by the trailer, Ledger is the actor best suited for the role. His performance is much more true to the comic book character, and in general did a much better Job than Nicholson. I think theres a "legendary aura" that revolves around Nicholson and no one really dares to criticise his works.
Anyway, Ledge really put everything he had into the role, rarely do you see such commitment to a character. In fact, I don't think I've ever seen any actor let themself go so completely and just totaly sink into a character. I mean, the guy spent a month alone by himself to develop the psycho/maniac persona.
Anyway heres Michael Caine on Ledger's performance:
Michael Caine, who portrays Alfred Pennyworth, as saying that Ledger topped Jack Nicholson's performance as the Joker in Tim Burton's 1989 Batman. "He's gone in a completely different direction to Jack. Jack was like a clown figure, benign but wicked, maybe a killer old uncle. He could be funny and make you laugh... Heath is like a really scary psychopath. I did one scene with him and he was ready to go and had to come up in a lift and raid our place... I didn't see him for rehearsal and when he came out of the lift he was so incredible I forgot my lines. He frightened the life out of me. ... I'd never met him before. He's a lovely guy and his Joker is going to be a hell of a revelation in this picture."
We'll have to wait and see, but I think his performance will be legendary compared to the past and even future Batman films. In my opinion, he went out with his best performance.
Originally posted by Emil Blonsky
Jack was fine with what he did & I loved his Joker to death, especially since his was the inspiration for the animated Joker of the '90's, but I already know I'm going to like Heath's more because he's going deeper into the character & his method behind doing so was just extraordinary.
I've just watched Tim Burton's 1989 Batman movie again for the purpose of comparing and contrasting Jack to Heath, and well here is my honest opinion: I've read The Killing Joke by Alan Moore, which Heath Ledger read along with Arkham Asylum: Serious House on Serious Earth as consultation for getting into character. Killing Joke's Joker has got Heath Ledger written all over it in terms of characterization, not so much Jack though.
From the moment I saw the first trailers, I immediately knew that Heath's Joker was going to scare the crap out of me when I went to see the movie. Everything about Heath's Joker spells out pure and utter insanity, from the sound of his laugh, his personality, his motives, and even his appearance.
Jack's Joker didn't truly strike me as being a truly terrifying monster from the foulest pits of Hell like Heath's has been. In short, I'll truly reserve judgment till I see the movie, but from what I've been reading from the actors in The Dark Knight to just about everyone else who's seen it, it seems that Heath indeed gave the performance of a lifetime to bring us the one true live-action version of Batman's arch-enemy.
When I was younger Jack Nicholson's Joker terrified the crap out of me. I hadn't seen Batman 1989 in years until I saw it again a couple years ago and I had flashbacks as a kid to certain scenes that scared the hell out of me. Him killing that guy with a feather had stuck with me for a long time, why I don't know.I will see if Heath's is scary though. So far I find him just nasty looking. But I did think Jack's Joker was terrifying at one point and time. What was scary about him to me was that he was so whimsical he should have by all means been completely harmless and yet he was so deadly in his whimsicality. And that smile...creepy.