Heathus (offscreen): LOOK AT ME!
Okay, let's start with the things that made me think this wasn't the Jesus Movie that it was held up as.
* They went to the effort of not only replacing Katie Holmes (who I thought did a perfectly servicable job in Batman Begins) but replacing her with Maggie Gyllenhaal who, although I haven't seen in many movies, has a stellar reputation. But what do they do with that character? They kill her after having her serve simply as The Girlfriend and providing a bit of conflict between two heroic individuals. And her death only serves to influence these heroes, one falling to depths of evil, the other enduring and continuing on.
Why? Why not have the woman have a point that doesn't reduce her to what is effectively a pretty statue?
* Joker is cool. I'm going to talk more about him in a second. But, Oscar worthy performance? I just don't know. It was cool and kinda freaky and well thought out... But I mean, I see a lot of movies that are well thought and stuff. What really makes Ledger's Joker so special other then that he's dead?
* A lot of the dialogue was pretty tedious and they liked bludgeoning us with the themes and plot points (Crime, Hope, White Knight, Sacrifice, etc, etc). This made the movie feel a lot longer.
And then we come to The Joker:
* The Magic Disappearing Pencil I had heard about before. Not in detail, just that the pencil disappears into a head. But I didn't find it creepy or overly scary or anything as it had been described. It was just funny.
By comparison, watching the supposed Hero drop a bad guy from a balcony in order to break the guy's legs and get some answers and actually seeing the legs hit concrete? That was stomach-churning.
Although it was awesome that the bad guy was STILL MORE SCARED OF THE JOKER.
* As you see from the title I thought the voice he put on for the first video he sent the good guys, when he says "Look at me" and the guy is still whimpering so he repeats in a voice of malevolence and anger "LOOK AT ME", was awesome. It gave me chills and suddenly the Joker wasn't just a crazy sadist but a genuinely scary bastard.
* I was thrilled at his clearly fake origin stories. And the way he would chat with people about them.
* I loved how he would do anything in order to show how people were self-interested and killers. He gave how many people the chance to kill him during this movie? And if they had killed him, he would have been right about humanity. And it was interesting to compare the way he owned everything he did to TwoFace who put all responsibility on his coin toss.
Just quickly, I thought they conveyed the unpredictable nature of TwoFace incredibly well. You honestly knew that even he would abide by the coin toss, even though he might think of something else to toss for. When he pointed it at himself, he would have pulled the trigger if it had landed right.
And then there's Batman who won't do everything in order to provide a space for people to prove they aren't what Joker thinks. And it was interesting to see him get closer to what Joker expected but keep fighting back.
* I was SURE that the ferries were linked to their own bombs and someone was going to blow themselves up (instead of the other boat like they had been told). Joker was trying to show his idea that people could be made to eat each other without much effort and whoever survived would have some horrible stories. But after that business where he gave Batman the wrong addresses to save Rachel or Harvey, I just figured he'd be messing with people at the same time.
In a similar vein, did those civilians holding grenades at the beginning get blown up because Joker used Sleeping Gas on them? That's what I assumed, but I couldn't be sure.
* After a weekend enduring some of the dumbest humans coming through work, not the big furious indignant pricks but the smaller petty morons, I had a lot of time for Joker's thoughts about people. I wanna see a villain who judges peoples intelligence and executes the least deserving.
* I liked how the new Bat Cave is under the ruined monorail from the last movie and they're still rebuilding the Manor. Nice continuity.
Alright, a bit of thinking about the next one.
* They really can't use Joker again, but that shouldn't be too difficult to get past. I kinda wanted to see what they could do with TwoFace but it certainly looks like they killed him. That makes me sad.
* I've seen Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy mentioned as potential next choices. I notice that all the villains in these movies have been used to comment on the development or aspects of Batman though. Scarecrow and Ra's Al Ghul were both also trying to use Fear and Clean Up The World which echoed Batman nicely. Then there was the whole tripartite tension in this one. How could the next villains do the same?
I figured Harley Quinn could become obsessed with Joker as he sits in his cell, though it would be tough to convey without Heath. Bruce Wayne could equally be obsessing over the memory of Rachel. Poison Ivy could maybe show someone else fighting for what they think is right, refusing to follow laws, only its the environment instead of civilisation as it is for Batman. To really be a worthwhile comparison, she'd have to not kill people either, but be willing to go to otherwise Terroristic lengths.
Some people saw a glimmer of The Riddler or Catwoman which would be interesting. I got my wish with Scarecrow in the first movie so I'm happy with just about any bad guys. Any thoughts?
* They went to the effort of not only replacing Katie Holmes (who I thought did a perfectly servicable job in Batman Begins) but replacing her with Maggie Gyllenhaal who, although I haven't seen in many movies, has a stellar reputation. But what do they do with that character? They kill her after having her serve simply as The Girlfriend and providing a bit of conflict between two heroic individuals. And her death only serves to influence these heroes, one falling to depths of evil, the other enduring and continuing on.
Why? Why not have the woman have a point that doesn't reduce her to what is effectively a pretty statue?
* Joker is cool. I'm going to talk more about him in a second. But, Oscar worthy performance? I just don't know. It was cool and kinda freaky and well thought out... But I mean, I see a lot of movies that are well thought and stuff. What really makes Ledger's Joker so special other then that he's dead?
* A lot of the dialogue was pretty tedious and they liked bludgeoning us with the themes and plot points (Crime, Hope, White Knight, Sacrifice, etc, etc). This made the movie feel a lot longer.
And then we come to The Joker:
* The Magic Disappearing Pencil I had heard about before. Not in detail, just that the pencil disappears into a head. But I didn't find it creepy or overly scary or anything as it had been described. It was just funny.
By comparison, watching the supposed Hero drop a bad guy from a balcony in order to break the guy's legs and get some answers and actually seeing the legs hit concrete? That was stomach-churning.
Although it was awesome that the bad guy was STILL MORE SCARED OF THE JOKER.
* As you see from the title I thought the voice he put on for the first video he sent the good guys, when he says "Look at me" and the guy is still whimpering so he repeats in a voice of malevolence and anger "LOOK AT ME", was awesome. It gave me chills and suddenly the Joker wasn't just a crazy sadist but a genuinely scary bastard.
* I was thrilled at his clearly fake origin stories. And the way he would chat with people about them.
* I loved how he would do anything in order to show how people were self-interested and killers. He gave how many people the chance to kill him during this movie? And if they had killed him, he would have been right about humanity. And it was interesting to compare the way he owned everything he did to TwoFace who put all responsibility on his coin toss.
Just quickly, I thought they conveyed the unpredictable nature of TwoFace incredibly well. You honestly knew that even he would abide by the coin toss, even though he might think of something else to toss for. When he pointed it at himself, he would have pulled the trigger if it had landed right.
And then there's Batman who won't do everything in order to provide a space for people to prove they aren't what Joker thinks. And it was interesting to see him get closer to what Joker expected but keep fighting back.
* I was SURE that the ferries were linked to their own bombs and someone was going to blow themselves up (instead of the other boat like they had been told). Joker was trying to show his idea that people could be made to eat each other without much effort and whoever survived would have some horrible stories. But after that business where he gave Batman the wrong addresses to save Rachel or Harvey, I just figured he'd be messing with people at the same time.
In a similar vein, did those civilians holding grenades at the beginning get blown up because Joker used Sleeping Gas on them? That's what I assumed, but I couldn't be sure.
* After a weekend enduring some of the dumbest humans coming through work, not the big furious indignant pricks but the smaller petty morons, I had a lot of time for Joker's thoughts about people. I wanna see a villain who judges peoples intelligence and executes the least deserving.
* I liked how the new Bat Cave is under the ruined monorail from the last movie and they're still rebuilding the Manor. Nice continuity.
Alright, a bit of thinking about the next one.
* They really can't use Joker again, but that shouldn't be too difficult to get past. I kinda wanted to see what they could do with TwoFace but it certainly looks like they killed him. That makes me sad.
* I've seen Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy mentioned as potential next choices. I notice that all the villains in these movies have been used to comment on the development or aspects of Batman though. Scarecrow and Ra's Al Ghul were both also trying to use Fear and Clean Up The World which echoed Batman nicely. Then there was the whole tripartite tension in this one. How could the next villains do the same?
I figured Harley Quinn could become obsessed with Joker as he sits in his cell, though it would be tough to convey without Heath. Bruce Wayne could equally be obsessing over the memory of Rachel. Poison Ivy could maybe show someone else fighting for what they think is right, refusing to follow laws, only its the environment instead of civilisation as it is for Batman. To really be a worthwhile comparison, she'd have to not kill people either, but be willing to go to otherwise Terroristic lengths.
Some people saw a glimmer of The Riddler or Catwoman which would be interesting. I got my wish with Scarecrow in the first movie so I'm happy with just about any bad guys. Any thoughts?