> To me, Heath Ledger IS the Joker. That picture of him saying "Evening, Commisioner" reminded me of every clown-induced nightmare I had as a kid. I felt my stomach physically clench. I love Nolan's films, because unlike Shumaucher and even Burton to a degree, he takes this universe serious. Not serious to the point it isn't entertaing, but serious to the point its realistic, that it could conceivably occur in our world. Make-up and a grimy scarred smile makes the Joker more menacing to me than a chemical bath could. No city-wide release of poison perfume gas from giant floats, no horrible rap number in a museum, no over-the-top gizmos and gadgets that the Nicholson Joker had, just pure pale-face horror. I love what Gordon says in the trailer "No ID, no nothing. Just custom-clothes, lint and a lot of knives." No frying hand-buzzer, no boxing-glove gun, just back-to-basics Joker, stripped down his his mentally unbalanced core. The Joker isn't supposed to make you laugh like Nicholson's Joker tried (and failed) to do, he's supposed to make you so terrified of his uncompromising chaotic view of the world that you sleep with a night-light on.
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As I said before, the Joker just never fully worked as a character. That's why I much prefer Harley Quinn... you're not supposed to take her seriously as a real threat, so the clowning around works.
I don't really think too highly of the whole serial killer angle either, as serial killers only are successful as long as you can't find them. As soon as they're standing in the middle of a street with a machine-gun laden motorcycle zeroing in on them, they're pretty much done.
So I have problems with the Joker either way.
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> On top of all this, a few years ago I may have joined you in being skeptical about Ledger but he's proved his acting chops with "Brokeback Mountain." He's come a long way since his teen movies from the late 90's. I don't see Nicholson in his performance at all. I see someone with the potential to be a better Joker than Nicholson ever was. In Nolan I trust.
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I've got no beef against Ledger as an actor... but we watched this trailer in my office today and two other coworkers quickly chimed in noting the Nicholson voice (one said half Jack Nicholson, half Jack Palance... which I can hear too.) Regardless, he delivers almost all of the lines the same way throughout the trailer... by drawwwwwwwwing out occassional wooorrrrrrrrrds. In the trailer, at least, I find it a bit cheesy.
