After rumors swirling around for a wile now, it has finally been confirmed that Heath Ledger will play the Joker in the Batman Begins sequel to be titled The Dark Knight. I won't lie. I think casting the Aussie as the classic Batman villain is as weird as everyone else does. It's not that I don't think he can act. I have always believed him to be a bundle of untapped talent and charisma just waiting for the right roles, and while Brokeback Mountain* still sits on my desk in its Netflix envelope waiting to be watched, I'm fairly certain that his performance in that film has brought the general public around to my way of thinking. And while most people don't enjoy A Knight's Tale nearly as much as I do (there's no crime in enjoying jousting, pretty people and classic rock), it at least shows that he does more than brood. I think Heath Ledger probably has a lot of tricks up his sleeve that we haven't seen yet, especially given the limited number of good roles he has had. Also, I think it is safe to assume that, given the tone of the first film and Goyer and Nolan's emphasis on realism, we will be seeing a slightly different Joker than we are used to anyway.
My problem with casting Ledger as the Joker, since I initially read the rumors, has been purely based on his looks. He's just so pretty. He's not like Cillian Murphy either, who is so pretty with a side of creepy. Heath Ledger is just straight up attractive. Not at all like the Joker. At least that's what I thought, but then I saw the picture that went along with PopWatch's item on the casting announcement. Check out all those lines he gets around his mouth when he smiles. The whole lower half of his face is pretty exaggerated. Dude won't even need any prosthetics, except for the nose. It's still entirely too button-like. It needs a bit of a point to it.
It seems that the second villain in the movie has also been confirmed as the Penguin. I find it amusing that Nolan wants Phillip Seymour Hoffman for the part since he is being reimagined as a British arms dealer. The only American in the movie would be playing a Brit. I can't be the only one who thinks that's funny. Actually, I'm disappointed -- not about Phillip Seymour Hoffman, because casting him is always a good idea, but because I was hoping we would get to see the Scarecrow again. Cillian Murphy did such a great job and he had so much potential to become an even bigger threat. I'm also a bit disappointed that they are still going with the two villains per movie thing. The Joker is a strong enough character to pose a threat on his own. Many of Batman's rogues are, which is why his rogue's gallery is the strongest in all of comics. I just hope they don't kill the character off at the end. That's a pet peeve of mine. These characters never get killed in the comics. I'm not cool with Batman letting them die either, but that's another issue involving what is generally perceived as acceptable behavior for a superhero by the public versus what has always been the standard behavior in the comic books -- a debate for another time.
Finally, I would like to put out a suggestion for the third movie. I know I am jumping the gun, but I figure there's no reason why I shouldn't be first. I'd like to see Poison Ivy. I know it's been doe before but 1) so has the Joker, and 2) Batman & Robin really shouldn't count. She's just such a wonderful femme fatale character. I would love to see a really noirish Batman movie, one that highlights his detective skills more than we have seen on film so far, and a great femme fatale would fit in so well with that kind of movie. Sure, you could use Catwoman, another great femme fatale and one the filmmakers could actually hook up with the Bat. The character could use some redemption after what Halle Berry did to her too, but with her, at least we have Michelle Pfeifer's wonderful performance from Batman Returns (truly the best thing about that movie). Poison Ivy only has that campy performance by Uma Thurman. She deserves better. Also, she's a hot chick, ad maybe if they use a hot chick for he villainess, we the audience will be spared a Katie Holmes 2.0 situation. Who says Batman needs a love interest anyway?
*Wasn't Jake Gyllenhaal Nolan's second choice to play Batman? How funny would that be? So funny that I can no longer resist the Brokeback humor...."I wish I knew how to quit you, Joker."
No comments:
Post a Comment