The Dark Knight

If Hellboy, Batman, Hancock, Hulk, and Iron Man were to have last man standing in the Coliseum with no other ways out besides victory or death, who would win? Joker. Previously played by Jack Nicholson, the greatest actor of all time, and now played by a seemingly lousy wimp, Heath Ledger. But before jumping and screaming, hear me out; Ledger actually outdoes Jack Nicholson! When I saw The Dark Knight yesterday, the moment Joker appeared and started to talk I went all like "This is the best thing ever, in all of chaos' endless possibilities, this is THE best fucking thing!". The new Joker is more sinister, more chaotic, more intelligent, more cold, and without an identity, which by the way does a lot good to the character . Something that Tim Burton didn't earlier realize, albeit I admire his works, was the fact that if one drops a villain to "normal people's level" even temporarily, the character loses a lot of its grimness and power. Seemingly Burton thought the completely opposite.

Actually one could easily argue how Jack Napier (earlier Joker) was far more clear and stylish character when played by Nicholson, and how Ledger's version without an identity was just more chaotic, but not necessarily better. However, when the original Batman movie came out, the Joker was a rather normal person just gone crazy - and albeit at that time he may have seemed like a real scary and paranormal character, nowadays a traditional lunatic just won't do. Enough madmen in the movies alright. When I heard about the blasphemy of sequel being made to Batman Begins, and Joker being re-enacted, I thought that the new guy must look like a ridiculous B-class villain, unless he is at least 10,0000 times more sinister and mysterious than Jack Nicholson's masterwork. But, again, he really made it.

SPOILER! There was one little flaw in the new Joker however. He seemingly showed a small sense of humanity when he started to explain his traumatic childhood, and how he got his scars. However, later in the movie, he has a different explanation to those scars, which made me hope , and I still hope, that those explanations about his scars were just lies all the way. /SPOILER! I don't want villains to be "abused children" or crap alike, I want them to be genuinely logical, intelligent, sinister and just plain crazy for the sake of it. That's primitive, that's brutal and that's like the way it should be. In other words, villains with no traumatic childhood etc. are just far more fascinating. I hate when there needs to be an explanation in the movies for people's "bad" behavior. It really is a spit in to the face of audience, when everything is readily chewed for them. Just open your mouth and swallow.

This is the point which makes Batman movies so great; There is a morality game all the way throughout the movies, where you really can't say most of the times if Batman himself is doing any good. And if the thing with new Joker was really how I hope it to be, that he has just gone berserk through logical reasoning , it is really how "good and bad" should be done in every movie. Not in the way that you have in most movies "Ooh, his dog died when he was 12, and now he is killing everyone." For most people the quoted is just fine, and thus, they can go safely home after movie without fearing of becoming killers themselves 'cause their dog didn't die when they were twelve.

The Dark Knight is a best movie of all time for me, currently. Movie-wise it's maybe not that great to some, but I really don't mind about minor details if the overall feeling of the movie is great and entertaining. Just like in music, the main point in movies for me is the atmosphere. The Dark Knight has a brilliant atmosphere, and although Gotham has too much daylight, it is only a minor "mistake" in my books. Go and see it, it outdoes Batman Begins, Batman the Movie, and Batman Returns. Those two other movies including Batman are not to be spoken of. They suck.