Raison d'etre...just want to watch the world burn.

Rating: 10/10 (17 July 2008)

Heath Ledger's edgy portrayal of the Joker is a frightening and macabre vision of the Clown Prince of Crime.
Sure his costume is the right colours, but shades of purple and green have never looked so muted like he's been dragged through the filth of alleys and gutters. His makeup is a halloween gone wrong: applied blood red over torture scars, smudged & cracked white wash, blacken sharks eyes of death, capped by a entangled toxic green weave of hair. While his lip smacks and tongue snakes, his many quotable psycho babble tirades on chaos and madness had this preview screening audience in silent shock and awe. As fans, we wait to finally hear the Joker's maniacal laughter...we are rewarded. But it is a chilling laugh that plays on our nerves with a subliminal shrilling echo that will haunt us long after the film. His facial twitches and deliberate gestures work to induce a hypnotic and mesmerizing hold on Gotham/audience. His weapon of choice (not the lint or veg peeler) is the knife, for both it's ability to inflict a visceral cold kill and likely because it was an instrument of his own twisted grinning origin. The lack of origin story is also effective as an open book for the imagination. The hand held cam scenes of Joker 1st POV filming his prey and the off cam torture is a stark reminder of the realty of terrorist footage. From the sick punch line of his disappearing pen trick to becoming a masochistic punching bag for The Batman, Joker can certainly dish out as well as he gets.
The Joker casts pure fear into the minds of Gotham by testing the citizens beliefs and moral lines of good and evil. This Mad Dog of Chaos thrives in a world without rules, where even the Good of Gotham can succumb to corruption and conflict. Hence his handiwork in the transformation of Gotham's White Knight to Harvey Two Face Dent.
The eerie background "music" is like a deaf tone barbed-wire noise that rings through Gotham's cityscapes as a harbinger of the Joker's evil to come.
In all fairness Ledger cannot be compared to Nicholson. Its Apples and Oranges. Burton's 80's film delivered a comic book to screen, thug turned clown which was hammed up with the flair and suave that's stamped with Jack's vintage trademark. Ledger has redefined the role and delivered a nightmare Monster that won't let you awake or escape. All truly memorable screen villains are able to forever get into the mind of the protagonist and audience. It is with this performance that Ledger/Joker joins the ranks of the top three cerebral cinematic killers, namely Hopkins/Lecter, Spacey/Doe.
This is a tour de force Oscar worthy performance that lives up to the hype (rare thing) and even raises the bar (even rarer). So kudos to Ledger/Nolan and TDK Team for unleashing the perfect villain for The Batman. And remember, the next time you're playing a card game your hand may come up with the Joker's signature calling card. RIP HL.