Too much of The Joker is barely enough!

Rating: 8/10 (30 July 2008)

Having seen the original of this new series years ago, I can't say that I can remember much of it, apart from remembering that it had a really long pre-amble to how Batman came to be. So, I'll have to admit that it was the buzz around Heath Ledger's performance as "The Joker" that roused me to watch the sequel to the first movie. More on that later.
Since I've seen this movie not too long after I saw another super-hero movie, "Iron Man" (starring Edward Norton), you can't help but notice the debt that Norton's character owes to Batmannamely, an impossibly wealthy man with a sense of noblesse oblige who, with their financial resources, provides the kind of service that the U.S., the wealthiest nation on Earth, can't seem to provide its own citizens. It's a monopoly service at thatonly Edward Norton's Tony Stark/Iron Man and Christian Bale's Bruce Wayne/Batman have the resources to provide a high level of security and they don't share those resources with the military or the police, who could really use their high-tech gadgetry.
Anyway, this latest installment in the Batman franchise sees Wayne/Batman pondering whether his hometown really needs him anymore, as a hero with a known identity , Harvey Dent (played by Aaron Eckhart), is doing a good job cleaning up the city in his role as the District Attorney for Gotham. Wayne thinks that maybe a masked crusader is less effective than someone like Dent, who does not hide their identity. The efforts of Dent and Batman see organised crime try to tilt the playing field in their favour.
The joker in the pack is, of course, The Joker, played by Heath Ledger. Having seen Jack Nicholson play this role in the previous Batman franchise, I am inclined to think that Ledger's and Nicholson's Joker are not light years apartthough my memory is decidedly wonky on Nicholson's movie. They are both light years apart from the live action TV series interpretation of the character in any case. It must be said, however, that Ledger's Joker is better written and acted than previous incarnations (well, his Ledger's interpretation of the character resonates more powerfully today, perhaps).
Ledger deserves to be nominated for acting awards for his performance. Not only is Ledger brilliant in his role, this role is brilliant for him. He steals the movie. In contrast to Bale's mostly dour and earnets characters (Wayne/Batman only rarely has something amusing to say, unlike Stark/Iron Man), Ledger commands attention. His Joker is menacing and thuggish. For him, it's "kill or be killed" and either outcome is welcome, unlike for us mere mortals where the first is hard and the second is terrifying. You enjoy his philosophy on life and you want to hear more of it...from a safe distance! It's rare to see such a worthy adversary for a hero...complex and with an onion skin. I kept wanting to see and hear more of Ledger's Joker. Ledger's death robs us of the possibility of an encore performance. This movie and role is as good as "Two hands" for Ledger (an Australian movie).
Even though the first movie in this series wasn't very memorable, I think that Ledger's performance could see this sequel as being the Batman movie which has a lot of life in it...a movie that you can return to every few years and enjoy it as much as you did the first time around. That is a very rare thing for such a movie.
R.I.P. Heath Ledger. Hopefully the producers of Dark Knight will now rest The Joker too...it's hard to imagine anyone else in the role now. The last thing I'd want to see would be an inferior version of Ledger's Joker.
P.S. Is it just me, or does this movie seem a bit of an apologia for President Bush's actions during the so called "war on terror"?
78/100