Batman - The Dark Knight

DYasha wrote:

I agree that Ledger did an amazing job as the Joker, but I don't think he's irreplaceable. however, I think it'd be cool if they only showed the Joker as a pair of eyes looking out from Arkham in the next movie, while going with one of the other villains as the main baddies, like you said they could.

theclown1 wrote:

I really liked Tommy Lee Jones' portrayal of Two Face but they were going for a completely different direction for it in this one, so his wouldn't have worked. just like Eckhart's wouldn't have worked in Batman Forever, or whatever the actual title is.

It's funny how time changes your opinion of movies. I really like Batman Forever the first time I saw it, but as time goes by (and with the release of the two recent films), I like it less and less. It wasn't a train wreck like Batman and Robin, but it was still a little too bright and colorful. Robin's family cracks their skulls on pavement and I almost laughed it was so lame. I just hope that the third of the new Batman films doesn't crash and burn, like if they hired Eddie Murphy to play the Riddler.

The first batman is the classic,
what ever happened to Micheal Keaton

I like Michael Keaton too. In fact, I thought he could have played the Joker. He can be very intense and scary, as well as funny.

i like watchmen

I can't believe anyone even tried to compare the faithful recent versions with the campy 80's-90's versions. I can only assume the post was meant sarcastically? It's the basic difference between the TV series and the comic books. If your only exposure to Batman was the TV series (which was good in its own way) then I suppose I could understand calling the Michael Keaton version "classic."

But beyond Nicholson's performance in the first movie and Michelle Pfeiffer's outfit in the sequel (meow!) there is really nothing at all that is memorable about those movies. The Christian Bale films are much truer to the tone, look and history of the original character. And they are far better films in that they are debates on real social issues, not just campy B-movies that have nothing to say beyond lurid visual garishness.

Can they f-up the current series? Sure. Have the first 2 been perfect? Of course not. But IMHO they are so superior in every sense to the older versions that a comparison is not even warranted.

As for replacing Ledger...probably not with any known actor other than Nicholson reprising the role in some capacity (or possibly Christian Slater channeling Jack so that the age would fit better) that would work. It would have to be an unknown lookalike that could recreate the character as faithfully to the Ledger interpretation as possible. Continuity does not matter in some films, but I think these filmmakers take their jobs very seriously and would not substitute someone completely different into the role. It's not a soap opera.

Actually, the Tim Burton Batman films were fairly true to the comics back then, it's just that Batman comics have evolved a bit since then (as has all comic series). I liked them and for the time they were made, they were ground breaking. But film making and comics have come a long way in the past 20 years.

DYasha wrote:

Have to disagree with you there. I grew up reading Batman, and the tone and storylines have always been those of the current series and have never been Tim Burton's interpretation. That was the 60's TV show only.

Tim Burton's films had nothing to do with the campy 60's show. In fact, they were called "too dark" at the time, which is why Joel Schumacher took the franchise in a different direction.

DYasha wrote:
Tim Burton's interpretation was far more like the TV show than the comic. One reviewer may have called it "too dark" but they must have been reviewing the film for Highlights M@g@z1ne. Any darkness was Tim Burton's campy sort of over-the-top 'darkness' that can't be taken seriously. Don't get me wrong: I like Tim Burton and some of his stuff has been very good (TNBC and Corpse Bride, and Big Fish is one of my favorite movies of all time). But when it comes time to do something that should be deep and dark, he clearly never knows how to do it right. Batman was embarassingly campy, and Sweeney Todd cluelessly used gallons of blood as a substitute for real horror.