I can't get Heath's performance out of my head. It gets under your skin in a major way.

What really blew me away about it was that Heath's Joker was not in way an impersonation, which is what superhero movie performances almost always are. He made the Joker a real person. A person so disturbed and broken psychically that he's become utterly liberated from anything resembling a normal human concern. But when the Joker speaks, you can understand how(ish) he got there -- that the things making you unhappy are all fears of things that exist only in your head, and all you need to do to be free is to let them go.

Which is, of course, the true essence of the Joker.

Sean, I totally agree.

I found the lines given to the Joker to be very chilling. I like how the script really fleshed out the character. Ledger's performance is great of course, but I liked the script (generally) when it came to the Joker.

He made the Joker a real person.

And all while maintaining the utter lack of backstory/origin. I was a little let down by the story about the scars...until he told it the second time.

I also loved that they managed to make Harvey MORE tragic than he's been in the comics (we'll not speak of Tommy Lee Jones - a great actor given a terrible, TV Batman version of the character to play). I didn't think they could top Harvey in Dark Knight Returns for tragic, but they did. I believe his character would have gone off the rails the exact same way even if he hadn't been disfigured (and there's an understatement of a description), as opposed to the comics where that's the source of his insanity.

But when the Joker speaks, you can understand how(ish) he got there -- that the things making you unhappy are all fears of things that exist only in your head, and all you need to do to be free is to let them go.

Well, Heath did read The Killing Joke. Which I re-read yesterday. Man, I'm really looking forward to seeing the movie tonight.

Re Jess' whitefont, I'm dissapointed we didn't get to hear what version of the story he was going to tell to Bats at the end when he got interupted by those wrist blades.

Me too! Stupid Batman, always punching people right in the middle of their tragic monologues.

Me too!

It would have been too on the nose, but I would have loved to see Bats reaction if it was a story about how his parents were killed in a robbery and he got injured trying to defend them.

Re Frank's white font about Harvey Dent --

It's almost a shame that both Harvey and the Joker were in the same movie, because Aaron's performance was quite magnificent, too.

It's almost a shame that both Harvey and the Joker were in the same movie, because Aaron's performance was quite magnificent, too.

I know exactly what you mean. Harvey is pretty much the protagonist of the movie, and the change to Two-face seemed too hurried. Given the plot turn about preserving Harvey's good name for the sake of Gotham, I can see why they had to go the way they did.

I'm wondering if there are any insteresting deleted scenes out there, because I think that was the fastest 2 1/2 hour movie I've ever seen, and considering I was at a midnight show, I didn't once try to check the time or have any inclinations to hit the bathroom. The pace was relentless.