Saturday, December 15, 2007

The Dark Knight Trailer In All It's Grainy YouTube Glory

The shaky-cam bootleg trailer is after the jump, but for those who don't want to buy a ticket for I Am Legend but do want to see a high quality Dark Knight trailer, Ain't It Cool News has word on the site where the official trailer will be debuting. It's yet another Dark Knight viral site; atasteforthetheatrical.com, which features a Gotham Times classified ad for a mobile camper, or trailer. Looks like it will be up there on Sunday, but who can wait? Bring on the handicam...



Thoughts:
In his big close-up, Joker looks like one of the killer clowns from outer space. Or Sweet Tooth. Too much pancake make-up, not enough teeth.

We get to hear the "why so serious" tag line in action, and Heath's reading is oddly...serious. This trailer indicates we'll be getting a Joker more on the brooding side, and where's the fun in that? I personally like my Joker more upbeat; I understand Nolan is set on making these movies set in gritty, pseudo-realistic world, but it would be a shame to sacrifice the more enthusiastic side of Joker's insanity for the sake of making him more grimly frightening.

I can't quite pin down what Heath is going for with that voice. The back-of-the-throat growl brings to mind Jack Nicholson's version, but without the air of sophistication. Heath's laugh is passably creepy while also coming off somewhat forced, but it's hard to judge fairly when we've already had the best of all possible Joker voices provided by the untouchable Mark Hamill.

Of course there is the school of thought that says, "Look, these are new movies. Nolan and Heath are trying something different. If you want to see the animated series Joker, watch the damn animated series." Fine, hypothetical blog text, I think I will. While we're waiting for the Hi-Res trailer, perhaps you'll join me in enjoying some classic animated Batman vs Joker escapades courtesy of the flashback segment from Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker (the much more grisly unedited cut, of course). Psychological pwnage starts at about 4 minutes in.






1 comment:

Degan said...

Huzzah! There are those lower expectations i was hoping for! I'm with you, i don't have much faith in Heath's joker so far... they're focusing way too much on the creepy and not enough on the funny... he's probably the most unique villain in that he is equal parts scary and equal parts hilarious-withough compromising either half... that's why we all love him! Heath's just doesn't seem funny at all-nothing clownish about him. Hooray!