My good friend and former partner in crime Bryan “Don’t Call Me Julie Newmar” Hanks offered THIS rebuttal to my earlier post regarding Heath Ledger’s performance as The Joker in “The Dark Knight.”
On his blog, Hanks accuses me of smoking crack for thinking Jack Nicholson’s Joker was way better than Ledger’s portrayal. Bryan, I love ya’ man, but methinks you’ve been shopping in Carver Courts a little too much lately (those of you in ENC will know what I’m talking about).
Personally, I think Bryan’s been blinded by the hype a bit. For starters, Heath Ledger was never that great an actor. Like I said, I do think his version of the Joker was probably the late actor’s best performance ever, but compared to his past roles, that’s not raising the bar too high.
And as far as being one of the most evil comic book villains portrayed in a movie? Please.
Jack Nicholson owned the Joker part. Anyone who knows the comic book series knows there has always been a bit of campy tom-foolery mixed in with the sadistic and psychotic behavior of The Joker. Jack captured that perfectly. Ledger’s performance was no different than any other psycho bad guy.
There have also been much better movie adaptations of comic book villains. Here are a few examples (in no particular order).
1. Julian McMahon as Victor Von Doom in “Fantastic Four.” The movie was horrible, but not because of him. McMahon captures exactly what Dr. Doom is supposed to be.
2. Willem Dafoe and The Green Goblin in “Spider Man.” Talk about a possessed bad guy. Brilliant performance.
3. Ian McKellen as Magneto in “The X-Men.” If you ever wanted a 100 percent match to a comic book villain, this was it.
4. Colin Farrell as Bullseye in “Daredevil.” Again, a horrendous movie saved by his fantastic performance. Bullseye simply likes killing people. I’m convinced Colin Farrell is too. And I really don’t like Colin Farrell as an actor, either.
5. And last, but not least, Gene Hackman as Lex Luthor in the original Superman. Can’t get much more brilliant than this.
Others who deserve mention include Terence Stamp as General Zod in “Superman II” and Alfred Molina as Doc Ock in “Spiderman 2.” I didn’t toss in Nicholson’s Joker because not only is that, in my opinion, the best portrayal of a comic book villain ever, it’s one of the best bad-guy performances of all time.
4 Comments
July 23, 2008 at 1:26 pm
[...] update: Ol’ Charlie posted a rebuttal to my rebuttal in which he comes up with more villains that he thinks were “badder” than Heath [...]
July 23, 2008 at 3:48 pm
Charlie,
Yeah, we know all about what you’d be buying in Carver Courts. Julian McMahon?!? are you freakin’ kidding me?!? Not only was that a terrible movie, he was terrible as Von Doom. He needs to stick to Nip/Tuck, cause he sucks as a villain.
Colin Farrell, and to think I thought you knew your movies Charlie. Like him or not, Ledger was brilliant as the Joker, and that has nothing to do with the fact he’s dead, and everything to do with the fact he gave a jaw-dropping performance. Nicholson was great, and I loved his portrayal as well, it’s just Ledger took it to another level. Going back to ‘Batman Begins’ they were looking to make the Batman franchise darker, more compelling, and with Christian Bale as Batman, and Heath Ledger’s immaculate Joker, they succeeded with flying colors. Sorry Charlie, Hanks is right on this one. If you only knew how bad I hate to say that.
July 23, 2008 at 7:13 pm
B.J.,
No doubt Fantastic 4 was a terrible movie, but if you look at the comic book Dr. Doom and McMahon’s portrayal, you’d see he was dead-on.
I’m really not a fan of Colin Farrell, either, but he really hit the bullseye with his role as Bullseye.
Look, I didn’t hate “The Dark Knight,” nor did I hate Heath Ledger’s performance. Did I think it was the stop the world and autoamtically give him an Oscar performance? No.
July 24, 2008 at 1:53 pm
Charlie, I think you must be on glue. Not about the comparison of the two jokers. I haven’t seen The Dark Knight, so I can’t comment. I have always been enthralled by Nicholson’s performance as The Joker. It was simply brilliant. Ledger has a high bar to shoot for. No, I think you are on glue for your list of other comic book villains. Julian McMahon as Dr. Doom? Seriously? I didn’t hate Fantastic Four as much as other people, but he was a joke. Horribly written, horribly acted. Willem Defoe as the Green Goblin? Quite possibly the worst villain in cinemantic history. I still can’t talk about how bad he was. I’ve always like Defoe as an actor, but after that movie, I may have to reconsider that opinion. Spiderman was just an awful movie altogether. There’s not a whole lot to talk about regarding Colin Farrel as Bullseye. Just a stupid character, played by a stupid actor.
And I’ve never been a fan of Gene Hackman’s Lex Luthor. He had his moments, but most scenes with him bring down the movie. Superman is far and away the best superhero movie ever, and the first half of the movie is epic along the lines of Ben-Hur. But once Supes gets to Metropolis, and interacts with Luthor, the movie loses it’s dramatic feel.
One thing I don’t like is when people to tell me to read the comics to get an idea of what the character is really like. Frankly, I could give a damn about that. I think that comics are stupid and pointless, so I don’t care how a villain is protrayed in them. I care how the villain is shown on screen, and if he has no sense of power or gravitas, then I think it is a bad character.